Sunday

Boo!

I was taking my kayak out on the bay around Sinabang, and had driven around for ages to find a good place to launch. I didn’t find one, so I headed out to where some fishing boats were, thinking the locals knew the place and would stash them in an easily accessible place.

But they obviously aren’t averse to sinking mid-calf deep in black smelly mud! I traipsed onto – and then into – the mud, with the kayak in one hand, trying unsuccessfully to balance with the much lighter paddle in the other hand, and started sinking very quickly! So, looking for harder substrate to walk on, I headed to the coral and the unfinished high tide (possibly tsunami-preventing) wall that was being constructed on it, not far from where I set out, as it had concrete footings and I figured I could use these to my advantage.

But with a construction site comes other dangers that you don’t notice when you’re carting a kayak around, so I didn’t see the piece of wood on the ground with the nail protruding from it. Let’s just say I was VERY thankful I didn’t remove my flip flops after repeatedly getting bogged in them … they buffered most of the nail from my foot, and it only went in a little way. Still, it was so painful, and surrounded by mud, a prime habitat for water buffalo, I didn’t have a very hygienic place to wash the wound!

But I’d laboured so long to get the bloody kayak out to the water, being my stubborn self, I decided I would worry about checking tetanus shots and getting antiseptic later and headed out onto the water. I’m glad I did – it was a beautiful day, the water looked like glass, there was very little wind and many amazing clouds, and it wasn’t too hot. I ended up kayaking around the little bays and coral quays for around 3 hours. An awesome way to spend a Sunday morning.

Anyway, so the upshot of it is that I had a lovely Sunday of kayaking, but now have a very sore foot. It’s frustrating not being able to play my usual games of tennis or go for a walk in the mornings. Still, hopefully it will heal in the next few days, before I go home to Oz! Can’t be injured with all the things I have planned…