Confused Kayaking: A Misadventure on Ibo

As most of you like to remind me, I don't update my blog enough. Well, sorry for the wait, but I have pretty good story about my stupidity for you all. I went to Ibo Island right before Xmas, and this is how I started off my big holiday adventure. DISCLAIMER: This story is not meant to cause worry about my well-being in any way. I am generally smarter than this and do not constantly get into situations such as the one that follows. Cheers!

The Mistake - 

I was with another PCV named Jack Newman (Jack and Jack traveling together, awesome right?), and we decided it would be fun to kayak to a lighthouse on the southern tip of Ibo. So, we borrow kayaks from our guesthouse, Miti Mwiri, and before we leave, the owner of the guesthouse gives us a little debriefing: "When you get to the lighthouse, you should go around the waves so they don't push you into the rocks to your deaths. Pretty simple, just don't do anything stupid and you should be fine." Sounds simple, right? As a matter of fact, the first part of it was quite simple; we went around the waves, like pros, and got to the lighthouse. So, then I say to Jack: "Wanna head back now?" He replies, "I thought we were just going to go around the island." At this point, I think to myself that going around an island is far more badass of a kayak trip. So, I say, "Sure, sounds great." Mistake #1. As we continue along, we did not paddle outside of the waves this time, so the waves crashed into us and swept us into a very shallow and very rocky patch. At this point it was still probs not too late to turn back and try to get through the waves, but we thought that the rocky patch had to end at some point and continued on. Mistake #2. After about 3 hours of walking/dragging our kayaks through the rocks, we decide that we are not going to get out of here before dark if we kept our current pace. Also, we suspected that high tide was quite a few hours away... however, even with high tide, I doubted that the water would have risen high enough to kayak through the rocks. We were about 300 meters from the open ocean and about 200 meters from the beach - pretty bleak situation. So, it was decided that Jack Newman would go seek help, and I would stay with the kayaks...

A Maze of Mangroves: Jack Newman's Quest for Help - 

Jack Newman thought it would be a good idea to follow the mangroves and keep going around the island as opposed to try to navigate the mangroves and get lost in them (probs a good call, actually). However, by following the mangroves, there were 2 key things that went wrong: 1) the mangroves added quite a bit more distance to cover until getting to civilization (also known as our guesthouse) 2) he missed a crucial canal through the mangroves that would have led to town. To continue his tale: After about 2 hours of wandering, Jack Newman realized he was utterly lost. Luckily, he saw a fishing boat in the distance (which happened to be in the canal that he did not follow), and he swam to it to ask where to go to seek help. The nice fisherman pointed him toward shore of an island. He made it to the island and asked the nice people where he was. They told him that he had made it Quirimba Island... a WHOLE DIFFERENT ISLAND! After about 2 hours of explaining to the population how he had arrived to the island and after meeting the town chief, Jack Newman got his hands on a cellphone to call the guesthouse.  He informed the owners of the guesthouse that we were both still alive, he was on Quirimba Island, and explained to them approximately where I was. The rest of his night was pretty low key: a family gave him a little fried fish and some rice to eat and he stayed at a boarding house for the night.  The next morning he got a ride from a little stick-pushed raft to Ibo at around 10 AM, and discovered that I had also survived our misadventure.

