Surprised by the flood

The events and impressions of the previous day were processed in a more and more comfortable car bed. When we woke up, we were in the middle of nowhere, at a campsite that we could now fully admire after our late arrival last night. A single large green meadow, intersected by a narrow gravel road. On the right, a small covered 'cottage' which housed the aforementioned (very clean) outdoor toilets and cold showers. On the left, we went down to the wild beach just 80m away. The huge campsite was surrounded by several small mountains and a slightly larger mountain right on the beach. The small herds of wild horses in the distance looked like toy horses, unless they were grazing quite close to the campsite - we already had some respect for the horses, so better keep a safe distance.

We quickly had breakfast and remembered the invitation to the morning fishing training! We quickly put on our Chucks, jogging pants and sweater + rain jacket (nobody cares how you dress here) and headed to the shallow beach. Marcelo always talked about 'fishing on the Rocks' - but the whole coast was dotted with such 'Rocks' and damn extensive. Except for us and a couple who were trying to practice yoga on the beach, there was no one there.. Except Marcelo, who must have been lurking somewhere.

Since there was no sign of him, the only option left was this little island that jutted out into the open sea, which rather resembled a sparsely overgrown rocky hill. We expected to find Marcelo on the other side of the hill.

And that's exactly what happened. After crossing the somewhat unconventional 'bridge' made of sharp and shapeless sea rocks that provided the only dry path to the island, we saw Marcelo below, content and relaxed on the edge of the island, fishing in the whipping waves. He had already caught something, whatever that creature was - he would surely want to make sushi out of it 😌

We greeted him with a firm handshake, 'you allright Bro?' 'Yeeeeah man' 👋🏼

Short small talk. He handed Thimo the fishing rod, taught us a few tricks, rolled a cigarette (maybe something else..) and chatted casually with us. This went on for quite a while. We lost track of time. I stood next to Thimo, looking at the fishing bait in the water - and there it came: a really nasty wave. It surged up the rocks with full force and hit us. We were soaked up to our knees. We took it calmly, the weather was playing along. But suddenly we felt uneasy, because we realized that the tide had advanced quite a bit by now. We told Marcelo that we needed to go back to the campsite because of the flood and that we wanted to cook something. He said he would join us shortly. He would soon regret that statement..

So when Thimo and I wanted to leave the island the way we came, we were horrified to find that the water had already flooded most of the rocks and only a few spots were somewhat passable. But these spots were constantly flooded by the strong waves of the flood, making our return journey much more dangerous than we thought. Since we were already wet, we didn't care if we had to jump into the water up to our hips if necessary. We waited for each individual wave, then jumped from reef to reef, somewhat wobbly on our feet. Always hoping that no big wave would drag us into the water, as the suction seemed quite strong.

After 10 minutes for 20 meters, we reached the beach. Wet. And Marcelo?! We looked back. The guy with the fishing rod and the catch on the other side at first seemed somewhat clueless and then waved somewhat disappointed and pointed to the island. He would now have to stay there for another 8-9 hours until the tide receded.. poor guy! We felt really sorry for him! But there was nothing we could do.

We spent the waiting time for him to join us again playing soccer (we treated ourselves to one), drying our things and preparing a really delicious rice-curry-vegetable dinner 😏

In the evening, just before it gets really dark, we went to check on our new Brazilian buddy. Indeed, he appeared in a completely yellow raincoat - outfit with a grin. 'No worries man!' He said he had planned to stay there for the day anyway. He just wished he had packed something to drink.. 😂

He handed me his catch. Then he went to change. When he came back, he wanted to prepare sushi at 11 p.m. in another freezing night. Since we had some concerns, as the fish had been lying around all day, we politely declined.

We wanted to get up early the next day and explore the North Island further south towards the Bay of Islands. Marcelo would continue to conquer the beaches, go south, go fishing and make new friends. We exchanged Facebook contacts.

You always meet twice in life. 😊