Son of a Beach

Take a photo of yourself in your Cheddar Monk robes, exploring the distinctive terrain of Tatooine. (5 points)

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It started with a few days off and a pocket full of credits. I asked the Location officer at the Chedder Monk support line that I wanted to take a long weekend and relax on the beach. Somewhere sunny but not too crowded, where I could meditate in peace.

Two days later with ticket in hand and luggage ready I went to the space port. I had to check my cheese sabre in my luggage as it is classified as a weapon and is prohibited in the cabin (silly rule if you ask me) The flight was mostly business types, and the being in the seat beside me tried to interest me in buying something called `fuzzy dice' for my land speeder. a quick cheddar wave of the hand, and a whispered suggestion that he'd like to sleep for the remainder of the journey, and with that I was able to peacefully enjoy the rest of the trip.


15 hours later we arrived at the orbital station where we transfered to an atmospheric shuttle. Unlike the big spacer, this had windows and I was able to get my first picture as we departed the orbital station and followed a scavenger ship in.






As we orbited the planet, I was able to see the lights of the main city and space port as it lit up the dark side of the planet. The shuttle had problems with the inertial dampers and re-entry was rough as you can see from the picture.

Once on the ground, I discovered that they had not transfered my luggage from the deep spacer to the shuttle. I was left with what I had as carry on. I was not happy, and although I did my best to `influence' the travel associates to compensate me, Cheddar mind tricks do not work with the mindless drones that work customer support.


I became a little lost finding my way out of the city, and ended up in a part of town even a cheddar monk shouldn't travel alone. These two locals were kind enough to run me out of town to the Bed & Breakfast. They had some great `good cop-bad cop' stories to tell. They weren't keen on having their pictures taken, but a wave of the hand and they had forgotten their objections.



This is the couple that runs the B&B they were very helpful and went out of their way to make me feel welcome. If you are in the area, Look up Quiet Jinn & Tonica. They will make your stay worth while. (Jinn & Tonica loaned me some robes until I was able to get some new cloths in town)



Here I am heading out for my first day. I walked close to 30Km but never found the ocean. This planet has one hell of a beach, but not much water front property. You can see the spa behind me, and part of the satellite down link tower in the background.




I found a Sarlacc pit pit. This one seemed empty, but I sent my Astro-droid down to get a picture of me by the pit. Sarlacci inhabit pits all over the equatorial region. This pit was one of the smaller ones. It is best for the tourist to avoid these pits as sarlacci have a nasty habit of eating anything that falls into it's pit.



The next day was the Equinox day Bantha races. here I am with a sampling of the locals cheering on the banthas as they approach the finish line (I won 25 credits on Watto's Waddler). Not as intense as the pod races, but was relaxing after the previous day's walk.




Before heading out, I snuck down to the pits to watch the qualification races for the next weekend. Bantha are not only extremely large animals, but they are also extremely smelly. My advice to the traveller...stay in the stands, Closer is NOT better in this case.



Quiet Jinn took me out for the afternoon to the monument erected in memory of the cheddar monk Obi-Gon Frommie. The force was strong with him, and if you quiet your mind you can hear him say `May the fromage be with you'. This was the spiritual highlight of of my weekend. Don't leave Tatoonie without seeing it.




My final evening on Tatoonie, I sat with Quiet Jinn and Tonica, and watched the sunsets (or is it sunsset? sunssets?) I never did get to go for my swim, but it was a worth while vacation. Early the next morning, it was back to the space port for my return to the Cheddar Academy.

Closing note: My luggage did eventually find it's way back to me by way of some places called Bespin, Croissant, and Alderaan