Meanwhile in the Rockfield... - 

When Jack Newman had left, I tried to take a little nap since I had nothing to do but wait. After about an hour of failing to nap under the hot African sun, I decided to be semi-productive so I continued to drag to kayaks along. After about 2 hours of arduous labor without getting much closer to the point I thought was the end of the rockfield, it dawns on me that even if Jack makes it back to the guesthouse they would probably not have time to look for me before it gets dark. Then, I have another great epiphany - I am going to spend the night in the rockfield in front of the mangroves in a kayak.  Oh, did I mention that I had drank the water that I had brought with me, didn't have food with me, and had not eaten anything except a PB&J before we set out... BALLZ!!! I decide it would be wise to have a look ahead without the kayaks to find out if the rockfield actually does have an end in sight. In my exploring, I took a nasty little tumble when one of the rocks collapsed from under me thereby sending me crashing into more rocks.  Thanks Ibo, I now have a souvenir, the pretty gash in my leg.  Anywho, I continue wandering for about an hour (slightly slower wandering; thanks to the gash in my leg), and I am STILL in the rockfield... surprise! It should be around 17:00 (5 PM) at this point, and it is getting darker. I walk back to the kayaks before I could't find them anymore in the dark. I used one of the life jackets to tie the kayaks together and anchor them to a rock, so they wouldn't be swept away (just in case the tide was actually high enough to do so... it wasn't). I strapped on the other life jacket and set off to explore once again taking the two kayak oars with me. The oars were actually quite useful as support getting through the muddy silt and such. I made it to the point I was heading for before, and the rockfield did end, finally. So I walked along the mangrove forest (probably exactly like Newman did) in knee high waters. It was about 20:00, and the tide was starting the come in. I made it to the canal that Newman had missed, but at this point, I would have had to swim because the water level had risen quite high. It was about 22:00. I had a couple of choices: I could have either continued on and hoped for shallower waters and a sandbar to rest for the night (lest I would sleep in a mangrove tree) or I could turn back once again to where there was a beach in front of the mangroves and spend the night there. I decided to turn around and head back for more certain safety. On the way back, the water had risen up to my neck level, and at some points, I had to swim for a while. In retrospect, I think I made the right call because the mangroves did not end for quite some distance. I may have drowned or gotten quite lost if I had chosen to continue. Good life choice, win!. I finally make it back to the beach at around midnight. Then, the universe decided to rain on me ("Really universe? Come on!") for about 20 minutes. However, after that, the sky cleared up. I can honestly say, that it was the clearest I have ever seen the stars. I saw around 5 shooting stars; upon each, I wished to be rescued, ha. So that's how I fell asleep: on a beach under clear skies and bright stars with a sea breeze. It was quite peaceful and beautiful (although a little cold because I was still soaked and it was breezy) until... About 3 or 4 AM when the sea breeze halted, and the mosquitoes attacked! In my whole life, I have never seen this many mosquitoes. With one swat of my hand, I killed 6 mosquitoes at a time. Imagine that density of mosquitoes attacking my whole body. It was utterly awful. I ran to the rockfield and the water for some sanctuary from the assault. And after about 20 minutes, they retreated. After getting my ass kicked and substantially biten by the mosquitoes, I went to find the kayaks. I continued to move them toward the end of the rockfield. After about 2 to 3 hours, I finally succeeded in getting them there. Right as I pulled the second kayak to the beach, I saw a man in the distance. I shouted and called for him to come over to me. He was a local guy looking for crabs in the rockfield. I told him my tale of how I ended up in my current situation and asked if he could help me carry the kayaks to the nearest village, which he informed me was about an hour and a half's walk through the mangroves. He, in Mozambican fashion, asked me if he would get breakfast out of helping me out. Normally, this would kind of irritate me, but I was pretty desperate at this point, so I told him that I would even buy him lunch if he helped me out. He agreed to help me out, but spotted another man out in the distance, probably a half a kilometer away, so he went to convince him to come help as well. While the helpful villager was walking out to convince the other guy, two employees of the guesthouse walk out through the mangroves and found me. Sadly, the helpful villager missed out in actually helping me, but I was pretty elated at this point; the universe had answered my request to be rescued. After phoning the guesthouse that they had found me (yeah, there was signal there the WHOLE time; I just didn't have a phone on me - also, a dumb move). One of the employees guided me back to the town of Ibo through the mangroves. It was about 8:00 when I finally got back to the guesthouse. The first thing I said to the manager was, "You remember how you told me not to do anything stupid?" He replied, "You did." I apologized for being stupid, and he told me that it was all good. He also let me know that Jack Newman was on Quirimba Island and was fine. Now, he has a good story to tell people what NOT to do when taking the kayaks out.

Oh, one more thing. These little guys http://allafrica.com/stories/201301160279.html apparently inhabit the archipelago that Ibo Island and Quirimbas Island are a part of. Good thing I didn't run into one of them, right? Haha.