Many of us spend hours dreaming of getting away from it all – of getting far from the madding crowd. Two men from the Solomon Islands inadvertently did just that and spent 29 days escaping the rat race. They got lost at sea for over four weeks. Livae Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni set off from Mono Island on September the 3rd in a small motorboat to travel 200km to New Georgia Island. It was a trip they had embarked on several times before. Soon after they set out, they were hit by a storm which played havoc with their navigation system. They lost their ability to detect their location or find their bearings at sea. The storm blew them off course and they ended up off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

The two men were upbeat about their unplanned adventure. Rather than be distressed about their once-precarious plight, they enjoyed the potentially life-threatening escapade at sea. Mr Nanjikana said: "We didn't know where we were but did not expect to be in another country." They survived by eating oranges they had bought for their journey and coconuts they scooped out of the sea. A Papua New Guinean fisherman spotted their boat and authorities rescued them. Nanjikana said: "I look forward to going back home, but I guess it was a nice break from everything." However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, they will not be able to travel from Papua New Guinea to the Solomon Islands for a little while yet.