Best Day of Your Life?

Can you think of the best day of your life? You’ve probably got a few, or perhaps you hadn’t given it much thought. It’s rare that a day happens and then lie in bed on the same evening concluding that it must be one of the best days of your life, but that’s what happened today. Today goes down as one of the most idyllic, perfect days I have ever experienced.

It started with a walk, accompanied by Antony and Davina of ‘Divanty’, leaving our anchorage in Inkeifel to head on foot to the next marsa a mile away, affectionately known as Little Inkeifel. After mooring up our dinghies and putting on our walking boots we immediately started to cross a plain that was very obviously once a coral reef, many hundreds or thousands of years ago.

The entire plain was littered with broken coral and sea shells, all waiting for time to break them down into sand. Every now and then we’d pick up a fossil, a big lump of coral or a beautiful shell with the knowledge that hardly anyone on this earth had ever walked this expanse of shore. It was eerily prehistoric.

To the east, the sea. An azure blue and green complex of reefs and breaking water. One great big sailing playground begging for some tourism to bring in much needed revenue to the local population.

To the west the mountain range that dominates the scenery. No roads, no people, no civilisation. We were on our own.

Eventually we got to Little Inkeifel and were bowled over by what we stumbled across: a small marsa that was partly covered by a sand spit, giving it the appearance of a Caribbean shore.

We dipped our feet in the water and once again commented on how we were possibly the only people ever to have trodden on that bit of sand. OK, so the first English people to have trodden on that sand. OK, so the first English people this year…etc etc

All the while the craggy mountain framed this memorable picture and we quickly agreed that we would stay another day in this area and return tomorrow to Little Inkeifel for a picnic and snorkel. This wasn’t to be, alas, as a southerly weather front was forecast and we had to push on.

We returned to our boats to prepare the variety of fish we had collectively caught, mainly our wahoo and some tuna from Full Flight and Roam II (their first catch). At the northern end of Inkeifel was a small shore and a mangrove lagoon where ospreys nested. We each packed our dinghies with the necessary gear to have the best beach barbie any of us had ever had.

Picture the sun dropping behind those mountains as we BBQ’d our freshly caught fish, cooling our feet in the clear waters, abundant with small reef fish and rays.

The evening ended with us paddling in water, watching the sun disappear behind the mountain, putting an end to another picture-perfect, memorable experience. I’m quickly falling in love with Sudan.

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