Is it possible to overdose on bliss? Saul and Joe relish their last two full days on the island.
Days 28 and 29 have passed and Saul and Joe seem about as close to bliss as it’s possible to get. After four weeks of people generally wanting to get off the island, for the first time these survivors don’t want to go!
While Joe confesses to some food cravings – something that’s not plagued him too badly during the month – they’re relatively well fed (by island standards!), as their food has been supplemented by what the others left behind.
So with their very basic needs covered, they’re soaking up the time they have to think and celebrating the beauty of this tropical paradise that earlier seemed so inhospitable.
‘It was full moon tonight and I sat for a long time on the beach in the evening, enjoying this beautiful natural spectacle,’ wrote Joe on Day 28. ‘Certainly I will take far more cognisance of the natural cycles of sunset, sunrise, moon phases and tides in the future, for they are truly the rhythms of the Earth and resonate with something deep inside me.’
With Day 30 looming large – which is when they’re being picked up – they’re finally able to splurge on their rations – Joe broke out the hot chocolate he’d been saving since Day 1. He also put another Day 1 plan into action: he decided on his last night he’d build a huge fire, so Day 29 was spent assembling the dry wood he’s been collecting for the last few days into a huge pyre, for a flaming farewell to this island that’s been home for almost a month.
As Saul wrote: ‘This physical place I love so much is now starting to exist within me too, as well as without. I look forward to taking it home to share it. But I don’t want to go right now …’