The time had come to move on from one of the world’s finest diving spots. It was bittersweet. Cassie Crosby was leaving at the same time we were. We had got to know each other quite well over our stay on Mabul Island. Around mid-afternoon we all caught the boat back to the mainland together. We had one evening in Semporna before heading on.
During dinner we discussed our plans. Cassie, who was on holiday for 2 weeks, would be stopping at a few places to do jungle treks and river cruises and that sort of thing in Sabah on her route up the coast and ending in the Kingdom of Brunei. It sounded fun, and she invited us to join along. It fit in quite nicely to my vague plans, which were to get to Vietnam at some point in a week or 2 as my last “stop” with what money I had left. Pat wasn’t interested though. He’d overspent a lot and wanted to go straight to Laos.
So Cassie and I agreed to be travel companions for a week. She sent off an email to the first place: a jungle lodge, so they could add me on to her booking.
The next morning dawned and we headed to the bus station. Cassie noticed there was no word from the lodge - so send a follow up email, just to be sure.
We bundled onto a coach heading north on a jungle lined highway. After an hour or so the bus got to the stop Pat needed for his connection. We shook hands as he hurried past but I felt the farewell lacked some of the ceremony it deserved. Cassie had some signal so rechecked her emails, but still there was no word from the lodge. With that she tried to call them, but it just rang out.
At this point I felt it was a very real possibility that I would be homeless in the jungle, and have to survive on largely forgotten Grylls and Mears knowledge.
After another couple of email free hours we disembarked at the stop where Cassie’s transfer was meant to pick us up. It was a strange, remote sort of place: A disconnected few buildings lining the jungle highway. We waited and enjoyed a reasonably priced buffet of quite tasty local cuisine.
After a bit of a wait a small minivan pulled up, and we hopped on board. They did not seem confused that I was there, so with my mind a little at ease they set off into the murky green jungle depths.
During dinner we discussed our plans. Cassie, who was on holiday for 2 weeks, would be stopping at a few places to do jungle treks and river cruises and that sort of thing in Sabah on her route up the coast and ending in the Kingdom of Brunei. It sounded fun, and she invited us to join along. It fit in quite nicely to my vague plans, which were to get to Vietnam at some point in a week or 2 as my last “stop” with what money I had left. Pat wasn’t interested though. He’d overspent a lot and wanted to go straight to Laos.
So Cassie and I agreed to be travel companions for a week. She sent off an email to the first place: a jungle lodge, so they could add me on to her booking.
The next morning dawned and we headed to the bus station. Cassie noticed there was no word from the lodge - so send a follow up email, just to be sure.
We bundled onto a coach heading north on a jungle lined highway. After an hour or so the bus got to the stop Pat needed for his connection. We shook hands as he hurried past but I felt the farewell lacked some of the ceremony it deserved. Cassie had some signal so rechecked her emails, but still there was no word from the lodge. With that she tried to call them, but it just rang out.
At this point I felt it was a very real possibility that I would be homeless in the jungle, and have to survive on largely forgotten Grylls and Mears knowledge.
After another couple of email free hours we disembarked at the stop where Cassie’s transfer was meant to pick us up. It was a strange, remote sort of place: A disconnected few buildings lining the jungle highway. We waited and enjoyed a reasonably priced buffet of quite tasty local cuisine.
After a bit of a wait a small minivan pulled up, and we hopped on board. They did not seem confused that I was there, so with my mind a little at ease they set off into the murky green jungle depths.
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