When we wake up, we see it’s the perfect weather for a swim. We walk to the centre and rent snorkel gear. After breakfast we immediately start our snorkelling trip to Gili Meno. We each have a backpack with drinks and some clothes. After about an hour of swimming, we arrive at Gili Meno, we have a rest on the beach and snorkel further along the coastline. The coral is a lot nicer here than at Gili Trawangan and we also see some very big fish. We also walk a bit on the island and notice that it’s a lot quieter here than on Gili Trawangan. The island is quickly walked around and we enjoy some rest time on the beach. We're starting to get a little hungry so decide to swim back to Gili Trawangan. The first meters are without any problems but then the weather begins to change with some heavy clouds dropping around us. In five minutes time, it goes from sunny to cloudy and the sea gets wilder. We feel the current taking us into the open sea but nobody sees us through the clouds. On top of that, all the boats seem to have stopped sailing. It doesn’t take long before we are far into the open sea, where nobody can see us. It also begins to rain added with some thunder... We keep swimming to stay as close as possible to the Gili Islands so that the boats can see us when the weather clears. It keeps raining until dark and we realise we will have to spend the night at sea.
Kevin sees an empty plastic bottle and knows this could help us floating. We put it in one of the backpacks and together with the two empty bottles that are already in our backpack, we can float. We take turns on the backpack so we can take a rest. We spend the night swimming towards the island so we can always see the lights. At one stage we even have the feeling that we get closer and are already thinking of what we will do (and eat) when we get ashore. Unfortunately, the current is too strong and a few kilometres off the coast of Gili Trawangan we don’t get a meter closer anymore. We are so tired that we let the current take us back to where we started. In the night, thoughts are also darker and we despair that this could mean our death. We put our hopes on the next day, and sometime before dawn we see a fishing boat in the distance. The fisherman does not hear our cries over his engine and he doesn’t see us because it is too dark, and probably we are just too far away. We begin to swim again, to be closer to the next fishing boats when they pass but by noon, we still have not seen or heard any other boat. Before us lay the Gili Islands, where we have been trying to swim to, and next to us lays Lombok. We decide to try to swim there and the first kilometres go well. It seems like it’s working and soon find ourselves in the bay of Lombok. However, when we try to swim ashore, the current changes and drags us back to the open sea.
We are getting desperate and feel we don’t have a choice but swim to the Gili Islands. Kitty is very tired at this time and holds Kevin back, so she tells him to go and get help. Together we drink our last bit of water where after we depart, but we don’t say goodbye...

Kevin:
I leave in good spirits but quickly notice I’m not getting anywhere, the current constantly changes direction so I actually go nowhere. I try again the bay in Lombok but I am pulled by the current back into the sea. I use the current to reach the end of the bay because I want to try the next bay, which lies around the corner. In the meantime, the sun has set but there is a full moon and the sea is relatively calm. When I look behind me, I see that the sea around the islands does not look so peaceful with heavy clouds and lightning. Kitty is there waiting for my help which will probably never come.
By evening time, I’ve reached the next bay and I notice that I ended up in a small seaport. I can’t get ashore, but I can get fairly close to the beach and I even see some lights on in the offices. I'm starting to scream my longs out and I think is see people watching and using their flashlights. After a long time, there is still no help coming and I begin to realize that it must have been a hallucination. This night I had suffered a lot of them, like seeing snakes and boats in the waves, seeing houses and trees in the open sea and seeing rocks under me. Anyway, I’ve never been so close so I feel that now is my only chance to come ashore. With a lot of effort I get closer and at the last few meters to the beach, people notice me but no one comes to me. I keep on swimming and it doesn’t take much longer to get ashore. The people on the beach give me some water and bring me to a restaurant where I buy more drinks and some cigarettes. When I tell them I want to start looking for my wife, they mention she had already been found and that she is on the way here…

Kitty:
Kevin quickly disappears out of sight and I try to swim to the island. I suffer from hallucinations so I spend most of the time screaming for boats that aren’t even there. When it gets dark, I realize that help is not coming and I also see a thunderstorm in the distance. This makes me come back to my senses and I decide to swim to the bay in Lombok where the sea is calmer. Several times I come pretty close to the beach but the last hundred meters the current is too strong. I keep thinking that I see flashlights aimed at me, but after a long time I realize that they are the headlights of scooters driving on Lombok. I'm beginning to give up hope to get somewhere to land and I am so tired that I just let the current take me. After a while I realize that the current has brought very close to the beach and I just have to swim the last few meters. I can’t wait until my feet are on solid ground again but once ashore, I feel that my legs are too tired to carry me. There is no one on the beach but I see lights burning in the distance. On the way towards the lights, two men notice me and I ask them for help. They bring me to a house where they give me some clothes and water and even start a campfire because I am shivering from the cold. I tell them about my husband being still at sea, but nobody reacts. I suppose they don’t understand a word I say. At a certain point the men put me on a scooter, and take me to a place teeming with people. I have no idea what is going on and the men help me to sit down. I look around and I can’t believe what I’m seeing... Kevin is sitting right next to me.

As we sit in the restaurant, the police arrive. They take us on their scooters and offer us to sleep at the police station. The next morning, a local doctor takes care of our wounds. We have some injuries under the armpits, the groin and at our feet caused by friction with our clothes, backpack and our fins. In the afternoon, the manager of our hotel in Gili Trawangan and the police from Bangsal pick us up and drive us to the pier to take the speedboat to Gili Trawangan. On the pier in Gili, the police is waiting for us to go to our bungalow and make a report. Hereafter we go to sleep.
The next morning we ask for a doctor to come to our bungalow. Dr. Tony tells us that he had heard about us in the local news. After this Dr. Tony comes every morning to take care of our wounds. For the rest, we can’t do much, so we watch movies in our bungalow. On Friday, Dr. Tony tells us there is no doctor for the weekend at Gili. Kevin’s foot doesn’t look so good either so we decide to go to Bali, to consult a real hospital. The rented scooter is still in Bangsal and it is not possible to undertake the long journey back to Bali with it. We call the owner of the scooter to ask what we should do with it and he proposes to come pick it up himself. This way, we can take the direct boat to Bali and by the next day we're on the speedboat.

Gili Trawangan from the Speedboat

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