My 1st Travel Story

I have a travel story for you. One of those stories that isn’t funny while it’s happening but gives you a good giggle after. So I would happily like to present….

My 1st travel story that is sure to make you pack your bags.

I was recently in Litchfield National Park, an hour drive from Darwin, Australia. I forgot it was a weekend and unfortunately there were people everywhere. I spent the day checking out some beautiful waterfalls like Buley Rockhole and Wangi Falls. While these spots were refreshing they were not relaxing. There were too many people. By the time I drove to The Cascades and saw the jam-packed parking lot I decided to call it a day. I didn’t want to sit in another waterfall with a hundred other people. I was going to save The Cascades for early the next morning.

The cockatoos had me up at sunrise. I packed my tent, drove to The Cascades, and was happy to see no other cars in the parking lot. I decided to hike the “Upper Cascades” which was a nice 1.2 km walk. As I was strolling along, minding my own business, I stubbed my toe on a rock. Since I was wearing my open-toed hiking sandals I jammed my toe pretty good. My skin tore open and there was one little drop of blood (yes this is relevant to the story!).

I made it to Upper Cascades and had it all to myself. I happily wandered around the different levels of the waterfall and tried to find the best possible swimming spot. I had so many options! As I tried to find my perfect spot a certain feeling crept up in me. Not the beautiful “I’m surrounded by nature” feeling, or the “I feel a total amount of joy” feeling. This was a different feeling…I had to poop. Oh goodness. I was so ready to jump in the water, but I really had to poop! Could I hold it? No. I had no choice.

I needed to get 200 feet away from the waterfall, and I looked around as I took my “poop kit” out of my backpack (always be prepared). I saw a good direction to start walking, away from the trail and away from the water source. I entered the rainforest, found a spot I was satisfied with, and dug my little hole (remember 6 inches people!). I won’t go into details on the next minute, but I will say that everything came out OK.

Sanitizer, shovel, TP, covered bag for trash

I’m getting ready to pull up my pants when I feel something on my stubbed toe. I look down and see a worm crawling on my sandal. I shake my foot to get it off. It doesn’t come off so I shake it again. The worm won’t come off! Then it dawned on me – this isn’t a worm it’s a leech!

“Not good. Bad, very bad!” I said out loud.

I don’t mind spiders, I don’t mind snakes. I never thought I’d mind leeches until this moment. This thing was headed right for the tiny cut in my toe! I took off my sandal and beat it against a tree. The leech was still there. I beat it again to no avail. The leech wasn’t going anywhere.

So there I was. Pants around my knees, sandal in hand, open poop-hole behind me. I took a few moments to think about my situation. First line of business was pulling up my pants. I then inspected the nearest branch for creepy crawlies and grabbed hold. I did not want to fall backwards!! At this point I was balancing on one foot, still holding my sandal, praying I didn’t see anymore leeches. I tried a few more times to get the leech off, but nothing worked. I didn’t want to walk back to the river either because my bare foot would certainly get leeches on it.

I stared at the ground in thought. Suddenly there was another leech practically run-slithering towards me! I had to leave. Quickly I threw my leech sandal as far towards the river as possible. Then I grabbed onto the branch and hopped over my poop hole. I hopped to my sandal, threw it further, and continued hopping until I reached the river. I was finally on a spot where I could put my foot down.

My sandal had picked up a second leech and I still had no idea how to get them off. Thankfully one of them got bored of my sandal and crawled off. Now there was just one to worry about. I tried scraping it off with leaves. I tried flipping the sandal upside-down. I tried putting it back in a leech-friendly spot. Nothing worked, and the leech kept slithering around the sandal but refused to get off.

I didn’t know anything about leeches except what I’d seen in the movies. Good load of help that was. What the heck, I had to try something. I took my sandal and dunked it in the river, hoping to drown the leech. It didn’t seem to mind and as the minutes ticked by I started to lose hope. I left my sandal in the water and found a little stick. I went back to the sandal and finally scraped the leech off into the water. Woohoo!

I inspected both my sandals, and my legs and pants. I was in the clear but I felt bad. People swam in this pond and I had just put a leech in it (assuming they weren’t in there already). I went back to the leech and stared at it for a moment. It started to twitch frantically. I thought it was drowning when a big fish suddenly came and NOM it was gone.

Travel is full of exciting experiences. Not all of them are as glamorous as you’d hope, but I like to think it builds character. I’m sure I will have many more travel stories (that are sure to make you pack your bags) in the future. I can think of 2 morals to my 1st Travel Story.

1. You can poop in the woods, but not in the rain forest

2. Sometimes there’s a good reason not to cover your poop hole