Trip Day 8

I can't believe I have survived a whole week! It was a habitat day today. We walked all the way down to transect 1 to a 20 by 20 metre plot to do some touch poles and measure trees. Once we did that we walked back via the old transect 3 and up the road. You could say I was a little sweaty! I needed a shower by this point since I didn't have one yesterday and as I did I rinsed a couple of my tops at the same time. A sit on the sofas in the museum with my book before lunch, which was delicious. Spicy minced meat and carrots with rice and hibiscus water.

I had a free afternoon and at first I laid in a hammock which Mira lent to me then I ventured to the science room because it was quiet, played some cards, did some puzzles and chatted with Jamie the habitat guy and Josh - part of the monkey team. Dinner arrived but we didn't notice. Deep in conversation. We noticed when a large queue began to form out of the kitchen. Vegetable soup and pineapple juice AND finally they brought back some bananas. We had some on the first day which were lush but hadn't seen them since.

Today was Katie and Etienne's birthdays and they had an angry bird piñata full of sweets. Which was a nice 'dessert' since we haven't really had any treats since being here.

We had a late night bat session as well and luckily we managed to get 3 and one of them were pregnant! Considering the last bat night got cancelled. I got a surprise when Veronica released the bat and it flew straight into me! At KM27 (where we were for these bats) the radio signal isn't very good and we couldn't get through to base camp since we finished our research early. The truck was coming to get us at midnight anyway but as we were early we ended up laying in the road for 45 minutes. (As I think back on that now, all the creepy crawlies that could've been on us and we didn't have a clue. Imagine the tarantulas!!) The sky was incredible though. There was a gap in the trees above us and with everything being pitch black the stars lit up so bright. There was a perfect view of the Milky Way! Best thing I've ever seen!

 

 

Toodles for now.