9 thoughts for 9 days I spend living like a castaway on a desert island in Fiji- playing SURVIVOR!

in #travel6 years ago (edited)

Some of you propably know Survivor- I think it's now world's most popular (and for me the best) reality tv show. For those who don't- 16 strangers are put together on a desert island somewhere in the tropics. They live like castaways: no water, no electricity, no shelter, no tools, no food. The game is much more complex than just surviving, but let's stop here for now.

So I had a chance to participate in first polish edition of the show- "Wyspa Przetrwania". Being slected from thousands that applied is a great honor! I've been a fan of Survivor for a while, so it was absolutely amazing experience for me. Finally I did spend 9 days in the game and here are some of my thoughts and photographs from that life-changing adventure.

1. Sleeping under the open sky on a desert island in Fiji with no shelter can be a billion star hotel. If you haven't tried sleeping for the whole night somewhere on the beach away from the society and electric lights, add it to your bucket list RIGHT NOW! Stars there were amazing, I've never seen a sky so clear and so dotted with stars before. Also the fact that the nights were really long there made us literally staring at the stars 😉 for hours. Wondering and arguing about what galaxies do we see (its completely another side of the globe than Poland, so also completely diffrent visable galaxies), where is "the southern cross" (everyone saw it in a diffrent place), generally nearly all dilemas mentioned in point 9 were somehow connected with the sky.
2. It is sooo strange to get used to looking at mobile screen again after not looking at something that close to your eyes for 9 days. First glance at the screen- i will remember it forever, putting those pixels together was not easy. The eyes dynamics changed so much during those days. Screen seemed for my eyes so unnatural and it was hard to adapt to that at the beginning. It now gives me confirmation of something I already knew- human beings were not meant to stare in screens for hours daily.

3. Human body can stand much more than you may think! When you feel hungry, angry, totally worn-out and you think you can't move, suddenly when there is a challenge and adrenaline strikes, you can run almost as fast as back home. You can break your boundaries and for example dive 6 meters deep in the ocean although you were not a fan of the water when you came here. I think everyone was amazed how human body can recover and gather last bits of strenght when it is really needed. Mind is your only limit!

4. Smell changes so much in such enviroment! Ok, we had no water to clean ourselves, but I can ensure you we did not feel the bad smell that at the time! We slept next to the fire so all of our clothes were covered in coal and ashes. They smelled like if they were put in a smokehouse for 9 days, not a desert island, but we absolutely didn't feel the smell until we came back to reality and society. I had to wash my hoodie 6 times and it still smells like smoked (!). And perfumes... they were so intense after the island!

5. Hunger is not felt like we feel it at home. There is no roaring in the belly, no sweet cravings. You just feel the hunger as an unsustainable energy loss. If the movement is not absoluteley necessery your mind will make everything to persuade you for not doing something you wonna do (and it is not similar to just being lazy). Firs days we build our camp, we wanted to improve it and even constructed unnecessary for survival, comfort items as a swing ! But 2 days later we only moved to go hunt crabs, pick up a papaya, coconuts and gather fire wood. Only. necessary. Slow. Movements.

6. Electrolytes are sooo improtant! Ok, we had a dirnkable water there, it's a tv show they couldn't let us die from dehydration in 40 degree Celcius heat. But body hydration is not only water! It's all about the electrolites and I literally felt it on my own skin! We drunk water, but felt signs of dehydration, dizzines, tingling of the skin, and many more. I didn't know if it was a hunger, dehydration or some disease maybe. It was the first time in my life I felt something similar. When I went to the doctors and they gave me electrolites, after literally 2 sips I was back in shape, ready to fight for survival! Those little ions are powerful!

7. Happines is a subjective thing. I felt the happiest person on earth when we won a banana after starving for 6 days. Really, can't even describe you how happy I was when I felt the sweet taste of a ripe banana in my mouth. Unforgetable! Happiness is here, it is the perspective of noticing that changes. Look around mindfully, there are so many things you can be grateful for! Appreciate little things in life.

8. Fire clearly= life. Ok, I baisically knew that before. I knew fire is important, but it gained completely diffrent meaning for me there. Fire meant well-slept night. Fire meant we could cook crabs or diffrent creatures we found. Fire meant just life for us. Funny fact is that we had an ex commando in the group of contestants, but the method for starting fire that worked (after struggiling with that for many of hours) was seen by me on YouTube! Internet 1 : commando 0.

9. Internet gives you SUCH acces to information! We had absolutely no idea about the place we are going to before we entered the plane. So we didn't know what was edible in Fiji, what time does the sun rise at, what time is the sunset....We didn't know anything about the Fiji culture, nature... We only had each other and we could only gain konowledge that others had. That was kind of cool but I would love to have a Lonely planet book, or another guide that would provide me with information about the country's culture and nature. Anyway that was fun- we had so much time to talk to each other, we asked each other questions if someone was wondering about something, asked each other- not Google. Many interesting conversations wouldn't be made if we had Google there that would answear and finish the doubt in 0,2 seconds. That was a starting point for many unforgetable conversations and positive arguments.

Thank you for reading my post! I would love to share more of my thoughts from the game with you. It's not every day when you are starving on a desert island in Fiji though ....

Tell me in the comments- what is interesting for you? What topic should I expand? Maybe you are interested in the food- what did we exactly eat there? What was the most difficult/ how did we spend our days / how did I prepare for the show? Any advice is appreciated!

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Wow what a crazy experience! So glad you shared it with us. I would love to sleep under the stars on the sand in Fiji. The rest... not so much LOL yes please on the electrolytes, no thank you on the starving on live TV. You are going to do great on here, excellent writing voice and clearly you have lived an interesting life. Cheers - Carl

Thank you SO MUCH! I feel encouraged to write more thanks to your comment, looks like someone really reads that! :D I'm extremely excited to join Steemit, looks like I've found the right place for me.

Poproszę o to samo po polsku pod tagiem #polish! :)

już się pisze! :)

Wow, congrats on being on the show, must've been an amazing experience! We just might take you advice on 1) ;)

Yeah, that was indescribable exerience! If you ever have a chance to visit Fiji- don't even think, GO! The best place I've been to so far.

Great post Anna! Very inspiring 😊

Dear Anna, thank you for sharing your experience. I am a big fan of the American version and I am planning to steem about the show. I hope we can follow each other and talk about the show and hopefully to build up the community on steemit! :)

Hey! Thank you! I'm also a huge fan of the show! Let's let the Steemians know about the greates game in the history of humanity!

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