Tonga Diaries - Beauty and the Beast 👤

Tonga is beautiful.

Fresh coconut water.

Sweet bananas.

Uninhabited islands with white sandy beaches. 

Tropical fish swimming in reefs close to the shore. 

And pods of dolphins frolicking in the water.

 

But nowhere is free from plastic pollution.

It is a Beast that lurks.

 

We were out there looking for it, tracking its movements. 

Sometimes we would see it, sometimes we wouldn't.

 

It had a sinister air about it.

Dark and insidious.

Stalking you everywhere you go.

 

Sometimes you see him, then he disappears.

Sometimes he's hidden in plain sight but you glance over him.

But the more you look for him, the more you see him.

Until he shapeshifts then you can't see him at all.

 

When you're sitting on the beach, feet buried in the sand, watching the beautiful pinks and oranges of the sunset fill the sky, he's there.

When you excitedly jump off the boat with your friends to swim in the warm, inviting ocean, you know he's there.

 

Ever present, lurking in the shadows.

 

 

Tonga Diaries continues next week.

 

A huge thank you to all of my sponsors:

Anonymous / Anonymous / Anonymous / Anonymous / Anonymous / Anonymous / Claire & Tracy / J M Upadhyay / James Golding / Jasmine Lee / Jaymeena Ahmed / Julia Bennett / Mrs Y Rawal / Olivia Rose / Panache Medi Spa / Rahul Thaker / The Devanis and Sonejis / The Mehta Family / Veena & Virendra Thaker

for your generosity in helping fund my place on the eXXpedition, I am so grateful <3