Friday, November 16, 2007

Story 1 from Fall 2007 trip to Indonesia

This is a story I emailed to my sister on October 22nd as a response to her description of me as someone "charging through the wilderness." Enjoy.

I had to go out of the forest for the day a couple of weeks ago to deal with a problem with my research permit at the park's office. I really wanted to get back to the forest as soon as possible, so I decided to head back the same day. Of course by the time I left town it was already 4 pm and raining very hard. It was truly the beginning of the wet season timed just perfectly for me. It is about a 1 1/2 hour drive to the place where I start walking, so as I was riding I already knew that I would be walking alone through the jungle and most likely in a rain storm. I have a headlamp, but it is really small, not suitable for mining or the like. But, I was determined that this was a challenge that I both wanted to do and knew I could meet. Under optimal conditions and if walking quickly I can do the walk in about 50 minutes from the river, but I still made it in 55 minutes. Bascially this means that I kick total ass; at least that is my ascertion. This was the first time that I did the walk alone (I had before just with Luca) and the first time at night. There was also the small problem of nobody at the station knowing for sure that I was returning the same day. And, by the time the sun went down I am sure that they assumed I had waited until morning. My plan was just to keep walking and quickly. If I turned around maybe I could get lost and if I actually stopped to inspect any strange sounds I might hear whomever or whatever made those sounds might be just as curious about me. At any rate I survived and did not even trip once. It is a pretty interesting feeling to only be able to see about a foot and a half in front of you and otherwise be in total darkness. Maybe I am a little crazy, but oh well I felt confident that I would make it from the beginning.

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