Matt Watkins UK
Italy: Lake Garda
It cost a grand to hire Flipper Mickey and his boat, he’d included a free sandwich too, but I hadn’t been feeling hungry. The boat had a smell which wasn’t quite the lake and it wasn’t fish either, it was a viscous smell that soured my snot. As the hours passed it seemed impolite to draw attention to it. Not that “the Flipper” was a man overburdened by good manners, but he was big and so was the lake.
Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy, big enough that there were car ferries, we’d seen one in the distance hours before. It was pretty much the only thing we’d seen. Now it was starting to rain, you could tell there was worse coming.
A grand is a lot of dosh for a stinking boat, even when there’s a theoretical sandwich thrown in, but it’s what you pay for someone who speaks English and furthermore understands the importance of not speaking it too often. The thing was, as the skies started to clot up with black clouds, ol’ Mickey was starting to get impatient.
“So you’re sure this is the place where your friend said she’d meet you? Here, by this exact post.” He allowed the slightest trace of skepticism to surface. “Because you know” he said “there are other posts. It is a big lake.” I didn’t answer, I felt the rain hit my nose and the doubt start to take root. Then, so gradually that I couldn’t trust my senses, a faint new noise grew louder. Either it was the sound of an outboard engine, or the grumbling of my empty belly.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, Rachel Irving and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
