5 March 2006
Shore leave
Look out for the leeches
© Greenpeace/Sharomov
Here’s a plan… Arrive in the tropics, having never been anywhere vaguely humid before. Long before you’re vaguely acclimatised, spend eight hours rugged up in the rainforest, trekking over steep hills.
We are about to depart from Port Moresby so a few of the crew took the opportunity to get into the forest and spend a day hiking along the notoriously hard-going Kokoda Trail.
Despite much overheating (collapsing in to a swollen heap and fanning myself with giant leaves), it was a totally amazing experience. Surrounded by trees with gigantic buttress roots and twisted vines, we watched butterflies flutter around and heard the calls of Birds of Paradise.
The best bit by far was an exciting chest-deep river crossing against a strong current. It was so fantastically cooling I wanted to stay in all day, until someone mentioned leeches!
Chris, our Radio Operator, was sliding around on the sticky muddy track. "Imagine what's it like when they bring bulldozers through places like this," he mused.
On the way back, we drove past the Port Moresby Caterpillar shop, a huge shiny building compared to most here with a big fence guarding the bulldozers and earth movers. I wondered if these bright yellow machines would end up turning parts of the forest into lots of sticky mud.
Sophie
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Comments
im very concern about what hapening to our forest...i like to spend my time in the forest and all this destroying is kiling me slowly...
i want to join u guys to be apart and to do what ever i can do....im still studing in university and im doin architecture.... please guide me and make me involve.....
Posted by: sarvinder singh at March 20, 2006 6:03 AM
