Keeping up with the Jonses

Time passed quickly with strength in my arm returning daily. Attila left only to be replace by Carla and Ema our Italian friends from earlier in the trip. They had bumped into Attila further south who had pointed them in my direction. The four of us ventured up and over the headland to the south to find another deserted cove where we played ship wreckers building a fire and a shelter. The following day we escorted Carla and Ema out to Margao where we left them heading north and us running some errands. The plan next - or so I thought - was to leave for Gokarna the following day. Holly became a little agitated and eager to return to Agonda before we ran all our chores. I put this down to the heat and the relatively hectic surrounds of Margao which had tired us after only two hours. It was no great shame to be back on Agonda beach an hour later watching the sun begin to sink towards the Arabian ocean.

We had got quite used to this. By now we had a favourite local restuarant - where the taxi drivers ate - which knocked out an amazing fish thali. We had our spot on the beach and all the locals knew us by face, probably due to my infamy as the one armed body surfer. Fully relaxed you might say with the pressure of the road dissolved by lots of sun, sand and sea. Holly ran off to grab some beers and cigarettes. She had been gone about 10 minutes when I guessed something might be up. All week she had been talking around the subject of having to collect something on Saturday. I had assumed that her contact lenses had arrived. At one point I became suspicious as my birthday was a week away and I sensed a surprise. Holly had assured me not to raise my hopes and that despite our constant requests no-one from home was to visit us. It was this thought my mind returned to here on the beach as I stared out to sea. Maybe somebody is coming, I mused. No sooner had I dismissed this as a false hope a roar erupted from behind me shortly followed by water then, sand, then a body...attacking me!!! We rolled in the sand and as I righted myself I caught sight of two pairs of eyes and extremely white legs I had not expected to see on Agonda beach, or any beach in India, for that matter...

I was so overwhelmed with the fact that two of my best friends stood before me on the beach the first question that came to mind was 'How long did we have them for?'. The shock of seeing Henry and Mark here on Agonda beach twisted my thoughts and for a second I thought that maybe they had literally just appeared to surprise me only to fly back on the next plane to Blighty their job done. 'Two weeks mate!' Mark replied. 'Excellent!', I shouted, 'I'll grab some beers!!'.

That night we dined on the finest meal Holly and I had eaten for a long time. We also washed it down with several more cold Kingfishers and the best/worst part of a bottle of Cashew Feni - the local moonshine. Unsuprisingly, Mark and I ended up in the sea at 1am, swimming around in our pants howling at the moon. This was going to be one hell of an interlude...