We set off quietly the next day from the village. Advice - don't be lazy and wake up late on an expedition, because when the sun comes out and shines with its might on you, you'll hardly want to eat/pack/move.
After last night's adventure in looking for a beach, I decided to head back to go anti-clockwise around the western stretch of the island instead of heading for the huge Kilim Karst Geopark in the east. Rock cliffs are bound to dominate for most stretches of the coastline there, and there's a swamp up at the northeastern corner too. The wind also plays a part in the decision. Now that we're turning around, Karen gets to move downwind fast with the sail.
We landed on this patch of rock and sand for a rest after some diligent paddling. Karen got first hand experience of the paddling heat spell which even I'm not immune to, and both of us were eager to relax out of the boat for a while.
The break made her feel a little more like she's actually on a holiday. Rest is good.
It's strange that she's fine with the Nautiraid's seat which kills my back quite quickly. She's showing off her gloves where she wears it the wrong side so that the rubber-impregnated surface is on the top instead to save her from a tan line at the wrist.
My one and only experience with JB's greenland paddle, for 2 hours of paddling before we ended the day. I can achieve a very smooth and quiet entry into the water with it, and can hold a very good speed, but ultimately I miss having the power and versatility to do different strokes. I'm not sure i'm holding it right too, and it bites into my thumb and index finger joints when I hold the 'blade' itself.
Another 2 small piece of rock opposite our rest point, with a cute row of neat mangrove trees in between them.
Round the rock, there's a light beacon to warn ships of its presence.
We were aiming to land at Pulau Rebak Kechil, just slightly ahead of our Holiday Villa's beach stretch. For the first time, it got cloudy on the trip, and eventually it did shower after we land, albeit a very light shower, for all of three minutes.
The place draws a regular stream of paddlers who rented kayaks from Pantai Cenang and paddled over, and there's even a group of people doing teambuilding program when we arrived. The beach was nice enough, but in addition there's some mysterious slabs of concrete there that we can't figure out what it's for, but it makes a wonderful site for cooking and sleeping on. Beach camping without the sand! We realised there's a small drawback though - the tent floor was very warm when we entered it at night, but thank goodness our mats insulated us from it.
There are hermit crabs scuttling everywhere! I managed to get several closeups of this particular one. They really are very adorable creatures. When night comes, they became fearless and ran across our campsite in droves.We hold conversation for quite a while after dinner, sitting there in the dark with our lights off, admiring both the lighted beach and the dark sky. This is one very enjoyable paddling day, and I can't think of any single day on my other trips to match this.
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