My digital camera died on Tuesday. I suspect it was a combination of the twelve hours of rain on Sunday and the ambient humidity of Borneo that did it in. I have been trying to dry it out in the sun with little success. I feel naked without it and no longer have a role in the birding project. We don’t expect to see too many new birds – we have already identified 155 species – but there are many I would like to photograph.
We really miss Mex, both his expertise and his enthusiasm. Oman speaks better English when it suits him but Sugi has already picked up his “couldn’t care less” attitude. They usually go off into the forest without us so we are pretty much on our own, bird-wise. When they are here at the station they sit around carving handles for their parangs, the machetes that no self-respecting Indonesian male would be caught without, and smoking. They do the cooking and we always thank them for the meal. But they don’t say a word when I wash all the dishes, a cultural thing, perhaps?
We have only a week left in Wehea but it seems like the end will never come. In retrospect this project could have been done in half the time but we will probably look back on our stay fondly. We have been mentally planning the rest of our trip and it looks like we will go to Bali for a few days between Balikpappan and Singapore – all subject to change.
