Friday 2 May 2014

Day 2 - Jungle Mania


Day 2 – 2nd May

Tired eyes and sleepy mind awoke early today for the early morning trip to the jungle where Pie camp is. We all packed what we needed for the trip and got ourselves prepared with a big breakfast and water on hand. Our ride came at half 9 to load our stuff, the car journey took us around 3 hours, the roads were great and then the final road to the port was slow, bumpy, wet, and then very bumpy, and then very wet. We had to get out of the car in preparation to push the car out of the water, luckily we didn’t have to, but we did get pretty muddy in the process.




Lucerna

Once we arrived at the port at Lucerna, we got on the boat for the final let of the journey to the Pie. The boat trip lasted about 45 minutes, and we pulled up just after a waterfall, Zoe told us, “Oh, that’s where we’re getting dropped off!” My immediate reply was, “fuck off, really?!”. She was pointing towards a steep, muddy cliff (at this time it was also raining), this was going to be fun with all our heavy bags, I though. We managed to clumber up, we got super soaked (and I’m not talking about the rain this time!) the humidity here is pretty brutal, it seems that just breathing makes you sweat, but hey, I was embracing the hot, red, wet look. Sexy. The site was another 500m ish away, up hill. This wouldn’t be a problem but after 5 hours of travelling, no food since 8am and with the intense weather, it felt like I was climbing a mountain. When we arrived at camp it was like something out of a fairy tale, the huts here are super cool, and there is no electricity other than a small generator that goes on for a couple of hours a day for laptop chargers etc, and there are hammocks to chill out on and a great open space for all us interns/volunteers/coordinators to relax and socialise. I was even happier to be greeted by food. I almost shed a tear with happiness.







The sun sets here at about 6pm, we got out a few candles to eat dinner with and then played some cards, Ass Hole, to be more specific. I was pretty tired at 7pm, I’d like to say that the 23 hours of travelling got to me but I’m not sure I can blame the lack of sleep. I was ready for bed when I saw thunder across the canapés of the jungle, holy shit I was excited! The storm was moving really fast and before I knew it, it was behind me, I looked out and I suddenly saw the night sky – why did it take me so long to look up – I was amazed to see the amazing, cloudless, southern sky, and what a sight it was. For the first time EVER in real life I saw the Milky Way galaxy, suddenly the exhaustion left me and I was running to get my camera. I didn’t bring my beastly tripod but Zoe luckily had one, so we, along with Corrie, stood out watching the sky while I zoned into my photographer mode... 





A few distant lightning sparks filled the night sky, along with a couple of comets and of course, that beautiful milky way. My heart felt full. Happiness overwhelmed me. I like the jungle.



Fx

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