Goan swimming

Agonda beach, Goa. Wow this is what we came for. A 2kms stretch of golden sand hemmed in by rocky headland on each side and backed by palm trees was pretty much the text book defintion of beauty and relaxation we had in mind. A beach hut right on the beach and a place to sling my newly acquired hammock and I have no longer any reason to go anywhere. With Atila at the helm and Denis and Sarah turning up we got a really nice fire going and scored some lovely looking prawns and Kingfish from the fish market in Canacona. This was really roughing it Robinson Crusoe style but with the luxury of having booze and supplies readily available. There were also some really good restaurants strung out along the beach where you could go for an afternoon beer or a meal by moonlight. Agonda seemed to have it all. A tiny little village supported the tourism with most of the families also fishing for a living. The church's influence was also now very apparent with Mass on sunday being attended en masse.

However after three or four days my feet began itching again to keep up the momentum of the trip, seriously threatening Holly's tanning time on the beach. For some reason I couldn't fully relax. It was at this point that God intervened.

I like a swim. I'm not the most confident of ocean swimmers though but a few days horsing around with Holly and Atila had my love of the sea blooming. We had noticed the waves picking up in size and intensity and the were now becoming a lot of fun to play in, body surfing and the like. Nature generally has its way of keeping us lowly humans in check however and reasserting her omnipotence. One particularly large wave had Attila and I being washing machined over and over. Up became down and light became dark as the wave through us up and then down, my shoulder slamming into the beach. I was then hit from behind, by Attila this time, breaking his fall, and my shoulder too as I thought at the time. Back on shore I retreated to the sanctity of our beach hut to quell the pain with a bottle of rum.

The next day after a trip to the local hospital I was the proud owner of a sling, a prescription for various pills, and a warning to stay off the arm for a week or so. It was decided then, we were staying in Agonda.