“Welcome to Guyana” – a sentence I’d been waiting to hear for 70 days, 5 hours and 22 minutes!
It appeared as darkness fell, starting as a soft glow on the horizon. As the night progressed, it turned into dotted lights and, by the morning, had turned into trees and buildings. Even hearing new sounds that I hadn’t heard for two months was a revelation. As relieved as I was to see land, I didn’t allow myself to become too excited until my feet were planted on terra firma, as I knew these final miles could be the most treacherous.
When I got to within four miles of the end, I immediately realized it was a different day to the rest of them when a helicopter appeared overhead and, the best thing of all, a boat full of friendly faces, including my dad and brother. But that wasn’t the end of the challenge, as the final approach into the Demerara River proved as difficult as any other. It started to rain, at times I was rowing as hard as I could just to stay in the same spot and, worst of all, I was having to make sure I looked like I knew what I was doing for all the interested onlookers!
Eventually, I found myself rowing up to the landing spot. However, the relief of hitting land was quickly replaced by fear, as I spotted my final obstacle: a ladder.
I questioned whether this was really the best place to land, as I was expecting to not be able to walk, at least straight, once on land. As I crawled my way out, I was faced with one final battle, finding my way to a desperately wanted, long-awaited watermelon amidst a mob of media. As tempting as it was to karate-chop my way through the masses, I patiently waited for my moment. And there it was. Sweet heavenly watermelon.
After the interviews and welcoming party, we made our way to the Princess Hotel and I was handed a pina colada and shown to my room where I discovered the next wonder. A bed. A bed where I didn’t have to worry about being run down by freighters. A bed where I didn’t have to gasp for air as the night wore on. A bed where I could sleep for a whole night without constantly being thrown into the wall by a rogue wave.
Once I found out a casino was attached to the hotel, my brother and I made our way there to see if my head would explode from sensory overload! Luckily, it didn’t, for I seem to have found my head in the clouds again; this time literally.
But you can hear about that another time. I’ve got a boat to tidy up for shipping, and a plane to catch to take me on the next adventure.
{ 20 comments }
