A true tale of survival with a twist.
Photo by author (note the story did not take place on komodo island)
If one travels the globe enough, and I don't mean staying in posh hotels or even youth hostels, the latter can of course provide countless traveller's tales; one will find themselves maybe in some situation which was far from satisfactory, maybe even in peril; fact. As a traveller as apposed to a "tourist" I really do enjoy the real "off the beaten track" travels. However, these sorts of trips can yield many unexpected delights but can also come with many unexpected problems.
As long as one can talk about it later, learn from it and have a good laugh if possible. Here is one such story about some travels of mine and a friend. I decided to tell it now after many years, mainly because i just got sick and tired of all of the survival BS in the media and social media; popularised by Mr Grylls and Co. and TV ratings of key broadcasters. Maybe the following isn't very exciting but it certainly was at the time for us.
You have decided to go camping on an island in the tropics which is uninhabited. The island is a short distance off shore but too far to swim to the mainland due to fierce currents and possible shark attacks during the long swim. About 5kms let's say. You plan to be there for just 2 nights and three days. You have no mobile phone (there isn't a mobile signal anyway), you have no satellite phone-who are you going to call in another country anyway??? (it's a quick trip anyway).
8. First aid and basic medication such as Iodine and lots of it!
You are told that the boatman is reliable and the father in law of the guy who you left all of your camping stuff that you didn't plan to take with you to the island. However you do not know these guys from a bar of soap!
However, as not to get distracted, you will see we did not take with us any huge numbers of knives, only those as listed above. We carefully choose the Leatherman as we could use some of its functions to repair or maintain the fishing gear and or take the lure out of the mouth of tropical fish with very big teeth.
I did in fact purchase (with great amusement and astonishment) a parang (as mentioned) which was being used at the time of offer from a guy hacking off the husks of coconuts in a small roadside business on the mainland. I could see it was well made and had seen some use but no loose handle and a good sharp blade. He gladly parted company with it in exchange for 5 USD and even put a super edge upon it for me into the bargain (BTW I still have this parang today! but hanging on the wall now, as a reminder of what survival can mean).
We wanted a reliable largish knife that could be, if necessary dig with and of course hack open the coconuts we took with us in the small launch to the island.
One needs to think carefully about planning trips where if things were to go wrong then you would be really screwed if not prepared. We were only 5 or less kilometres from the mainland but it may as well have been 20 due to strong currents at this particular time of year.
If the boatman did not return after 4 days?
Ok no probs, we could dig for water and eat cassava (cooked of course)-there was in fact lots of drift wood to burn.
What you do have is an agreement based upon money, for which your transport guy will come back to the island (if he wants to get paid in full) and pick you up on the fourth day).
You take 20 Litres of water with you. Water can be dug on the island but only with some effort. You take the following things:
1. Quality made Expedition tent
2. 1 quality carbon fibre 3 piece fishing rod and two quality Japanese made Yozuri lures and quality Japanese fishing reel with 20lb. line.
3. Waterproof jackets, two diving masks, one snorkel, one pair of diving gloves, one set of dive fins.
4. One Leatherman multitool, one parang -no scabbard (locally made and second hand-bought from the hands of the guy who was using it on a coconut processing farm for about $5 USD! (The handle BTW was wood (some sort of hardwood), fixed by a brazed brass ring- compression- to a partial tang with a pin.)
1. Quality made Expedition tent
2. 1 quality carbon fibre 3 piece fishing rod and two quality Japanese made Yozuri lures and quality Japanese fishing reel with 20lb. line.
3. Waterproof jackets, two diving masks, one snorkel, one pair of diving gloves, one set of dive fins.
4. One Leatherman multitool, one parang -no scabbard (locally made and second hand-bought from the hands of the guy who was using it on a coconut processing farm for about $5 USD! (The handle BTW was wood (some sort of hardwood), fixed by a brazed brass ring- compression- to a partial tang with a pin.)
5 Matches, cigarette lighter and a fire steel.
6. Food for 3 days (includes several large green coconuts)
7. Two people
7. Two people
8. First aid and basic medication such as Iodine and lots of it!
9. One multi-fuel stove with enough fuel for several days.
10. Basically the clothes we were wearing, no shoes or boots. (note we had been travelling and camping wild for several weeks and our feet were like leather LOL).
