Day 17

Lorna called me at 7:30 so waking up in time turned out not to be such a problem after all. I finished packing quickly, putting everything I needed for our island stay into my day pack and one of the hotel’s laundry bags. My backpack would be left in Wizit’s office in Trang to be picked up on my way back to Bangkok. Our guide for the day picked us and all our island luggage up at nine and we drove to what was described in the Gecko itinerary as a sea gypsy village, but which, for our purposes, simply was the place where the boats were kept. With Sue and Steve sharing one canoe, and Lorna, Charlotte and I in the other, we set off for the mangrove swamps that lie near the coast. We were towed most of the way there, and then released to paddle through the mangroves. The boats were very unstable, so I didn’t take my camera.