Teenager kayaks around Trinidad

WHILE  most youths played football during their recent schools vacation, 14-year-old Dominic Wilkes set out to make local history. The Form 4 St Mary’s College student yesterday became the youngest kayaker to circumnavigate Trinidad when he docked at Williams Bay, Carenage. Wilkes and his dad Glen set off on their adventure on August 5, but four days into the trip Dominic suffered a back injury when they reached Point Cumana. He was advised against resuming his adventure right away by doctors, and only went back into his kayak after a 12-day recuperating period.

Resuming on August 21, a determined Dominic and his father went about completing the trip achieved by the older Michael Robertson and Glen Wilkes  in 1985. Wayne Crooks and Jean Talma circumnavigated both Trinidad and Tobago last year. Dominic jokingly said “one of my regrets was not having a towel, since after a bath I had to wait in wet clothes to dry off, and at times the sandflies were biting.” It was a proud mom Joann Rodney-Wilkes who welcomed back her son and husband at Williams Bay yesterday.