"It's these silly sandals.

I'll leave them here till I come back." She scrambled out again and pulled them off.

"If I really don't come back I shan't want them," she reflected, with her merry little smile.
She arranged sandals and towel on the flat surface of a rock and pursued her pilgrimage unhampered.
She certainly managed better without the sandals, but even as it was she slipped and slid a good deal on the treacherous seaweed.

It took her considerably longer than she had anticipated to cross that belt of rocks.
It was much farther than it looked.

Moreover, the pools were so full of interest that she had to stop and investigate them as she went.