I had decided to take a detour from my normal life. I finally saved enough money to go on one of those castaway trips, where you pay to be left alone on an island for a few months. I had chosen to go to Amparo Island in Indonesia. I just finished setting up the details. I would leave tonight and be on the island in about 36 hours.

I was bringing with me: a fillet and deboning knife as well as a machete with a wet stone. Also I had decided that I wanted to bring a bug net with me. The only other things I thought to bring were a few changes of clothes, Castile soap, other hygiene necessities, a solar charger so I could take pictures, a few survival guides with detailed how to's instructions, paracord, a campfire heatable water bottle with an iodine purifier, a hanging sun heatable shower bag(the one luxury I really didn't want to live without), and a few chocolate bars in case of emergencies. All of this neatly fit in a waterproof backpack. It seemed like a lot but for a four month trip it was bare bones.

I decided to make a dish that was high in protein. So I made a chicken meal with a delicious wine sauce and mixed veggies. I finished closing down my place, grabbed my bag and was off to the airport.

After a long crazy trip I made it to the harbor about to head over to the island. I decided to grab one more meal. I stopped by a street vendor selling nasi goreng kambing. I wasn't too sure what was in it but it was a delicious smelling mixed rice dish with meet. I ate ate the lively market waiting for my boat to be ready.

The trip over to the island was about five hours. We landed on the beach as the trips rep gave me some useful information about fresh water and a phone that would work to contact them if I needed to. I stressed to them that I didn't want them contacting me unless I called them. I wanted this to be sort of a real castaway experience. He told me that he understood and went back to the boat. I waved as him off.

" Ok let's start with the basics." So starting off I would need to find that water source he mentioned and build my camp nearby, starting with a fire. I headed in the forest in the direction he pointed me to.

Within a hundred feet of the beach was a clearing and on the far side of the clearing was a freshwater river about five feet wide. "Oh yes this will do nicely." The water was clear enough to see through to the bottom. I checked my water bottle and I had enough for now.

I gathered everything I needed for a fire, dry wood, kindling, a stick, and a relatively flat board with a small notch in it to make the hand drill. I put the hand drill on top of the kindling and started spinning the stick into the notch starting at the top tubing to about half way down and repeating.

"Ugh this is just as hard as it looks on tv!" It took forever and my hands started aching, but finally I saw a bit of smoke. I didn't stop just yet though. I continued until I saw enough smoke that I didn't think it would go out and then I dropped the coal into the kindling and started blowing. I had my fireplace already set up and on standby, so once the kindling caught I immediately added it to the kindling already set up in the fireplace. It caught and I watched it feeding it more and more kindling until the wood caught on fire.

I stood up and yelled in triumph, "Yes, I did it! I made FIRE!" I was super excited, but there was more work to be done before night fall.

"Let's see... I'll need some sturdy long pieces of wood, and something to set them on." I found a foot wide log that was about ten feet long at the left side edge of the clearing. I rolled it about halfway to the fire and stopped. Then I grabbed my machete and went looking for some long trees that were uniform in size.

I found a patch of young trees growing about a ten minute walk away from camp. I cut down the ones that were about two inches in diameter, gathering about fifteen of them and sheering off the leaves and extending branches. I cut them at about 5' 5".

I looked around and muttered, "Damn! I forgot my paracord." I took off my shoelaces and tied them together. I hauled the whole bundle onto my back and slowly made my way back to camp.

"Damn me and my damn need to grab everything in one trip!" I grumbled carrying the heavy load. I carefully dropped them off my back when I finally made it to camp.

Then I cut two triangular chunk out of the big log so I'd be splitting it into thirds. I grabbed a small shoot of bamboo and made a straw. Then using two pieces of wood as tongs I grabbed a hot coal from the fire. I placed the coal into the notch and began to blow on it. This is a method to burn a bowl into a wooden surface. I decided to use it a bit differently since I didn't bring a hatchet.

" whoa." I said taking a breather. My head was spinning a bit. This took a lot of air. I went back to blowing. When I was three fourths of the way through I put the coal into the other notch. I grabbed my machete and with two good swings I cut through the rest of the log. I went over and gave a quick blow to the coal in the other side to keep it lit and then rolled the cut log over to where I was setting up my bed. It took about an hour to burn through and I wasn't looking forward to repeating the process.

I went and fed the fire making sure it wouldn't go out and then went back to work. When I finally finished a rolled both of the remaining logs over to my sleeping station. I drank the rest of my water then went over to the river to fill and purify some more. I was kind of bored with just working and threw on my music and sang along.

"You think I'm an ignorant savage

And you've been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don't know
You don't know

You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew, you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind"

Now I was back over to the wood and started setting up my bed. I put the logs into three sections one at the head and foot and one in the middle for support. Then I started putting the long trees on top and towing them together. All the while I continued singing.

"How high will the sycamore grow

If you cut it down, then you'll never know

And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind

You can own the Earth and still
All you'll own is Earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind"

As I finished setting up camp I never knew a set of eyes had watched me all the while. Golden eyes watching from the trees.