It’s a strange sensation waking up at 5.30am – it’s an unnatural feeling for any student on holiday..but the heat would simply not allow a sleep in. The beads of sweat were already forming…as I slowly came to the groggy realization – crud it’s hot! What the hell is the time! As I plonked myself at the wooden table.. fellow faces emerged.. guess I wasn’t the only one feeling like a woolies chicken just out of the oven… coffeeee… yes please, thanks Dani.. Somehow no one seemed to mind the early wake up or Dani’s watery coffee.. there was too much excitement..today we were visiting the island- magaruqe… it was bound to be epic!
It was time to go! One couldn’t help but giggle at Darryn – rash vest, sun hat, creamed up to the max – you gotta love being fair skinned.. We made our way onto the beach – there’s something about Vilankulos that makes you want to laugh- the white sand, turquoise water, the dhows resting on the shore – it’s almost cliché. It’s paradise.
We looked around for our dhow.. and there it was- crusty, faded… and yes, the thought did cross my mind – ‘will that float?’ Our two sailors were as ‘rough around the edges’ as their boat. With a patchwork beanie angled rakishly over an eye the one looked quite pirate like… turned out he kept his i-pod in that hat.. these locals are inventive. Us girls boarded with slight apprehension….but it didn’t take very long to realize these two sea lice knew exactly what they were doing.. We started our sail to the islands, it took about 1 hour to reach magaruque.. You could see it on everyone’s faces.. two years of fund raising has just been paid off in a moment. We reached the island and it was breath taking… take one of those Mauritius adds, multiply by it by a 100..and you get the idea. We spent the first few hours exploring the island. Each person immersed in their own thoughts as we strolled along the shore…it was a surreal feeling. As the day got hotter you ironically wished the water was cooler. We played like little kids in the sea, human pyramids, shell collecting, this was as good as it gets… none of us could quite believe we could be so lucky.
For some of us it was the first time snorkeling but whether you had snorkeled a hundred times before it was a fantastic experience.
Turned out our captains were quite the cooks. They prepared a feast of epic proportions… beautiful fresh fish. Don’t ask me how they managed to cook a meal like that on a little wood fire on a dhow.. Maagies vol, oogies toe.. a sweet ziz under a palm tree.
It was time to go.. sob.. like every island adventure, someone had to get lost… we found Nicky after a while… had us a little worried there. So finally we were heading back, this time the sail was let down and a few of us had some good fun steering the rudder.. respect to our crusty seadogs… it wasn’t as easy as it looked!
The sun began to set as we walked along the beach back to the Baobab Resort. Each one of us thinking back on a day we couldn’t forget… we’d put some money for prawns that night… sigh.. have we died and done to heaven…. day 4… surely this is as good as it gets..
Charlotte
