One thing they don't tell you about Mnemba Island is the doves... there are literally hundreds (more likely, thousands) of them on the island at this time of year, performing a collective, constant coo-ing sound. They started at around 6.00am and, because we weren't yet used to their sound, woke early.

Big Ali brought tea and juice to us at 9.00am and we went for a stroll around the island before going to breakfast. After breakfast, we collected our snorkel gear from the Mnemba Dive Centre on the island. Until now, we still hadn't got round to starting any of the books we brought with us... Becky made a start on the first Harry Potter book - 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' - whilst Paul began 'The Best a Man Can Get' by John O'Farrell.

Lunch consisted of artichoke and lime soup followed by an amalgam of chicken salad, coconut rice, pumpkin and cummin, mango chutney and a red cabbage noodle dish. Some of their guests saw dolphins during lunch, but we couldn't spot them.

We went for a snorkel amongst the coral reef and saw all manner of unusual, brightly coloured fish. Becky's scream of "shark" on seeing a rather large, shark-like fish was a little perturbing. We were later told it was probably a needlefish but, on looking that up in the book, there didn't appear to be much resemblance. In the calm light of day we wondered if it could have been a barracuda.

The remainder of the day was, as perhaps it should be, relatively uneventful - we just read, drank white wine as the sun went down, and enjoyed a dinner of aubergine and mozarella salad, followed by tuna. Earlier in the day we had seen a couple of (very) fresh tuna being gutted at the shore and an octopus being cleaned.