Prior knowledge:
There are zero trees on the island except for one small shrub under 2 metres in height. No it wasn't any kind of fruit tree LOL! There is a derelict fisherman's hut about 2mX2m square, half falling down. There is a small patch approx 7mX4m of cassava growing, intended for stranded fishermen (anyone is allowed to use it within reason.
You have it on good assurance some of that cassava will be ready for digging.
The weather forecast is good, no tropical storms.
Prior knowledge:
There are zero trees on the island except for one small shrub under 2 metres in height. No it wasn't any kind of fruit tree LOL! There is a derelict fisherman's hut about 2mX2m square, half falling down. There is a small patch approx 7mX4m of cassava growing, intended for stranded fishermen (anyone is allowed to use it within reason.
You have it on good assurance some of that cassava will be ready for digging.
The weather forecast is good, no tropical storms.
You are told that the boatman is reliable and the father in law of the guy who you left all of your camping stuff that you didn't plan to take with you to the island. However you do not know these guys from a bar of soap!
However, as not to get distracted, you will see we did not take with us any huge numbers of knives, only those as listed above. We carefully choose the Leatherman as we could use some of its functions to repair or maintain the fishing gear and or take the lure out of the mouth of tropical fish with very big teeth.
I did in fact purchase (with great amusement and astonishment) a parang (as mentioned) which was being used at the time of offer from a guy hacking off the husks of coconuts in a small roadside business on the mainland. I could see it was well made and had seen some use but no loose handle and a good sharp blade. He gladly parted company with it in exchange for 5 USD and even put a super edge upon it for me into the bargain (BTW I still have this parang today! but hanging on the wall now, as a reminder of what survival can mean).
We wanted a reliable largish knife that could be, if necessary dig with and of course hack open the coconuts we took with us in the small launch to the island.
One needs to think carefully about planning trips where if things were to go wrong then you would be really screwed if not prepared. We were only 5 or less kilometres from the mainland but it may as well have been 20 due to strong currents at this particular time of year.
If the boatman did not return after 4 days?
Ok no probs, we could dig for water and eat cassava (cooked of course)-there was in fact lots of drift wood to burn.
Now things were going pretty good for the two of us, basically idea, I'd say: Caught huge fish, BBQued it, went snorkelling and were having a great time until...........
Until a small "home made" sail boat came towards the island with two largish teenagers aboard. At first they were friendly ad quite perplexed as to why two non natives were on this island, then even helped out with some tricks of cooking food without a metal grill (more on this later). But then things turned sour in an unexpected way, when I had my back to them and heard my companion call my name in what could have only been the of a very concerned, if not frightened tone of voice. I turned immediately and saw that one of these guys (the other was smiling and looking very keen) was jerking off in front of her and made known they were very interested in the blonde woman.
Many things immediately crossed my mind. Do I reach for my machete and ward them off? Do I yell at them and swear (using of course that universal translated F word)? or do I do something else? Let's face it, there were two burly teenagers, who could maybe overpower me if it got wild (I was confident however my female companion would be able to fight if she had to). No I didn't race for the machete otherwise this could have definitely ended badly; I kept calm and made it known she was with me and that's it, no sharing (she wasn't with me but they had no idea about that). After some gesticulating that it was now time for them to set sail as they had outlived their welcome, off they went, even smiling as they pushed off and their little craft's single sail took the wind.
The internet is full of BS about "survival" and especially survival knives and how to use them etc etc. I learnt that day that survival has nothing to do with knives but only to do with keeping your head and whilst we were totally kitted out for even cyclone weather on this small (I can walk around it in minutes) island in the Indonesian archipelago, we were not in the least expecting any such trouble was what had happened.
Little did we know that further travels would have the both of us (including the remaining 20 or so passengers of a small mini bus) all held at gun point by a bunch of mercenaries!
To make it even more insane of how i commenting to my companion; "look they're making a movie here, look at all of those guns and weapons"! (except there were NO cameras, no food trucks, no generator trucks, no lighting trucks and no director. Well there was a sort of "director" but he was in fatigues and armed to the teeth!............. Stay tuned and i'll recount this story soon.
This is taken from an earlier blog.
Uninhabited islands, Big knives and Fishing
The reason why you should always take a big knife and small knife with you into the wilds
Survival with a twist!
BCT
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