I was back in Phoenicia, NY at 10.00 AM after traveling aboard the New York Trailways bus service through Kingston and Woodstock. A nap during the journey had recharged me after waking up to the alarms go off at 4.00 AM, hitting the PATH station amidst all the busy crowd getting to work on a Friday morning, passing through Hoboken, walking on the streets of NYC when they are just spray cleaning all the tall and shiny building before the crowd flows in to admire their Architectural beauty.

I can not wait to find my camera and head straight to FS tube rental where we hired the tube with special wooden seating attachments last time, no sign of the girl with whom i left a note about my camera, the bald old man says I can't go by myself and asks me wait for some crowd to arrive. I walk to Town Tinker tube rental across the street and couple of blocks away where a pretty chic greets me, says i can go by myself but by the time i finish my fruit, peanut butter and strawberry jelly rolls for breakfast by the river bed, there's a gang of 6 Jewish boys by the store getting ready to go for the advance level rapids with me, I greet Shalom and wait for them, to be dropped off together upstream. After all not much of a gain after having ditched the FS tubers.



We ride to the passageway next to the burial ground with an area size equal to a shopping mall, graves decorated with garlands and USA flags. The boy in his early teens earning some bucks as his summer pass time hands over our respective tubes and I am by the river side. The current is stronger, water level is higher and the water is so dark green that it's hard to see the bottom at points waist deep or more, but it felt warmer than the last time.


I remember taking off from the middle of the stream and crashing into a log of tree stretched out onto the water about 6 feet or so. So i walk across the current, wait for everybody to float away out of sight, park my butt onto the wooden rest in the middle of the tube..ooohh, a shiver up my body with the cold water freezing my lower body. I hold onto the rope grips on the tube and before i realize anything, i was off and pacing!!.. This time just brushing past an outcrop of the tree stump and not "capsizing" my tube over the head like previous.My anticipation to find the camera seemed to make the tube ride down the rapids all the more slow, but i stopped whenever i caught site of the guys who took off before me for neither I did want to say Shalom again nor wanted anybody to find me searching for my camera in awkward points and styles.

For about an hour of floating , finally the rendezvous point had arrived, where i sat previously basking in the sun and taking pictures of the passersby for my waterproof portfolio! Parked my tube on the same rock, started walking down the left bank looking into the visible parts of the river bottom, finding occasional crayfish, pair of belted kingfishers flew past several times calling out as if to teasing me, I was confused how to search for it in these damned conditions as I sat down wondering, an Osprey flew about looking for fish or was it me..Duh!

Whatever happened I wanted to find the camera and i jumped right in the current overpowering the dragging forces, trying to look under water with the eye goggles i carried which kept slipping out of place to be around my neck due to the currents, the water would gush into my nostrils and soon it was over, i was getting frustrated wandering aimlessly dipping my head under water trying to get a look at the shiny silvery surface of the Pentax Optio WP W60 in the rapid flowing, dark green, freezing water, dodging the passing tubers, getting bruised in the process.

Walked back on the right bank of the river to the rock where I had parked the tube,
occasionally jumping into the rapids to take a look under the rocks for all the spots that looked familiar and reminded of having passed or crashed at the last time.



Sat back on the tube, floated lifelessly depressed by a failed mission, the recovery of the camera i had bought after having saved for around a year. All the rapids, birds, sun bathing women and everything else i passed spurred no interest.

After a quick wash and change at tube shop, I was at Brio's having cheering up my moods with a delicious early supper and I hit the Morne Imports on the main streets of Phoenicia, where i would catch the bus after having packed the bag, with only enough food to last for one day, removing all trail bars, fruits, bread packed for the second day, tent and the sleeping bag had gone back into the wardrobe as i decided to cut short my trip.

Same window seat in the coach of Trailways NY, gazing outside the bus all through Woodstock, Kingston and New Paltz, consoling and reminding myslef that at least I had not bought the underwater metal detector I had planned to use to search for the camera, thanks to my pals who did not bother to find good deals on the same.