As soon as he came back, we got on track. To our surprise, we managed to catch up very fast and we were in as if nothing ever happened. It was round midday; we stopped for 15 minutes at Esperance Trebuchet for lunch and obviously some rest. The sun was blazing, as if taking its anger on us. Around 1 p.m., we were on our feet despite that sun. We walked all the way to Rivière Du Rempart youth centre.
Once there, everyone decided to take a nap in the hall, except for those who couldn’t do so without a shower. Nevertheless, we slept for about half an hour…how refreshing! I then realized that I should go take a shower but to my surprise, it was already full with other people. Very disappointing!
A very young man came; it was about 3p.m. or 4p.m and gave us a very interesting speech on geckos in Mauritius and how Mauritius is being affected by pollution and RATS!!!! I was amazed! In the end, it was very fruitful. What I mostly appreciated was that he made it very interactive and convincing.
5:30 p.m., it was diner time! We had Boiled noodles and of course it was very nice, it was cooked by a girl after all! ☺ We washed our utensils and packed our bags for the upcoming night walk. As we managed to do the cleanup at 7 p.m., we had a 2 more hours before continuing the walk. So we decided to relax and share some jokes and I guarantee time flies.
The time is right…the night walk is up! How exciting, I cannot say.
W walked from Rivière du Rempart to Belle Mare, it took us loads of time, about 6 hours; obviously with loads of rest time in between. But I got to admit, ever want to do an awesome trekking; at night, it’s the best. ☺
We went through Roches Noire, following the old railway track, indeed at night; boys were a bit protective, showing the awareness of danger at any time. But still it was awesome. I got to know quite a lot of my new friend as we walked together through almost the whole expedition. I was indeed happy about it as it’s like my passion to meet and know different people. Well we reached Belle Mare at around 4 a.m., exhausted but not to forget, we had to make the tents and also helped other people building theirs.
I shared my tent with a mate, Warren, awesome friend but funny that he fell asleep while talking to me! I was surprised, can you even do that? HAHA!
Woke up about 10 a.m.
Bright sun, definitely asking us to go for a swim but our supervisor prohibited us from going until close noon. ☹
We had breakfast and a great rest. It was very amusing as we all gave our friends a massage. I cannot say how relaxing it was! Ahh, too good! ☺
Time had passed very quickly; we had loads of activities, football, volleyball, piggy in the middle etc. Oh, yes, swimming was the best! After all these, I was extremely tired and I took a nap for like an hour or so. It was a nice little nap on a sleeping bag on the grass. Around 4:30 p.m. we decided to have diner.
It started getting late and we all had our torch handy, just to provide us with enough light. Around 9.30 p.m. we were all in our tent.
Minutes went by but I couldn’t sleep, there was a faint rain pouring. I had this bizarre feeling so I took my and Warren’s bag and shoes to the veranda so that it does not get soaked. This was the biggest surprise, as soon as I got in the veranda, it started pouring like crazy! WITH THUNDERS & LIGHTING!
I stayed back, didn’t want to get wet. Suddenly I heard some girls shouting and unfortunately, their tent was filled with water. Very lucky that some boys heard the noise and came running and we displaced their bags to the veranda. After 10 minutes, it happened again for another tent. All the team leaders and I called everyone in the veranda to make sure that they know about the situation. As the rain faded away, we went to check for the status of the tents and as gold participants, we gave priority to the silver ones so that they have a good tent. It was a miracle that only around 7 people, including me couldn’t make it to a tent thus we slept in the toilet. So barely had over 2 or 3 hours of sleep.
It’s now 6 a.m. our supervisor came and felicitated us on our responsibility and organization as she saw us doing the job well and didn’t have to intervene (we thought they were ASLEEP in the car). Unfortunately, the expedition had to end here because of the torrential rain through the night. It would have been too dangerous. What an unexpected tragedy! Who would have thought about it?
Well that was my second expedition! ☺
