(written Sat 6/7 6:45 p.m.)
sunrise at Indian Ocean
Yesterday was a long long day. Since I’m the designated waker-upper (remind me NOT to be the one with the one working travel alarm next time!), I had to get up at 4:10 a.m. to roust everyone out at 4:15 to ride 1-1/2 hours in the dark and cold to St. Lucia, board a small boat on a trailer at a gas station, drive out to the Indian Ocean in the morning chill, get dumped on the sand and pushed into the water (by a tractor!). No launch ramps for these folks!
 boat |
 pushed out |
The boat was fairly small and the seas were fairly rough, so we were all very glad by the end of the trip that Evan had the foresight to bring transderm scopalamine patches for us all. The fisher-folks all got some good catches though, and the sun made at least an effort to warm up the air (everyone keeps talking about the unseasonable cold front — sigh…).
 Gina |
 Dana |
 Evan |
And then there was the beaching of the boat. We were headed in at a good rate of speed, sightseeing and paying very little attention to things and all of us, I think, expecting eventually to come to some sort of jetty or boat launch ramp. Then all of a sudden the captain revved up the throttle and I realized that we were very quickly running out of water. I was the only one who noticed; everyone else was just kind of stunned when he ran the boat, literally at full throttle, over the waves onto the beach in a barely controlled crash. Since I couldn’t move quite fast enough carrying 20 or more pounds of camera gear, I can now honestly say that I got my feet wet in the Indian Ocean.
Afterwards we took a very nice quiet boat ride along the estuary and saw hippos, crocodiles, all kinds of birds and a truly lovely sunset.
 grey heron |
 crocodile |
 goliath heron |
 hippos |
Just in time for another long drive back to the lodge where, once again, we had impala but no warthog!