Thanks to some friendly loggers our logistics team were unable to get to the camp (too many felled trees blocking their way) and so we've had to come down. Quite how I managed to get through a blockade of trees and they didn't I don't really know, (although to be fair to them it did add an extra 2 hours to the journey and we weren't carrying big sacks of food). Still, at least it enables me to follow Norwich's glamour tie at Huddersfield in full tonight.
Now I do have some pictures but these were all taken at least 2 days ago due to an incident involving me, some slippery rocks, a lot of water and my camera. If anyone knows how to de-waterlog a camera then please feel free to let me know as my attempts of putting it in a ball of toilet paper and looking upset have yet to bear any fruit. On the plus side the loss of the camera was put into perspective when I narrowly avoided getting hit on the head by a rock. All I knew of it was a large splash behind me (it was about half a metre wide) while I was examining a small cliff. According to someone who was watching a tree fell over up the slope resulting in a domino style event. That at least would explain why about 5 seconds afterwards I found myself covered in leaves and twigs. Needless to say I seem to glance up a bit more often when I'm working now...
Actually if it had hit me on the head then at least I would no longer have to face the cook's idea of "western cuisine". Basically I think he noticed I struggled to finish all the rice based treats we normally get so went out of his way to ensure that I would get food I was more used to. Sadly it appears that he's not so familiar with this food as he is the local stuff. Over the past 5 days I have been served the following:
- Cold pasta for breakfast. Not bad when you're eating it as leftover from the night before, not good when it simply hasn't been cooked.
- A condensed milk and sausage sandwich. Apparently he learned that we often have milk with our cereal so why not milk with sausage? The sausage was also cold.
- Jam and Tuna sandwiches. Seriously. I love jam and I love tuna but up to this point I'd never considered putting them together, funnily enough I still wouldn't... (I did enjoy one guy's definition of the jam being "lazy jam". Presumably he was looking for the word viscous but as I don't know what either word is in Indonesian I should probably be quiet.)
- A tomato and lettuce sandwich. Now that seems fair enough and indeed it is. The only issue I had with it was the addition of chocolate sprinkles. A bold and unusual culinary decision which displays a level of creativity rarely seen outside the confines of the Fat Duck.
What's great is that everyone seems to have cottoned on to these monstrosities so wait with baited breath every time a plate arrives in front of me just so they have an excuse to enjoy a good laugh before dinner. Bastards. Actually what's really annoying is that the cook (despite me learning the Indonesian for "stop giving me so much") has decided that I'm very big and therefore need to whole plates of his delicious concoctions at every meal. I've tried to make a point by always leaving one plate untouched but apparently the message still hasn't got through. It's like trying to complete a maze where every turn is a dead end, infuriating.
One big change for this week was that one of the locals brought a guitar with him and promised that he would play me some "real music". For real music lovers I dare say the noise that he created would have left a better impression than it did on me (clearly I'm not an expert in the area) as i have to say that it sort of felt like he'd found the guitar a day or two previously and was still seeing what noises it could make. Thank god for mp3 players...
Anyway enough words have some of the pictures I took before failing to teach my camera to swim:
- Butterflies gathering where I empty my mug after every cup of tea
The next two are of a theme. The titles being "I must learn the Indonesian for 'no I really don't want to have my photo taken here' " and "Stop making me pose in front of waterfalls". On the plus side it's always good to be seen with a geological hammer in your hands.
Now the connoisseurs amongst you will enjoy the next one. Following on from my name-making photo "monkey, what monkey?" I treat you to the next in the series "I swear the little fucker was still there when I took it". Originally this photo was designed to be a monkey caught in a natural leafy frame but thankfully I caught myself just in time and instead waited until he left a monkey sized hole in the foliage. I'm sure you'll all agree that this is a much more evocative and thought provoking piece...
So to make up for it have a picture of a ridiculous looking butterfly which was almost the size of my hand:
keg
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