Watch out for that first step, it’s a doozy

Watch out for that first step, it’s a doozy-

I took a 4 day boat trip from the Gili Islands to Flores Island, stoping at a few small islands for hiking, snorkeling and Komodo dragon safari’s. Unlike the cruise I took in Halong Bay, Vietnam, this had VERY simple accommodations and food. Calling it a cruise wouldn’t be accurate, this was definitely a boat trip. In Halong Bay we were styled out with meals consisting of whole fish, curried chicken, fried rice, fresh fruit, a few pasta dishes, deserts etc etc. On this trip breakfast was bread, lunch and dinner was instant noodles with a hard boiled egg. There was a total of 36 of us divided up into 2 boats. There are no cabins and everyone slept on mattresses Tetris’d together on the deck in a little crawl space overhead.

The extremely loud two stroke engine sounded like a mix between a John Deer tractor and army of Harley’s. It’s the first time I’ve tried sleeping with the ear plugs I’ve been carrying around for 8 months. They didn’t work. We slept docked the last two nights, but the first two we battled intense rocking from very turbulent open water ocean currents. At one point I was woken up by sliding across the crawl space into my fellow shipmates, one of which was confident we were going to be swallowed up by the sea. A few times throughout the trip different people would quietly come ask me what I felt about the waves and if they should be worried. As if I had any idea what I was talking about I casually brushed it off and told them we were fine, which eased some fears (I guess the Old Man in the Sea beard inspires confidence). Either way this boat trip is not for those with a weak stomach. Here’s the funny part; I preferred this trip to the luxury of the Halong Bay cruise. All the factors just described (which after rereading, sounds like a nightmare) gave it an air of authenticity. I felt like a crewman on a fifteenth century sea voyage going out to map unchartered territory. With an ice chest full of beer of course.

The on board country mix was Spanish, Italian, French, UK, Belgium, and a few Indonesians. Over the 4 days I hung out with just about everyone at one point or another, but spent most of my time with a pair of guys from the UK. I also spent a lot of time hanging with the tour guide. His name was Adi and he and I hit it off right away. He kept inviting me to the back kitchen area to hang out with him and the other crew members. I made friends with all of them. On a few occasions Adi and I would jam on the bongos while the UK guys played the little guitars they brought along. It was a good time. On day 3 we woke up in the morning, went snorkeling at an island with probably the nicest coral reef I’ve ever seen, got back on the boat to cruise the ocean 2 hours to another island where we hiked up to a peak with stunning views, back down for some more snorkeling at another good reef, back on the boat 3 hours to Komodo Island where we saw 10 Komodo dragons in their natural habitat, including a massive 12 footer. It was the type of day that as it was winding down had me say aloud “today was a good day”.

When we reached Flores the entire group from both boats went to a place for a post trip party. The place we went to had a long unlit road we walked down to get to and from it. On the way back from the bar it was pitch black and you couldn’t see a thing. The road fell off sharply into a precarious ditch. I took a step that landed on the edge of the ditch and completely rolled my ankle. I fell over as it happened so abruptly that I ended up doing a somersault down the inclined pavement. It is a bad sprain which swelled up to grapefruit size immediately and turned my entire foot blue overnight. I can put weight on it, wiggle my toes etc so I’m assuming its not broken. Regardless I’m completely immobilized and sidelined for the time being. Komodo is a protected national park and the surrounding dive sites are pristine. It’s always makes the list for worlds best diving areas and many argue its the very best in the world. Though seeing the dragons was awesome, this was my main reason for wanting to visit the area. Even if my foot did fit into a fin (which it doesn’t) I couldn’t generate the torque needed for swimming in the heavy currents here. Unless I have a miraculous recovery over the next few days I’ll, tragically, be leaving the area without doing one dive. And the culprit was WALKING. I’ve been skydiving, bungy jumping, hang gliding, cage diving, surfing, motor biking, ice climbing, cliff jumping, abseiling, spelunking, mountaineering and now add tango with Komodo dragons to that list. All to have WALKING be the cause of an injury. I’m now stuck on Flores Island and waiting out the next few days to determine my next move.

Bob