Solo, sand crabs, and sunburns: Expeditions
- Julia Beitel
- May 20, 2019
- 7 min read
Updated: Jun 3, 2019
Expeditions...WOW.
I'm going to try and do my best at explaining the events of the past few weeks so bare with me...
As a proud member of the E3 expedition group, I can confidently say that expeditions were a compilation of good, bad, stressful, reflective, blood, sweat, and tears. Our trip started with the Down Island Trip where we, in preparation for the DIT analytical essay, focused on the essential question of "How does tourism effect a place?"
1) View at Navy Beach where we spent the night 2) Pointing out Gregory Town where we had a set of informal interviews 3) Smiling through the pain of van life
DIT consisted of formal and informal interviews where we had the opportunity to talk with people working in the tourism business. Some notable interviews were with Eleuthera's Ministry of Tourism and the French Leave Resort. We also had the opportunity to do "walk-arounds" and engage informally with shop owners, bank tellers, and really any people in the settlements we could. It was really engaging to hear first-hand the influence of the tourism industry on natives and Bahamian culture. Most of it was positive, but some tourism components seem to have a pretty negative impact on Bahamian land, culture, society, and economics. This was pretty much the thesis to my essay!
You're probably asking: "But Julia, where do you sleep?" Well: during DIT, we car camp which consists of (each night) unpacking the vans onto the beach, setting up tents and group gear, taking ocean showers in swimsuits, cooking and cleaning up dinner, and going to bed. I liked car camping for the most part but sleeping on the sand for 5 nights without showering can get pretty uncomfortable. I was on "van crew," so each afternoon I helped clean the van and keep it functioning. Overall, DIT was a really exciting mix of amazing beaches, eating "real" (non-campus) food, having personal reflection time, getting frustrated with the sand and bugs, then learning to accept the sand and lack of personal hygiene, and learning more about the island which we have lived on for the past 60 days.
1) Our DIT van 2) My friend Lucy and me 3) The separation of the Exuma Sound and the Atlantic Ocean at the Glass Window Bridge in North Eleuthera
After Down Island Trip, my group was on campus for 4 days. During this time, we worked on small academic projects and finished up data collections for our research classes. We have final presentations for research in a few days (writing this on day 77) so during these 4 days Aquaponics was cranking out the lettuce production. In preparation for our kayak trip, we took time to pack food, tents, cooking utensils, and other necessary supplies to last us 9 days.
The day we left for 9-day, we were driven out to Cotton Bay which is around 20-30 minutes from campus. There, we ate lunch and packed our kayaks. To our surprise, a storm came shortly before we were supposed to get on the water. This first storm caused us to go into lightning position while we waited for the storm to pass. If you didn't know: lightning position is when you sit on a life-jacket for twenty minutes after the last flash to bang less than 15 seconds long. Unfortunately, we ended up getting into lightning position around 3 times in the first 24 hours of our trip. The other notable lightning moments include day one dinner where we renamed our stir-fry "lightning rice" and the following morning at around 4 am in our tents.
Throughout the course of the trip, we kayaked around 30-35 miles. I had never done a kayak trip like this so this trip was both exciting and extremely challenging. Each day, our group would eat breakfast, repack the tents and rest of the gear into the kayaks, and head back out onto the water. We only ever stopped for lunch and then at our campsite for the night. The longest paddle we ever had was 13 miles in one day. Yes, 13 miles! I was a navigator that day which meant I got to guide the pod around each creek, harbor, and bight. It was really interesting to be so engaged with the land from the perspective of the water and looking at the map. While the wind was at our backs, this trek was most likely due to the fact that it was the day after solo.
I bet you are really curious to hear all about my solo experience but I want to preface my explanation with a few words: A big idea at The Island School is that each participant understands that their solo will be different from each other’s. I don't want a future Island School student to read this and think their solo will be the same...so don't. I also won't share ALL of the details from my 48-hour solo (more like 49-hours since we were picked up late) because I don't want to ruin the magic of the experience for potential future students. Thanks!
Throughout our solo, there were on and off rain storms. There was only ever thunder and lightning in the nighttime, but it was never truly bad enough to get into lightning position. Before 9-day, other groups had shown us their bad "solo burns," so I guess you could say I would rather have rain over a 2nd degree sunburn. (The storms also meant that we had less bugs!) Our solo location was on Lighthouse Beach which is incredibly beautiful! There was really strong wind which also helped to keep the bugs away. My shelter worked pretty well and seeing as I had spent 2-3 hours working on it, I would have hoped that it would work well! I dug a shallow grave in the sand dunes and made a tent-like structure to go over.
Solo also included many interactions with beach creatures. I saw a few really pretty electric blue lizards and MANY land crabs. Something I've come to realize at Island School is that I do not like land crabs. They tell you not to kill anything or start any fires on solo, but I can confidently say that I killed 4 land crabs. They started to really irritate me by entering my shelter and invading my personal space. I made sure to keep about 2-3 coconuts near my shelter for self-defense if they became too curious. No offense to land crabs, but we just don't work well together.
I wrote in my journal a lot during solo and I think I wrote something like 50 or 60 pages! I did not think I would write this much but I didn't have much else to do during solo so it seems pretty fitting. Before solo, I told myself I would go crazy and start naming rocks with names of my close family and friends. LUCKILY, this did not happen. Though I did go into some sort of survival mode in the first 6 hours or so, the rest of my solo both went by very fast and seemed to drag on forever. Since we aren't allowed a watch, I timed life with the sun position and by making a sun dial.
Solo was one of the hardest things I have ever experienced in my life in being only left alone with my thoughts.
One of the most challenging things that I've learned while at Island School is that sometimes the hardest opponent to fight is yourself. In thinking I was extremely food deprived by being allowed only a bagel, block of cheese, and handful of trail mix and in thinking I was being watched from inside my tent while hearing rustling in the bushes outside, solo was definitely a notable experience. Maybe not one that I will do again anytime soon, but I am really glad that I did it! I think the best part was finally seeing the trip leaders walking down the beach at around hour 48. I'm pretty sure that I screamed or something when I saw them and fell off of the plastic bucket I had found as beach trash to use as a chair.
One of the best moments of 9-day was passing boathouse cut and finally making it back to campus. I remember running out of my kayak and hugging the sand on boathouse beach with the rest of my group. After having eaten some of the greatest (and worst) food on 9-day and learning that not everyone should find a career in the food industry, being able to eat campus food was a 5-star meal.
Our group also got so much closer after 9-day. Although we had spent 2-3 weeks together including DIT, it truly seemed that 9-day was where the most grit and resilience was experienced and most importantly, experienced together. The vibe on campus post-expeditions has also been really amazing because it seems like people who would not really hang out otherwise are really great friends.
In other news, I ran and was elected (with one of my best friends Lucy) as the girl's dorm dorm head. For my speech, I actually preformed a rap which was both extremely embarrassing and super fun. I'm so grateful to help lead such an amazing girl squad that can both hold important conversations and be really supportive and inclusive. We've already had a handful of really successful and progressive dorm meetings and I'm really excited for what's to come in the future!
In the coming few weeks, our class looks to end of the semester. Writing this on day 83, I think we are all extremely nervous, excited, and depressed to see the end of our Island School experience as students. I will write another 1 or 2 posts to follow up on the end of the semester but as always, THANK YOU for reading my blog and for staying tuned into what I've been doing over here in the Bahamas! Thank you to my advisor Ella Kim for helping to coordinate my being able to post without internet and to my friends and family in Seattle. Love you guys and see you in less than 20 days!
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