The Dreaded Mandingo Hike, March 2010

To get the full apreciation of this page, you must first read the March 11th blog page before this. This will give you all the info you need to understand the photos here. I will only give brief captions here, so as not to be too repetitive. Let's just say, this was the hike from hell for me!

Ralph and Greg really wanted to join Southern Belle on the hike in the Robeson group. We got off to a very bad start by running somewhat aground coming around the island above and into the anchorage. Our chart plotter was way off, and we didn't check our chart book carefully enough. Thank God we plowed right through and are not still stuck there!! We don't like coming into these anchorages with the wrong light, but we did that! Not smart as you can't see the reef. We won't do that again.

Here we are safely at anchor!

This is the next morning and all looks fine at this point. George is happy, we're all happy. We've just finished up the long panga ride to the entrance of the river. This trip was billed as a river tour/hike...but the river tour was about 15 minutes. The 1 to 2 hour hike was about 4...through muck, mostly (it could not have rained any harder the night before the hike). It was up the Mandingo river. It sounded like a decent hike for me because we were supposed to be back by 1, after leaving at 8. As well, it was termed a flat hike. What could go wrong?

Here we are in the river portion of the trip...still all happy!

The river gets narrower and narrower, and pretty soon there is no more river.

The hike's beginning. Nice! Shaded!! This is for me! It looks like I made the right decision. My gut feeling was no, but I decided I'd better try to look athletic!

OK, this isn't good! I don't like this sort of bridge, but I manage.

Here's a better view...slippery and narrow. Right after this, my first sandal falls apart. 5 minutes later, the other. Thankfully George has string in his pack...I trudge on.

This is the path...notice we're walking on the sides since the path is flooded. After awhile, we just gave up and trudged through the water.

This is already not fun, but I'm still thinking...only 30 more minutes till we arrive.

We have to ford a river to reach the actual village. This wouldn't be so bad if your sandals weren't filling with water and wanting to float downstream with the current. As well, I had such big holes in my heels, from the rubbing sandals, that I could barely walk. Eventually, I put moleskin (from George) on the sorest parts and hoped it would stay on in the water and muck.

Some people were having a good time in the river, even if I wasn't.

I could have taken an horse back to the boat...but, with the way horses and I get along, and the muddy ride back...I was caught between a rock and a hard place. I opted for pain and walking on my own.

Like I said, some people in the river by the village were having a great time!

This lady wasn't having any more fun than I was in the river.

She was busy doing her laundry in the "laundry ulu?" There were several of these boats here and they looked to be only used for laundry. This village has no road, only the path we came up and limited river access.

In town, we paid the Saila for our visit and talked to the kids outside the school.

A young Kuna girl. Life must be so boring for these kids.

As if I wasn't having enough fun, we all purchased a fine meal of fried plantains and sardines in tomato sauce...mmmm!! All for $2 each!

What a charming little restaurant!

The fellow in the red is our leader, Justino. The other is the "cook".

After this lunch we headed back down that long path and didn't arrive back at our boat until 5pm. What a long day. I had large sores on my feet for 2 weeks. What a trip!! Next time I'll go with my gut!

These are my tevas after the hike. The band-aid on the side is to stop the sandal from rubbing more skin off. Both soles are completely off and held on only by string. These were hardly worn sandals...I feel a nasty letter to Teva coming on!! To add insult to injury, the next day Southern Belle called, by radio, and told us they had found ticks on themselves. We did a check, and sure enough we had them too!!

Another typical ulu sailor.

The kids here came by the boats every day, peering in the windows and asking for candy. Here they're at Southern Belle.

This is the village they live in.

It's hard to imagine an existence like this one. These island have no water and have to bring it from the rivers on the mainland.

Southern Belle decided to finally invite a bunch of the kids aboard to play with Josh...what a group!

Southern Belle has a washing machine, we don't. This is laundry day for the boys (mom's feet are so destroyed from the hike that she can't go along). So, off they go together, up the river, to wash the clothes, sheets, and towels.

The met ulu-loads of kids and people getting water or doing laundry.

These were the others in the "laundromat".

Ralph and Greg helped these girls carry water to the ulu.

Not the kind of life our kids have at home, is it?

Finally, they get to do our own laundry...here Greg is demonstrating the power agitator!!

When they bring it back, we hang it all aboard to dry. Are we having fun yet?

As an aside, you can see below the comment from Teva. They found my blog, read it, and the end result of all the pain and suffering was a new free pair of sandals. I have to give them a star for customer relations!