Jungle River Trip
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Tue 9 Mar 2010 02:11
to pick up Tracy for a run along the beach, so I was on boy duty for
breakfast, and ran into some maintenance fixes on the generator system,
quickly solved and all well. We then gathered at the little river entrance 4
dinghies with kids and off we went crossing the bar in wading fashion and
then proceeded up a this tiny creek with mangroves on each side (it was
thick but I would not quite call it jungle but you had the birds and
animals. Weaving your way up, at full throttle/ planning speed, Sean hanging
on the front and just singing with joy, as the mangroves throbbed back and
forth as the bow waves of the dingles engaged them. The mangroves gradually
came into the creek, narrowing it and in many sections we were speeding
under a fully enclosed creek with mangroves on each side and a canopy over
our heads, Alex loved this tunnel effect. We saw some birds not many but
considering the boats speeding ahead this was not surprising, we arrived at
little village about an hour latter which we pulled into the beach.
Proceeded into the village of restaurants, and stores vey small, with
thatched roves, the boys hit the shop with the other 5 kids with them all
going for the ice creams. We stocked as some of the boats with us have been
here for 6 weeks, we did not need much. On getting back to boats we played
in the river and had a couple of beers and chattered which was nice as the
climate was not too hot, as we had a slight cloud cover. The trip back
seemed faster we stopped at the beach on the entrance to play and rest,
which gave me an opportunity to go surfing on small point break. I with
another guy (Matt) went on boogey boards and it was nice paddling out with
your boat at anchor catching a wave on to yellow golden beach.
The boys and Tracy played with Endurance's family in the creek entrance, see
crabs, and rays sliding along the sands.
The weather was fantastic, the experience of sliding between the mangroves
and just comradeship for kids and adults made a wonderful day.