I had a wicked amazing weekend, and it's almost criminal that I had to come back to town afterward. In a perfect world I'd still be on the island soaking up sun, hiking along the coast, diving off the cliffs, drinking rum, and cooking fresh fish over the fire. Instead, I'll be at work in 3 hours.

Brett, Rebecca and I left Bridgewater in Brett's Zodiac some time Saturday afternoon. We spent about 4 hours getting out into the Atlantic and finally onto the beach where Chris and Fabian's boats were on the far side of one of the LaHave Islands. When we got there it was about a 2 kilometre hike to the campsite with all of our gear. We were soaked from the ride out there, as were all of our belongings. Looking back on it, there were a few things I probably should have done differently. Like wearing my sandals or a shirt at some point during the weekend. Or not waiting until I was already burnt to put on sunblock. Or sleeping. Whatever, I don't think I could have possibly had a better time, so no regrets.

Saturday night when we got there the sun was just going down. There were about 20 of us there in total, but I might be forgetting one or two people. After we ate and hung out at the campsite for a bit we made our way south along the beach, and lit a huge bonfire in the sand. The flames were probably about 15 feet high (thanks to the kerosene) and we all partied there all night. We had a half dozen guitars between us and a few drums, so there was always somebody playing.

We stayed out until the fire died (I have no idea how late that was, because I didn't bring a watch) and then headed back to camp. Those of us that were still awake hung around the small campfire until our numbers slowly dwindled. I was sitting there at one point trying to figure out where I was going to sleep. At this point Katie shouted out from her tent that there was still room in there, so I found a spot between the tent wall and Lance, and was out within a minute. Some time later I woke up freezing (in my soaking wet shorts and borrowed sweater) so I stumbled back out to the campfire, found a sleeping bag, and went back to bed for another hour or so.

Woke up in the morning to the smell of fish cooking on the fire, so I went out for breakfast. After we ate a bunch of us headed out to the water for a swim. The water was perfect. It was warm, clear, and had that tint of light green to it that you'd expect to see off some tropical Pacific island. After we swam I headed off on a hike with Katie, Caitlyn, Murray, and Scott. I should have worn a shirt on this hike, in retrospect.

We were gone for about 4 hours hiking through some crazy terrain. The first half of the trek was across the cliff side on the eastern side of the island, so there was a lot of climbing and jumping involved. Caitlyn broke one of her sandals about 3 or 4 km into this, then cut her feet trying to scale the rocks barefoot, so Scott took her back to the campsite and the rest of us continued on. After we got past the rocks we had to cross a creek that runs across the island, and I got into a knife fight with a crab which went to a no contest, since the knife wouldn't penetrate it's shell and it couldn't get close enough to get me. There was about a km or so of marshland to make our way across after that. We finally made our way to a long beach on the western side of the island. There was a seal lying on the beach with a shotgun hole in it's side that upset me a little bit. Katie and I went looking for shells along about 2 km of the beach, while Murray disappeared exploring. Made some pretty decent finds between us. I had a bag full of coral and spiral shells. Eventually we found Murray and made our way back to camp.

When we got back everybody was in the process of packing up and getting the boats ready. All I had brought was a bookbag, so I spent the rest of the afternoon carrying other people's gear down to the boats and helping Chris and Fabian get the boats in the water. Scott, Murray, Jason and I went on the first trip to Wolfe's Wharf, and I got a ride back into town in Murray's car with him and Jason. We stopped in to the Crescent Beach General Store on the way back, got hit on by these two (seemingly drunk) girls that we met there, then got back to town and split up for a bit to shower and unpack. Lora was at the house when I got home, so she and I went over to Brett's to help him get the Zodiac from the shore up to his yard.

I went home to rest, and eventually Murray, Jason, Ollie, and Bob showed up. It was Ollie's last night in town before leaving to go back to school, so we all just hung out and relaxed. Bob and Ollie took off around 11:00, and I passed out exhausted at around 11:30. Murray and Jay crashed on the couches, and were gone by the time I woke up at 10 this morning. My face, shoulders, back, chest, and stomach and bright red and throbbing from this damn sunburn, so I walked up to work after I woke up and got some Aloe Vera from Mom.

I have to work from 3:30 to 1:00 tonight, which I am so not looking forward to. I want to go back to the island. Oh well, party in Halifax Friday night, which I now have the time off work for. Until then...