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We traveled to one of Cote d'Ivoire's beautiful beaches. To get there we drove over a few miles of rough road through the jungle. Branches scraped along the sides of the truck and mud splashed over the wheels and doors. The beach looked spectacular, a thin ribbon of sand between a murky lagoon and the pounding surf. We pitched our tent on the beach, away from the lagoon since crocodiles lurked beneath those dark waters.
A heavy rainfall overflowed the lagoon near the beach. In minutes, the lagoon water breached the sand and ran to the ocean in a torrent. What a stench. Most of the water drained from the lagoon. The channel kept growing wider, and as we stood along the bank and watched, a few of us almost fell in when the bank eroded and collapsed. We kept looking for crocodiles but they retreated further inland.
At least the ocean provides us with a place to bathe. Smelling like the ocean is better than simply smelling.