Recap pt.3

Shortly after Singapore I went off to a location on Seram island in the Maluku straights. We flew from Jakarta to Ambun, and then another small flight from Ambun to a village named Bula. The airstrip consisted of a dirt road with a small shack at one end serving as check-in, luggage claim and emergency response. Upon arriving I noticed a sign on the wall giving warnings for poisonous creatures. I was sad to learn of 3 deadly spiders, and 2 deadly snakes that managed to take home in such a small island. Not only did they have the Death Adder snake, but also the Seram Death Adder that can only be found on Seram Island. I gave my pile of registration papers to the local police before heading to the camp, about a 45 minute drive outside into the jungle.

The three things I can say about the camp is that 1) the food was rotten (literally); 2) the bed was made of a wooden plank with small .25 inch pad; and 3) it was in the hills of a jungle which made for a pretty cool experience. I remember seeing huge bats that I thought were birds until they landed on a bare tree upside down.

Getting back and forth between the camp and village requires you to drive through a small river, which I found out becomes a large river after raining. The picture shows my crew chief walking through the middle of the river where a sandbank makes it easy to walk on. It had recently been raining a lot, and the river had risen to a point where we weren't sure if we could make it across in our Ford Ranger. Luckily someone tried before us, and managed to flood their engine and strand themselves in the middle of the current in 4 ft of water. Thankfully for them a huge earth mover came to the rescue to pull them out.

This convinced us to turn around and brave another dinner in the camp galley. After three weeks of bad food, poor sleep but good experiences I was heading back to Jakarta again.