Today was one of those days. We set off with our day happy for a day we finally decided to go kayaking on our own and go visit a couple islands. We rented the motorbike and took most of the morning getting ready, buying snorkel set and food and getting lost. We got to the kayak rental place and took it for the day. The waves were white capping the whole time, so it was fun to rock back and forth and get eaten by the swells. We finally made it to our first island and took our goggles and mouth piece and started looking in the water. Kind of dirty ocean water, so we couldn't do very well, and on top of that the snorkel set would not keep water out of our mouths or our eyes. So we opted out and started to walk around the island. We collected seashells the way around. It started pouring on us, but smart of us, we brought our rain jackets finally. The only problem was we weren't smart enough to bring them with us around the island, and there was no going back by then, so we got soaked, may as well been swimming. We had a lot of fun though. There was a million crabs all over the place, and lots of shells for collecting. We got around and had lunch, a baguette . Then off to the next island. The waves were even better now, bigger. We paddled for an hr and made it there. There was lots of shell around, so Nikki got started right into it. The tide was coming up, so I said if we wanted to walk around, we should get going before we can't. Off we went. We walked the shore, then the rocks, then the water. We were having fun, and slipping all over the place. Nikki found this sand dollar looking thing and I carried it, she told me to guard it with my life. Death was better than breaking it!! So we kept walking, until Nikki fell and broke her finger. We didn't turn around, that's not us, we kept walking. We walked and slipped and walked, I took the camera and put it in my pocket and, still had that shell that I had to guard. I took one step and tripped and tried to catch myself by moving my feet right into a sharp rock, and gouged my toe in two places. Here sharky, sharky, sharky!!! My toe was cut the whole way across and another big one on the tip. And on top of that, I fell flat into the water. Our camera was still OK though. We kept walking and soon ran into a problem , the tide had come up. So we tried to climb up higher, but had to go into the trees. Remember where we are, THE JUNGLE!!! This island was small and with only two little houses on it, so it was just run right over with unexplored jungle. Fun you think? Well let me continue. We started to trek up the hill and into the trees and vines. These are spike trees and spike vines and spike plants and spike everywhere. Each step was followed by a scream of pain as spikes tore at our flesh. The spike vines were like barricades we had to push through. To add to that any pause in our steps resulted in large red ants climbing on us and biting us. I felt like being a gentleman and letting Nikki go first and braking through the webs. We ran into one that Nikki had pushed through and there was the biggest, scariest looking spider I had ever seen, so, yes I screamed like a girl. For Nikki the worst thing was the spikes, for me I didn't care how many spikes jabbed me, I was too scared of the spiders. Yes I'm a wuss when it comes to spiders. I would do anything for Nikki, but not that! We kept on going, and saw these HUGE millipedes, or whatever they were, and huge worms, and huge ants, and huge spikes, and huge .... I think you get the idea. I thought we were going to die from some big thing. I was just waiting for a human eating spider to come out!! We pushed and we pushed and we cried with pain, and cried with pain, but we made it through, to a cliff edge. We wanted to cry. We were tired and hurting, and I was too scared to go back in to find a new way. So we started scaling the ledge, the big problem was that every time we would put our feet or hands somewhere it was a big red ant pile. OUCH!!! These are the ones that bite and HURT very bad for a long time. But we made it down and ran into the water to get all the ants off of us. We were both so grumpy by then that we didn't care if we left each other to get eaten by the ants. At one big drop off I jumped and turned around to help Nikki, but I looked at the ground and I was standing on red ground because the ants were so thick, so I said she was on her own and took off. But I did come back and help her while I danced. So we made it out, and started walking through the water and rocks, because the tide was coming up too high. We had to time the waves and jump from rock to rock in between the waves. We did this until all of a sudden Nikki screamed with pain, so I ran back to see her. Her big toenail was standing up, broken almost all the way off. OUCH!!! Where was the closed toe shoes? In the hotel! Where was the first aid kit? In the hotel! Smart thinking eh! At least we packed them for this trip. We had no option but to keep going because it was getting late and would soon get dark. We pushed and Nikki cried with pain every little movement that her toenail made. But we finally made it to the boat and that was the happiest part of our day. We headed right off, watching the sun setting at the same time. We paddled on the calm sea. That sure helped our spirits out. We paddled and paddled and ya, paddled. We soon had the privilege of watching a lightning show going on all around us while on the sea. It soon became our only light as the sun was down. We finally made it to shore, but it was not the right one. We had to walk for a couple km in the water so we didn't get eaten by dogs. One of us pulled the kayak and the other one followed, and by now the waves were huge, and pushing us all over. The water and sand would mix and climb right into our shoes. We finally made it, following the light that the guy would send out every little while. I saw a firefly in the process. Banged, bruised and broken, we hopped on our bike and headed back to the hotel and straight to the shower to clean off the sand. Nikki's toe nail was all the way back by then, and my gouge is black with dirt, and who knows what else I picked up in the jungle trekking. Nikki has rashes all over from rubbing and I get big white blisters everywhere my sandal strap was, and also blisters all over my shoulders from getting sunburn 3 days ago, while we were on the beach for 2 hrs. Nikki has since done surgery to herself and removed the toenail with my leatherman scissors. Now we are all bandaged up and off to bed.
All geared up and ready to hunt for shells! Notice happiness and lack of pain?
Here's the fragile sand dollar that Bradyn took such good care of until we made it to shore and had to pull the kayak along. He soon found it broken in his pocket!
Once again, Happy!!!! Here is Bradyn on some of the rocks we climbed over. We decided we weren't boring, but may be stupid!
Here is our thick jungle we pushed through. If you look close you can see spikes on everything, including all the leaves.
See! We weren't kidding about the huge spikes!!!! About two inches long. OUCH!!!
Here is my broken toenail and if you look close, its Bradyn's gashed toe. BATTLE SCARS
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