At the school we also had weekly outings. The first to see crocodiles in a nearby crocodile infested river. The locals are absolutely fearless, holding a chunk of raw chicken and calling the big crocs over to come get it. Then making them reach right up for it. Steve Irwin would be proud. The scenery on this trip was beautiful and there was a lot of bird life. I’m usually not that into birds but some of these were spectacular, particularly in such a beautiful environment.
The second week we went to the waterfall, a long drive in the dilapidated and rusted out surf vans. After dripping with sweat the entire way there, we started the walk to the waterfall. Not too long into it we were confronted by about 12 cows (including bulls and calves). The bulls weren’t too thrilled to see us so our brave guide legged it through the paddock and told us we were all on our own to get across. Nice… Ten minutes or so later there was a large black snake in our path that gently slithered up into the tree once it heard us. It would have been two metres long and was quite thick too, probably the diameter of a cereal bowl. We were told that generally this is an easy walk and they don’t usually see so much wildlife. Well it would be fair to say the waterfall didn’t quite live up to our expectations which had been dramatically increased with each dangerous encounter. But it was nice to swim in some cool fresh water.
In my final week the outing was Kayaking. Oana, my lovely Romanian friend, assured me this was the best outing and we will paddle across glassy waters to a beautiful white sand beach where we will snorkel and be fed an abundance of fresh tropical fruit. Why was I surprised when the glassy waters were very choppy with a strong headwind and an overcast sky. The paddle was a few kilometres and challenging on the way over. Oana had the rest right – the beach, snorkelling and fruit were beautiful. Even the paddle back was easier and much, much quicker.
