Indonesia

 

After almost 60 hours travelling we still hadn’t arrive at our destination.

I’d spent 6 months planning this trip and even if I knew that this was a very wild area I thought I’d be able to arrive there in around 30-35 hours. Several situations slowed us and when we finally had almost reached the goal we also clearly realised that a big storm was heading towards us. There were 5 of us on a tiny boat packed with bags, surfboards and camping stuff. There was no way to avoid the storm so we pulled over onto a pristine beach surrounded by thousands of Mangroves.

Thunder started to break the sky and a sharp rain began. Our dream island was still a few miles away. Any treasure is difficult to reach and this one was no different.
Luckily we had to wait for only a couple of hours and then, once we had emptied the boat, we were able to reach our desert paradise. Almost 60 hours after leaving Europe we finally touched the sand of our dream island.

 

 

 

10 pm, pitch black, windy, rainy and a ridiculously high rate of humidity.

After several hours setting up camp we spent our first night fighting the elements. It started raining so we were obliged to stay inside our tents covered by plastic sheets. It was like being in a sauna.
No air was moving, there was a terrible heat, and we were sweating

inside our tents trying to stay calm and adapt our bodies to the new environment. That night I couldn’t sleep more than 10 minutes straight and in the entire night I barely slept for 2 hours.

 

 

Strange and weird noise woke me during the night.

Then it was common to think: what kind of noise is this? Which kind of beast makes this noise? Who is touching my tent? What is going on? Is someone touching our stuff outside? Are we too close to the ocean? And what if a tsunami comes?  All these kind of thoughts went through my mind during the night. The next day we talked about this with the crew and we tried to calm and console each other. Once the first week was passed we were so exhausted every night that even if a crocodile had come up to our tent we wouldn’t have realised it. After several days of eating noodles and rice we were powerless; no more energy.

Since then fishing became not only a hobby and a way to pass the time but an obligation. Finally we managed to grab 5 nice reef fishes and we had an amazing barbecue with the boys!
The daily priority were as follows:
–       food
–       surf
–       run the camp
–       fire
This trip was really a feral experience.  Sometimes I think about it and it seems a dream and not something that I really did….

 

 

 

Go go go!!! Eoin was shouting!

Only he and I were in the water, surfing perfect crystal waves! A big set came while Eoin was paddling on the shoulder and he started shouting! Go go go!! No time to think or to pretend to be rational, just move the board, start paddling and don’t forget to breathe! Take off, bottom turn, stall waiting for the section then I put my arm inside the blue water and I became one with the wave…. I was thinking “keep going, keep going” then the exit hole in front of me started to became smaller and smaller and so did I.

Then the hole shut down and I was hit by the lip. I was already preparing my fall into the dry reef but the lip only stroked my head and I was split out the wave! Sensational! Six months of planning, saving money, hard training, sleeping in the jungle and barely surviving… all this was worth it thanks to a 15 seconds ride and the best barrel of my life! Thank you Indonesia!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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