Someone heard from someone that there was a cave with human bones in it from back in the cannibal days, so of course we needed to set off to find it. We were three adults, Tim, Danny (Lumbaz), and me, and we had all the kids from Exodus, Lumbaz, and Nautilus with us. The first part of the hike was flat and uneventful, and amazingly we found the cave with the bones quite easily. After taking some photos and telling the kids more than once that, “No, you can’t play with the bones,” we were off again. We headed the other way, towards the ocean side of the island, and after a slight incline and then short steep decline, we found ourselves in a mangrove swamp. The Exodus normal routine is for Tim to go ahead and scout while I wait, so we followed this usual routine, but I didn’t see Tim again after that. He called from up on the ridge to head back up and then over, so we filed back up and headed in the direction we thought he was telling us to go. At the time I had the impression that Danny had seen and talked to Tim, but in the end I’m not sure. Danny, the kids, and I hiked all across the island, never really knowing quite where we were but with a sense that we were heading back towards the lagoon. We covered some amazing geography; some the photos simply could not capture. There were steep little limestones valleys that looked like craters and there was lush green vegetation all around. We found another mangrove swamp and the mud was too deep to walk through. A couple of the girls tested it and then ended up with slippery, muddy feet that had trouble staying in their flip flops. So, then they had to go barefoot which was difficult because the ground was a lot of pointy limestone rock. As we approached near to our starting point, we found Tim again, who had an equally interesting hike across the island. The funny thing was that Seppe (9 years old from Nautilus) told him mom, and he was totally serious when he said it, that we all got lost and that Tim was the only one who didn’t get lost and next time he will stay with Tim. Too funny! How he concluded that we were the lost ones and not Tim is a mystery.
After we made it back to the anchorage we met up with a local couple who then showed us the way up to one of the high points on the island. It was a short, steep climb, and the views were absolutely stunning. You could see the entirety of the lagoon and you also could see out to the ocean side and the reef beyond. Amazing.
Gresham Family Exodus 