Nights and Days

The first day trek ended at a campsite by the river, the food prepared for our evening meal was amazing. Fresh jungle ferns and tropical fruits as well as chicken and fish..Cool. Best of all, not only was the only female I was the only non-Indonesian so when the sun went down and we ate our dinner the guitar came out and there was music under the stars. The next day I was happy to see that no one is in a hurry, things are under taken at a leisurely pace, breakfast was eaten, icy cold pools were swum in and we got to play around with face paints for a proposed photograph to accompany the story being written about our search for the last Sumatran Tiger. Two other people showed up and were curious as to why there was a man in tiger face paint crawling along the tree trunks so we chatted to them for a while before finishing the photos and making preparations for the next day's trek. Again it was well paced and at our first incline rest I sat slightly apart from the others and was just contemplating nothingness when I looked up to see a large black Siomang in the tree advancing towards me. Not in the slightest bit aggressive and looking very silky indeed he was interested in the small mandarin that shone bright orange by my feet. The guides quickly diverted him back up the tree and I was able to take some pictures of him, his mate and their baby before they disappeared into the foliage. I felt ok on the inclines, the declines were tricky, just getting the hang of the abseiling on vines was hard on the upper body and my feet became too tangled up. It was frustrating also to see the deft way the rest of the party managed it. Darma kindly said many Europeans and taller people have difficulty with descents. I did it though and was happy to reach what was told to me was to be the end of the trek. This was great news until I saw what the end of the day's trek meant..Yes our wonderful campsite was set up, a fire was burning the tents were pitched and food was being prepared but all on the other side of what looked to me to be a fast moving totally freak out scary Kevin Bacon style rapids and rocks river.. Oh no..I tried to put my leg in it and it buckled under me...But we had to hurry the river was rising..Knowing as a child I had once jumped off a bridge in fear of falling from it I was gripped with fear. But not so my companions, three of them got me across, I piggybacked on one while the others guided him across the river..They were nowhere near as tall as me and pretty light on their feet but they managed to hoist me across to safety. I was embarrassed but no one else was.

The next day the river looked benign and we trekked through the flat lands to find one tiger foot print, se an otter play in the confluence of two rivers and to skip across the stones into the centre of the river that had scared me so much the previous day. It was a lazy day in comparison to the others, restful and alive with only the sounds of the jungle. Silver handed gibbons crackled through the forest on the opposite bank while lizards and the rest of us sat in the sun provided places for butterflies to land and show off their beauty. Our last evening meal by the river was accompanied by songs and stories in front of a warming fire. The next day started slowly as the camp was packed up around us and loaded onto the tire raft, this was going to be the white water rafting adventure back to Bukit Lawang. We wiggled and curled ourselves into the tires and set off down river on cool clear water and only moments of upheaval as the navigators bent the contraption around bends and down through the slight inclines that make the 'rapids'. Arriving back in the town of Bukit Lawang meant a hot shower and putting the peace and tranquility behind, checking the internet and catching up to the other world..and discovering that while the trip had been a major accomplishment and a journey with guides dedicated to the preservation and protection of the remaining rainforest the majority of the tourism in Bukit Lawang was about taking treks, getting drunk on arak and pineapple juice and checking off a 'must do' on a trip around Indonesia..oh and seeing Orangutans at the sanctuary. Pretty European girls were being flattered by guitar playing guides who were just like Kuta Kowboys, while their pale faced male companions got rowdy on the 'jungle juice'. I did meet a couple from Hungary who ended up coming to stay with me in Bali for a few days but otherwise I took an observer's stance and enjoyed listening to the exchanges around me. The next morning, recovered from the trek a little and fuzzy from the late night I visited the Orangutan Sanctuary with Dharma and took photographs for the Orangutan Campaign of Robi looking concerned and sad. There were some large orangutans that turned up at feeding time but the purpose is to get them back into the wild and not to create dependency. Dharma showed his distain with humour when a visitor from Malaysia, but of Indian descent complained he and his wife had walked all the way up to se the feeding and where we the rest of the animals? He demanded of Dharma " We need to see more, where are the rest of them, we have come all this way and there are only three of them. How can we see more?" to which Dharma replied "You can see many more in the zoo" I had to wake early to get to Medan for my flight, before dawn I crossed the bridge and said goodbye to the jungle. The hotel driver drove me through pre-dawn streets and the early traffic of the markets already humming to life. Palm oils trucks were rumbling through the small towns decimated by their industry but still living on the spoils, it was a violent re-entry to the world of greed and theft, made the moe disturbing by the sight of two accidents on the way. One more of a tumble the other a terrible mangle. A quick stop to use the atm allowed the driver to take my camera from my bag.. I had uploaded the images the night before so consider myself lucky. I only discovered it missing once in the airport and there was no other explanation for its disappearance. It made me sad, but I'm cynical so I thought good luck to him, maybe it can bring him some cash.. The days of the trek faded as my body recovered and the anticipation and challenges were replaced by gratitude for having seen what may not be around for much longer to see, a sadness for that to be the case and a recognition that while mentally I may feel part of the solution, going there to write about it to bring awareness I am also part of the problem.