portsmouth island

One of the things we were most excited about doing during our visit was taking a visit to Portsmouth Island. It's a deserted island (the last residents left in the early 1970s) with a preserved tiny village and beaches said to be just littered with great shells. And today was the day we got to visit! Spirits were high as we got ready to leave. There were about 10 other people on our boat, which seemed like a good number. The captain was great; the day was windy and just a little cloudy. Things were great.

Then we made our big mistake.


We had the option of being dropped off at the village, touring the buildings, then walking 3.5 miles to the beach ... or just being dropped off at the beach. The beach was the first stop, and two very smart women got off there, while the rest of us opted to head to the village first. What a nightmare! We had been warned ahead of time to bring plenty of sunblock and bug spray, along with drinking water since there was none on the island. We were told there would be mosquitoes. What we failed to grasp, though, was that there would be incredible SWARMS of mosquitoes covering every inch of us. I can't even express what a horror show it turned out to be. We went through two full bottles of bug spray in about 20 minutes, and it didn't deter them in the least. We got nets (full body nets for Max and Liam, a head covering for me); the bugs got inside the nets. They were inescapable. We hurried through the village, barely stopping to look at anything, all of us whimpering (okay, Mike didn't whimper) and miserable.

After about half an hour or so, the grassy path opened up to tidal flats, and the wind picked up, which drove the bugs away, but the damage was done. We were all covered in bug bites. Then the path that we were supposed to follow was flooded, only we didn't realize it was even the path (because it was under water!) so we set off across the tidal flats, only to realize after trudging along for a good hour that everyone else was going in a different direction. So we recalculated (just like the GPS lady says to do!), which meant we had to fight our way back through a bunch of brushy areas, which meant ... you guessed it ... more bugs. Did I mention that the only bathroom on the island was back at the village? Yeah, it was about how you'd think. Eventually, we got to the beach ... only we were on the wrong side of the island. So we had to walk some more. A lot more. When the boat dropped us off at the village, the captain reminded us that he would pick us up in four hours at a designated spot on the beach, which would give us plenty of time to get there/swim/look for shells/whatever. As it turned out, we got to the designated spot with only 15 minutes left until the boat came back. We had been hiking in the heat and sun, through mosquito swarms, over tidal flats and brush-filled dunes, and along the seashore for three hours and 45 minutes. When we finally made it to the pickup point, we all basically collapsed in the sand and waited to be rescued.

On the plus side, there were a LOT of good shells. And on the way back, the captain went by a tiny island that is a pelican habitat, and it was really neat. Too bad we were too tired to appreciate it.