A Traveller's Fortune Telling

We've just arrived back from the island of Mamutik. It's a small island, smaller than Brownsea back at home, but large enough to provide adequate exploring ground for a day. I managed to walk/climb around the outside of it in an hour, without getting my mp3 player wet, which I think's just right for a rock-pooling trip! There was something that made me turn the music off though, and that was the strange scuttling sound that seemed to follow me around the island. Visions of alien-crocodile-monsters initially came to mind, but it soon transpired that every time I stood on a rock, hermit crabs hurried away in all directions in an attempt not to be stood on. They needn't have worried because the last thing I wanted to do in bare feet was to stand on a crab, but they obviously felt threatened. As a result I tried to tread more lightly for the rest of the journey, hoping to see a bit more wildlife. I got the jackpot with two enormous lizards, smaller than a monitor lizard, but much larger than the average creature we'd find at home. In addition, there were jumping fish and all manner of rocky-shore critters that I'd hate to try and identify, (though there was definitely a dogwhelk or two - those days spent down at Kimmeridge with the school weren't wasted...). As for the hermit crabs, well they still dived for cover well before I arrived on their rocks, but I suppose they're quite shady characters anyway so I didn't miss much.

James made us a campfire that lasted long after we'd cooked up our pasta and sauce. I think I must have fully acclimatised now because despite Chloe's fabulous field-cooking, I was actually missing the malay noodles! A man from the island brought out his guitar later on and we played for a while on the beach, which sent everyone to sleep. He left his guitar with us to borrow until the morning, which was nice, and I didn't feel like sleeping early on our one night on a desert island, so we played some more and I took a walk with Zoe in search of crabs. Kota Kinabalu looked completely different from across the water. Infact, it quite resembled Bournemouth or Poole when looking out at night from Studland. In the end I decided it was far too warm to spend the night in the tent, so I joined the others on the beach and woke up to the sun rising up behind Mount Kinabalu. Pretty damn perfect really. We managed to get a swim, breakfast and a game or two with our inflatable ball in before the boats of day-visitors arrived, and I was quite glad that the sea had washed away our sand-creations before groups of irritating tourists trampled all over them. The previous evening we'd made a sand monkey, elephant and gecko, and judging by the way people were mindlessly trampling over the coral (okay so much of it was dead anyway, but even so...), they wouldn't have lasted two minutes.

Our boat drivers appeared during the afternoon to have a swim before taking us back to the mainland. One of them had a grandfather with SEVEN wives! His family had passed down the art of palmistry, so naturally we all had to have our palms read. Mostly, this was quite fun, and although I don't pay toooo much attention to these things, I shall let you know what supposedly lies ahead for me.
He predicted that:
-In a couple of years I will have a good, high paying job, (get in!)
-I'm currently wishing to be a great and interesting person, somebody significant and well known (well, doesn't everybody from time to time?)
-When I return home, somebody that I like will have been missing me, but ultimately whoever I marry (which by the way, is expected to be at the age of 27), will really be in love with somebody else (What a cheery thought.)
-I will however, have two "amazing" children though, so I shouldn't complain. They better like monkeys, mind.
-(Now here's the killer, quite literally) He reckoned my life-line is worryingly short. Apparently I only have until forty at the most, probably thirty, maybe less. Probably not a lot less though, logically speaking, not if I'm getting married at 27. So there we have it, what a future to look forward to - although it does sound potentially quite exciting. If all he predicted comes to be, then in the next nine years I should get an interesting, well-paid job, two "amazing" children and a husband who's in love with another woman. But at least now I know that, I can arrange a quick divorce I suppose...

We're back at the hostel now, and I'm sat typing this with a complimentary cup of Nescafe coffee with real sugar rather than condensed milk and wearing my fantastic (Elena and Helen should translate this as horrendous, but I think everyone else will love them) red and green tie-dyed trousers with funny patterns and fish printed all over them! Well on the way to becoming one of the irritating 'travellers' we keep coming across with stupid travelling trousers, big hair and guide-books coming out of their ears. Need to get back to the jungle soon, I think!

Laters, Rach x