Island Hopping in the Philippines – Day 6 & 7: A Castaway Cruise
My upset stomach and headache really made themselves known today. Full-blown diarrhoea, a pounding head, nausea, and the beginnings of flu-like aches and pains all over — great. Just what I needed on the day we were heading off for an overnight, off-grid camp on a remote island with no facilities as part of an “island castaway” trip. Needless to say, as well as feeling properly ill and barely functioning, I was also probably a little grumpy.
Regardless, with our kit packed into dry bags and loaded aboard the Magic Banana, we set off on our adventure. This was a slightly larger boat than before, with a bigger crew and even a full kitchen team on board. I took a seat at the front, fuelled by Imodium, paracetamol and Kwells, and largely kept to myself while everyone else got to know the crew and swapped stories.
We stopped several times on the journey towards Linapacan Island for snorkels, swims and beach visits. Each location was fairly busy with other boats and groups, but the water was beautiful. Despite feeling awful, I was determined to get into the sea at every stop — floating, diving down to the reef and drifting about felt far more comfortable than sitting on the boat. Apparently, the food on board was excellent too, although I didn’t eat any of it as I felt too ill. I didn’t even sit at the table as I couldn’t stomach the sight of food. I managed not to miss out on any activities, but I spent much of the day slightly removed from things. Somewhat surprisingly, though, I felt fine from a seasickness point of view.
Eventually, we reached a beach on Linapacan Island and had to swim ashore. By now I was looking as rough as I felt, and Anna tried to dissuade me from the swim, but I wasn’t giving in that easily, especially when it comes to swimming, which is afterall second nature to me.
We were a little disappointed to discover that this wasn’t quite the deserted island we’d imagined. The beach was lined with multiple camps, each with several cabins. Our camp had basic showers and toilets, and there was even mobile reception. By this point I was feeling dreadful and ended up missing most of the experience, retreating to one of the cabins while being assaulted by the loudest music imaginable — from both our camp and the one behind us. Not exactly the castaway idyll you picture, and certainly not what you want when you’ve got a splitting headache, aches everywhere, nausea, and just want the world to stop.
Apparently the food was, once again, amazing. There was even an engagement in our group — one we’d already half-predicted — along with a beach campfire and group photos. I’m sure it would all have been great fun had I been feeling better. Anna joined in and sensibly left me to it.
Later, we pulled the pop-up mosquito ‘tents’ out of the cabins for a night under the stars. I’d been looking forward to ‘camping’ with Anna. She doesn’t really do camping anymore, but that’s in the UK – exceptions were being made whilst on a ‘remote tropical island’, and I’d been excited to have a night in a tent with her. Unfortunately, I couldn’t lie down with feeling as though I would be sick, so this never happened for me either. I spent the whole night pacing around camp in the dark on my own with occasional trips to the toilet to be sick or for bouts of diarrhoea. Not quite the romantic night under star-studded skies that I had in mind!!
It was an early start the next morning, with a short swim back out to the boats. I was, admittedly, quite glad to see the back of Linapacan — it hadn’t been much fun for me. We had another full day on board ahead of us, with more snorkelling stops along the way. Breakfast was served on the boat, but once again I passed.
The first snorkelling stop had some of the nicest reefs of the whole trip, with a steeply shelving coral wall dropping away beneath us. As the day went on, I finally began to feel a little better. I didn’t risk any lunch, though, meaning I missed out on all the food over the two days of the castaway trip — a shame, given that everyone was raving about it and swapping recipe requests.
Eventually we arrived in Coron, said goodbye to the Magic Banana, and headed to the Bacau Bay Hotel.
It was Christmas Eve — the main celebration night in the Philippines, even more so than Christmas Day. A special Christmas meal and celebrations had been arranged for us at the nearby Funny Lion. Everything looked fantastic and should have been great fun, but I still wasn’t quite right. I cautiously tried a few bits of the plainest food I could find — a spoonful of rice and a couple of pieces of pork — which were very nice, but despite not having eaten properly for two and a half days, I simply wasn’t hungry.
We probably should have stayed and celebrated with the group, but after a few rough days I just didn’t have it in me. Instead, we headed back to the hotel and turned in early. It didn’t feel much like Christmas, but with most of the following day free, I was hopeful that some rest might finally help me recover.
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Oh what a shame Al ,you must have been really ill to pass on all that food. . Hope Anna managed to enjoy some .