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Here I am battered but very much alive after an intense ordeal of fighting mosquitoes, overhanging mangrove branches, hypothermia and the little dingy sinking in the middle of the night.

Well... I suppose I should tell the entire story from the start. It's halfway through my university holidays and I'm currently in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy. It all started with this crazy idea my gramps had.

gramps: "Hey!! Lets go catch crabs!!"
uncle: "Woot!!"
me: "..."

And so later that night my gramps and my uncle (whom I will refer to as 'The Krew') and I took the lil 10 year old dingy (whom I will refer to as 'Drift Wood') out to the river entrance. After a good 20 minutes we were happily cruising along the mangroves.

It started raining
The water went murky
Uncle: "Hey, the waters too murky. Screw crabs well catch snails, they're edible"

And so The Krew steered Drift Wood into a channel between the mangroves. Rain got worst, uncle's leaning over to grab a snail, slips, I reach out to grab him, BANG! Mangrove branch just pops outta nowhere and whacks me on the noggin. So gramps is laughing away as were pushing the dingy out of the mangrove thicket when BANG! Mangrove branch pops outta nowhere. So me and gramps are cradling our heads and my uncles cracking up.

Half a bucket of snails later the rain gets heavy, like really really heavy. We get soaked.

Uncle: "Better head back now."
Gramps: "Oh sh*t! We're taking water, Mike scoop it out!"
Me: Starts to scoop water like a maniac.

And so were tearing back to shore with the motor going flat out, me scooping water like a madman, my gramps cradling his head and my uncle laughing at the bow.

Just hope the weather's better next time.