It’s countdown time with only a few weeks of school left and Christmas fast approaching. Our household is at the point of no return, we are counting in sleeps until Santa is due to stop by and not long until those mischievous little elves visit again…
Annie, Sofia and I recently took our first flights since January 2020, heading to Vanuatu for a couple of weeks. Reopening after almost 2 years of being closed to international tourists, Vanuatu is as friendly and laid back as ever. Island time is real, and it takes a few days of missed cocktail orders to acclimatise. Once on ‘island time’, you just must roll with it. We headed out one day for an ‘active adventure in nature’, which is the opposite to what we typically seek on holidays. After enjoying our eggs benny and passionfruit mimosas for breakfast we were dropped at a deserted jungle hut, with no mobile or WIFI, (yes, we are talking the ‘true’ wilderness here!), on the promise that one of the local guides will be there soon to take us kayaking.
This ‘soon’ ended up being an hour or so, at which point any enthusiasm Annie had for kayaking was long gone and Sofia was convinced the holes in the ground were home to massive flesh-eating crabs and giant spiders and we had to order an Uber out of there immediately. I on the other hand, saw this as an opportunity to test the survival skills I have gained from binging ‘Alone’. I surveyed our surroundings and identified the best area to construct our shelter of felled palm fronds and rainforest moss. I then lugged very large and extremely heavy logs over to fuel the fire I will build when night fall approaches. Next was digging a seep well to supply naturally purified water ready for when our chilled bottles of Fiji water run dry. I was just about to set my deadfall trap to catch a small rodent for dinner when the guide arrived, damnit.
For now, I’m back to binging on ‘Alone’ and longing for the day I am once again in a situation that tests my strength of character and survival instincts…
