For a change of scenery and to be closer to the village we moved around the top of the island to the east side and anchored inside the reef just off of the little islet called Motubua. This was a gorgeous spot, but although we were closer to the village, visits had to be timed with the tide since there is quite a swath of reef between where we were anchored and the village.
Just south of where we were anchored there is a small patch of sandy beach on the island proper of Yadua. One day we did a bit of exploring and ended up in the middle of a dried-out mangrove flat. It was eerily quiet back there and there wasn’t too much to see, but it was a nice little walk and good to get off the boat for a while.
The boys didn’t come back into the mangroves with us, instead they climbed up the sheer cliff at the edge of the beach. OK, it wasn’t a sheer cliff, but I swear from time to time those boys need reminding how far away a hospital is!
The kids decided they wanted to swim back to the boats, and in the photo below you can see that for a short moment Victoria had second thoughts and started to turn back. However, in the end the boys reassured her, and they all made their way all the way back to Exodus. It was heartwarming to watch Alex and Brenden swim alongside Victoria and Jonathon. Liz and I watched pretty much the whole time, because it wasn’t a short distance, but we were reassured that the big boys weren’t leaving the smaller ones behind.
Gresham Family Exodus 