The Last Voyage

Sandwiched around our New Years Day outing were a couple of days spent in/on/near water. We’d booked onto a boat trip to go sail along the coast, spot dolphins and swim in the sea. Our vessel was the “Flipper Uno” recommended by the Funsters as great day out from last year. We were scheduled for New Years Eve and duly headed down to the harbour. Alas the strong winds caused them to cancel the trip so we were at something of a loose end.

We decided a day by the pool was in order and we went to the Oasis complex in Los Gigantes.

Despite being extraordinarily windy we had  rather a nice day.

We found as sheltered a spot as we could and the pool area is really rather classy with an infinity style view at one end and overlooked by the famous cliffs at the other

We had a few swims and a nice lunch and plenty of lazing around

TBF enjoyed her swims as did I

TJF enjoyed lazing in the sun

TJS looked a little underwhelmed by the whole experience

They fitted us in for a another trip on our last day. Here is our chosen vessel

The weather was grand and the views from the boat were mighty fine. A different perspective from out at sea

Alas the dolphins were a little shy. The Funsters assured us they were jumping and swimming along with the boat last year. We saw a couple of lazy looking specimens that did nothing much before vanishing beneath the waves. That’s the natural world for you, can’t be relied upon to put on a show!

The boat headed back to Masca Bay (where our gorge walk ended last year) for lunch and a swim. It’s a really spectacular spot

We were encouraged to swim and take a leap off the rope swing. I’m pretty pleased with my efforts swinging out the furthest, as several people made a complete hash of it. No photos of my success but you get the idea from this random small boy

It was fantastic swimming near to the cliffs in fairly bouncy, deep, clear water, a memorable experience

One of the crew made amends for the limited dolphin views by letting the gulls take food from his mouth. Actually pretty impressive and I wouldn’t do it. The gulls must know the timing as they were all gathered waiting for a feed

The ride back home along the cliffs was equally spectacular

In truth the whole thing was just too tacky for me – all pirate costumes and cheesy music – but it was fun and a nice family way to end the holiday. As a finale we took a visit to the natural rock swimming pool for a dip and to watch the waves bouncing

Even though the water was swirling wildly you could still see shoals of fish hugging the rocks. I like this spot as well

There are some video clips of the waves in the slide-show

So the end of our winter sun trip and something that I’ll be reluctant to give up now. A combination of warm sunshine, swimming, walking and the avoidance of all things Xmas is an irresistible combination for me.