A scorpion we found in our swimming pool in the morning.
The fish corrals.
The sandbar area, which disappeared when the tide came in.
The Indian Ocean side and Henning in the surf.
A native working the corrals.
It was a beautiful place to hang out for the day.
Thursday, November 30th.
I woke up at 3:00 and found that I was
being very lightly sprinkled. I waited for a bit and then it started
to rain a bit harder, so I got up and closed all the window flaps and
visited the toilet. I managed to get back to sleep until 6:00 at
which point I got up. The rain had stopped by the sky is grey and
it's a bit cool and damp.
Jay cooked up bacon, beans and eggs,
but I had cereal and a banana. Then we got organized for our hike to
the ocean. Most of signed out masks and snorkels as there was a reef
where we were going. It was a 3-4 kilometre walk, mostly downhill on
a two wheel dirt track. We went in small groups and took slightly
different routes and arrived at different spots. Some people wound up
at a shallow sand bar area and others, me included had walked further
and wound up at a beautiful, empty sandy beach on the Indian Ocean.
Henning and I got in and played in the waves. After that I decided to
walk to the area where the Tonga tribe have set up the kraal. I
walked along the sandbar in the bar to the kraals but only saw one
man working there.
Then I walked back to where I was and
went in the ocean again. I noticed that all the others had left the
sandbar area as it was disappearing with the tide. I walked back
around to where the they were. They told me that they had found the
reef for snorkelling and Jay pointed to where it was, on the opposite
side. I waded in and could walk most of the way and only had to swim
a bit but the current was really strong as the tide came in. When I
got to the reef I was surprised by the variety of fish, including
several eels in caves in the rocks and lionfish hiding in the reef.
The reef itself was not very nice, however it is behind a large
sandbar which I found quite strange. As I was looking the current
pushed me along very quickly. When I got the end I found it really
challenging to swim back and had to stay close to the shore where I
could get my footing. When I finally reached the spot where I had to
negotiate the crossing back to the mainland I tried to swim with the
mask and snorkel but the current was really strong, the snorkel
filled up twice and I swallowed water and I got a leg cramp. I had to
go back and try again, but still no. I decided I didn't want to drown
here, so I gave up. As I was standing there a young man who was
fishing came by and told me that the tide would turn in an hour and
it would be much easier. So I waited and paced the shore. I watched
the other people on the shore but couldn't signal them or call them
as it was too far away (probably 200 metres). I watched as the two
o'clock truck showed up and they all got on and left. About a half
hour later, the tide began to change and the waves calmed a bit. I
was able to swim on my back with the flippers to the sandbar and wade
back to shore. There I found my shoes and my hat with a note saying
that they had taken my waterproof bag with my camera as they weren't
comfortable leaving it there.
So I walked the 3 kilometre walk back
to camp where I had a shower and met up with the group. I told a
couple of people about my episode but basically everyone thought I
just wanted to stay over there longer to snorkel. I took Jay aside
and told him I saved him a lot of paper work by staying over there
until the tide changed.
After all of that I worked on the
computer for a bit before we had dinner. Jay made a vegetarian
lasagna that went wrong when he went to boil all the lasagna sheets
and they all stuck together as a block. He had to scramble around and
use other pasta, but it all tasted good. Then off to bed about 9:00.
Happy with your decision not to drown Joe
ReplyDeleteand... looks like you not going in the pool was a good idea too
ReplyDelete