I have always enjoyed travelling and looked forward to my next trip. I do recall a few occasions that brought fear to me.
The first such occasion was when l was travelling in England with the TCS cricket team. One day we were given leave in a town and asked to meet at this same spot at a particular time. Eventually, l found myself going along on my own, the early solo traveller. Later l realized l had no idea where l was nor did l know how to get back to the meeting point. Immediately I found myself going in various directions and accomplishing nothing. I was lost. And at 17, l was very nervous. I continued to walk at random as the time ticked away and then suddenly l bumped into a couple of the team and, acting as calm as ever, hoped that they knew where they were going as l wandered along with them!
Eel attack in the Bocas
When l retired the first place in my travels was the mountains of Panama. After a few weeks l took a short trip to the Bocas at the Atlantic Ocean. I arrived late morning and, after settling at my hotel, l went by bus north along the coastline heading for a beach known as Star Beach because of the many starfish there. Once we got at the end of the bus run everyone climbed off and went in their seperate directions. Knowing it was quite a walk to Star Beach l decided to walk for 15 minutes take a swim then repeat the process. This was going really well as it was very hot but the water was very cooling. At the end of my second stop, as l waded towards the bank, l saw a ripple in the water in front of me then my foot was on fire! I screamed and ran out of the water. By the time l stopped and looked down my foot was swelling. I had no idea what had happened but clearly l had been poisoned given how quickly my foot had swollen. I was, at least, 30 minutes away from the drop off point and the restuarant walking at a normal pace. I had no idea how long it would take me to get there given the level of pain l was experiencing. So l hobbled away, stopping whenever the pain became too great. Finally, l reached the restuarant. Quickly folks came to help me and the manager asked me to describe what happened. He listened carefully then announced that l had been attacked by a moray eel. Apparently, the mother eels went right to the shoreline and buried their eggs, then guarded them from intruders. So he immediately knew what had happened and how to deal with it but there were no warning signs and the eels are probably still doing this up to today.
So what was the fix? A bucket was brought along with very hot water. I had to thrust my foot into the water and keep it in as long as l could. Oh, it hurt. When l looked relaxed he would order more steaming hot water. This continued until the bus returned. The driver said he would get me to the clinic and he drove a little faster than he did bringing us. He took me inside the clinic before leaving and a drip was inserted and my foot was put in hot water!!
This really was a scary situation.