A "stroll" around Mbduya Island

A few weeks ago I went a whole group of people to 'the Island.' The island is Mbduya Island just off the coast of Tanzania. It's a national park and quite beautiful. You usually take a boat from one of the resorts along the coast. This was ours. Just about as simple a boat as you can get!




We then rented a Banda for the day. A banda is a wall-less, thatched roof structure - used everywhere in Tanzania. This is the view from ours...


Around 2:30, we decided to go for a walk around the Island. Now, I'm pretty sure I've done this before and it was a strenuous task, more of a stroll. So we started off on the beautiful white sand, 5 of us. 3 adults, and 2 teenagers.

It was beautiful! The sky is such a gorgeous blue and the plants such a vibrant green!



We came to a place where the tides have worn away the rock and caves are beginning to form...


We found this dried blowfish...



and what we could only think might be a eel skeleton ?


and then we kept on walking and walking...and walking. We made it to the other side of the island and could see the whitecaps far out at sea. So we kept walking and walking. Then we had to go around a bend, and another and by this time, the tide is starting to come in and we're walking in a little bit of water. No problem, just get through it to the sandy beach.

Doesn't it look like the end is just around the corner?

But Christa, one of the teenagers with us, did not bring her shoes. The first hint of a problem...

Then we went around another bend and this time, no sandy beach! The tide was coming in faster so we had to walk through the water. Christa, with no shoes, was very worried about sea urchins, and rightly so! At one point I started to give her my flip flops and promptly stepped directly onto a sea urchin. I had more than 10 spikes and holes in my foot! The last one just came out yesterday morning - almost three weeks later!

I also had my camera with me so I wrapped it up in my kanga (sarong) and held it above my head the whole time.

Our 'stroll' had turned into a trek.

We finally managed to make it to the next bend and I stopped to take this picture of where we'd come from...

Yeah, it really is as far away as it looks!

Moral of the story: Leave early and wear good shoes!

:)