Justin woke up around 06:30, and Crystal at around 08:15.  So this meant Crystal slept about 11 hours.  Justin’s left foot was bothering him; he wasn’t sure if it was from the barefoot walk the day before, some sort of infection, a gout flare up, or something else.  We went to breakfast shortly before they closed, and so it wasn’t very busy.  At the buffet there were big jars of water available, plus sparkling wine, plus a bunch of juices; this seemed incongruous with dinner where still water cost $7.  We saw some fish right up against the shoreline, and then a stingray as well.

To avoid the need for long (pointless) walks today we rented some bikes, and hoped we wouldn’t kill ourselves in the process, given that neither of us had ridden a bike in at least 10 years.  Our first destination was Anse Source d’Argent.  We bit our tongues as we paid the toll to ride through the L’Union Estate.  The beach, upon finally seeing it, was 100% like all the photos you see on the web and in magazines; no special filter or equipment is necessary for it to look spectacular.  There are granite boulders, white sand, coconut palms, banyan trees, turquoise and blue water, and distant islands.

And, this morning, lots of people.  Justin kept trying to maneuver to minimize the amount of people in the shots, but it was impossible to keep everyone hidden.  This wasn’t a surprise, because during the middle of the day the beach is full of day-trippers from Praslin, which is why we tried to go at sunset the night before.  There are several different areas of the beach, separated from each other by boulders - maybe 5-10 separate areas in total, depending on how you break things up.

Justin wandered all over whilst Crystal hung out in a shady area, and once Justin came back we went towards the south end since he thought she might enjoy that area even better.  There were a couple beach bars set up, near the beginning (north side) and near the end (south side).  We enjoyed a beverage at the beach bar near the south end.  The bartender told us that she had never met anyone who lived in Hawaii before.  All told, we were at the beach from 11:30 to 13:30.  From the beach we came back to the room.

From the weather forecast, we were expecting an afternoon thunderstorm (which is why we'd gone to the beach "first" thing), but there was no evidence one was coming, so after a bit we headed out to the east side of the island, to both check it out and also to eat at one of the (very) few highly rated restaurants on the island, Chez Jules.  We stopped every so often when the scenery warranted it, but it’s much harder to stop a bike on the street than to stop walking.  On the north side of the island, the granite boulders are more brick colored and less gray than at Anse Source d’Argent.  

We got to lunch a little after 15:00, across the street from a nice beach (Banana Cove).  Even at 15:00, all of the prime seats were taken, but our seats were still quite good.  They had some really spicy, but really tasty, chili sauce.  Justin couldn’t stop putting it on his chicken fritters.  Crystal got a ham and cheese sandwich.  We each got a fresh mango daiquiri, which was quite good, although it would’ve been better without so much pulp.  We suppose the pulp proves it’s fresh.  We finished up around 16:00, went to the end of the road, getting Boyz II Men stuck in our heads in the process.

There was a pathway through the forest to one more beach, but we weren’t feeling like off-roading, and we wanted to go back to Anse Source d’Argent for sunset anyway.  So we got back on bikes to go from the end of the road on the east side to the end of the road on the west side, about 2/3 of the way around the island.  The south part of the island doesn’t have any roads (that we’re aware of).  There were a couple steep parts on the way back, but only once did either of us have to stop and walk the bike for a little bit.  About halfway through the ride, Justin told Crystal to add a bunch of steps to whatever her Apple watch told her for the day, that she’d certainly put in the effort.  It took about 45 minutes or so to ride all the way around.

We got back to Anse Source d’Argent a little after 17:00.  There were far fewer people than in the morning, as all the day trippers had gone back to Praslin.  We surmised that there are no ferries after dark, so none of the day trippers can see the sunset on La Digue.  We knew the area better after being there this morning, so we went straight to the spots that we thought might be prime sunset locations.  The sunset was nice, but a lot of clouds over Praslin kept it from being as colorful as the night before.  It’s too bad we hadn’t been here last night - oh well.

We left a little after 18:00.  Crystal took the lead riding this time, and rode a little faster, as she didn’t want to get stuck riding in the dark.  Justin got a bug in his eye, and thankfully didn’t crash in the process.  We got back to the hotel just as it was getting dark.  We went to get cleaned up in the room.  Crystal took about a 30 second shower, and Justin asked her why it was so short.  “There’s a big spider in the shower.”  “Oh, okay.”  “No, I mean it, it’s a really big spider.”  Crystal was not exaggerating, the spider was probably 10 cm (4 inches).  Justin used his size 14 sandals for some good.  Then the shower was safe to use again.

We read for a bit and looked at some beach photos before going to dinner.  There were musicians at dinner, and the singer sounded just like Chris Isaak.  It’s too bad he didn’t sing any Chris Isaak songs, however.  We went to sleep shortly after getting back to the room.  [Doing today’s crossword, albeit the next day, Crystal saw a clue about “Baby did a bad bad thing” singer Chris _____.  Go figure.]