Kayak Camping with Hendrik
This very brief camping only trip was born out of my desire to get a few more hours of kayak camping under my belt, to test new equipment, and just to get outdoors for a bit. This was quite a while ago, back when I was still deciding how I wanted to do it.
Most of the regulars were unavailable for this saturday night launch and by most I mean only Hendrik was available.
We cast off from home base at around 4pm and wandered around before reaching the spot at about 7pm. We came across a huge snake (looked like a python) swimming just off the sharp rocky point on the Ubin mainland opposite Ketam. We both panicked slightly and peddled off as fast as we could while making huge amounts of noise.
As usual, the place was infested with sandflies and we were keen to get a fire going as soon as possible.
We dug the hole and got the important things up just before midnight.
Testing out the collapsible kettle. Till this day (more than a year later), everything still smells like smoke.
I offered my instant porridge (by Maggi; though now I just DIY it) to Hendrik who in turned offered me his Corned Beef. The results were excellent.
You have not lived till you have tried this.
We got the rest of the gear set up shortly after:
A string of inflatable solar charged lanterns (and Hendriks huge ass led strip). I don’t do this anymore for space considerations but boy was it fun when I did.
After quite a bit of chit chat and enjoying my two Twinnings English Breakfast Tea bags which steeped many many cups, we turned in for the night.
That doesn’t mean we slept though. I couldn’t sleep much because of Hendrik’s snoring and because he set up his led strip to shine directly into my face.
When day break came, we didn’t move.
Hendrik’s command decision to dump all our charcoal in the night before meant the fire had burned itself out pretty fast and no one stoked the fire to keep it going. I was asleep at around the time it went out. But *cough*, someone else was awake but didn’t do anything about it *cough*.
Only a while later did we get up to start it back up to prepare our morning meal.
As per usual practice, we used the grill that someone had left behind who knows how long ago. We found it on our first trip here and have continued to use (and rehide) it everytime we’re camp here.
We left at around 9am.
This torn shorts leg would be a bane to me for a few more trips before I finally ditched it. The patches would never hold.
We left at around 9.30am and reached our home base at around 10am. I got quite annoyed that having launched at night, I didn’t bring my sunglasses for the next morning. I got quite the sunburn that day.
We bumped into fellow adventurer Nick who had apparently been netcasting on his kayak.
Hearing the fun that we had, he was keen to join in for the next one.
So we invited him.
The end.
Shawn started fishing in 1994. He caught his first fish (an Ah Seng) on that very first trip to Changi Carpark 4 (before it was barricaded). He built up his fishing knowledge and gear over the years but still keeps his old gear, just like the memories.
