One of my goals on this trip was to face some fears head on. In fact it was one of the reasons I decided to do the trip at all!
“What you’re afraid to do, is a clear indication of what you should do next.”
I’ve always believed that fear is not a good enough excuse not to do something, all very easy to say but very different when you’re stood on the precipice deciding whether to make that jump…
My route changed direction somewhat when multiple people insisted that I must visit Karimun Java – a small island (surrounded by 26 other smaller islands) north of Java. It wasn’t exactly “en route” to Bali but time isn’t something I’m chained by and so I get to choose how I spend that freedom, which in this case meant making the 14 hour journey north from Jogja.
Karimun Java, it turns out, was well worth the trek, with its beautiful beaches, luscious jungle, crystal-clear, brilliantly-blue waters, peaceful town and great people to explore all of this with.
So far on my trip I’ve not come across many fellow backpackers, but here I found some of my sort of people, and “I” very quickly became “We”.
And not only fellow travellers, but on an island with a population of 1200, everybody knows everyone and the locals get to know you very quickly too!
The day after we arrived we decided to do Karimunjawa’s most popular activity:
Go snorkelling!
I’ve never been snorkelling before, for one main reason: I’m kind of scared of the sea…
I think it’s sort of like the way you can be afraid of the dark, in truth it’s fear of the unknown, I love swimming, but to get into the sea always takes a lot of psyching myself up and I never stay very long or go very deep.
But I was determined that here was a challenge that I had asked for, a chance to face my fear. We took a boat out on the water and when we were about 2 minutes away from our first destination, our instructor told us to “prepare ourselves”. Obviously he meant put on our flippers and snorkels but for me it was time to give myself a little pep talk!
2 minutes later I stood on the edge of the boat, my fear beneath me (deeper than I’d ever gone) and I jumped, straight into it!
I admit, it took a few minutes to get the Jaws theme tune out of my head and to concentrate on breathing through my mouth as normally as possible… Then I opened my eyes, looked around me and it took my breath away all over again! Not from fear this time but from awe!
There’s such a beautifully created world down there, hidden beneath the surface, and for me it had remained hidden, blocked from view by my fear. But I’d changed that!
We had such a wonderful day, spotting turtles, rainbow fish lots of Dory’s and a few Nemo’s swimming in their anemones (they’re much smaller than how I imagined!)
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