I usually write these offline but as we're not going away for the weekend, I can write a part of this week's online. It's been another week of hard work! A lot of it has been digging which is helping me to gain the biggest muscles I've ever had! I won't take a photo of them because that would be a bit vain! :) But they look strange to me even, as I've always been slim. Anyway, the digging has been to prepare a big trench for a biodigestor. This is something that converts animal waste into biogas through fermentation. We dug one that is 10 metres long, 1m wide and 1m deep. It took us 2 days to do this and I was one who did most of the work. I didn't really mind as it's for a very good reason but it has left me with a bit of back ache but nothing serious. The other big project we worked one was one that wasn't anywhere near as big as it was seen to be.
We went back up to the second campsite to build a compost toilet. Again, this was done with no real plan but it is a triangular pyramid-shape, made from logs of wood and with palm leaves used to cover the sides.
We started work on it before lunch on Thursday and finished it by 3.30.
There was nothing else to do but all 7 volunteers went up and we stayed overnight, when we could have easily walked back before sunset.
However, we started a camp fire to make some tea and while that was going, I decided to make some benches from spare logs that were around. Otherwise, the bits of wood we used to sit on the last time were not comfortable enough or too low down. We managed to quickly make 2 long benches and I put a table together using an old plank of wood. It turned out to make the whole area nicer to be at and we stayed round for the rest of the evening.
We had kebabs for dinner (veggie ones for me) and I gave the others lots of lateral thinkers to solve. For those of you who don't know what they are, they are puzzles where you explain a situation and the others have to ask questions to work out what caused it. It kept people entertained for some time so I've had a look for some more online to take back with me.
For sleeping at the campsite, I had no sleeping bag this time - this was after I'd prepared myself better than the first time and remembered my jacket and took a towel to use as a pillow. Why wasn't there a sleeping bag? Because I hadn't asked for one, apparently. Not because the people organising it hadn't asked me. Luckily, Neil lent me his blanket and I slept in my clothes. It wasn't as bad as the last time and I got more sleep.
Oh yes, one interesting story that happened while we were round the campfire in the dark. We heard a noise behind us which was unquestionably an animal. Some of the others immediately turned round with their torches on and located it. All I saw was a white face low to the ground. And it was still coming towards us. It didn't take more than 5 seconds to work out it was actually a cow that had escaped from its field and come all the way up there. Well, that was a relief as we know there is a puma or pumas that live in the reserve. It makes me a bit nervous when, for example, walking to the toilet in the dark because every noise you hear makes you think it could be an animal.
I didn't want to go to bed until as late as possible because of the thought of not getting any sleep but after all the others had gone away, I didn't feel comfortable being outside on my own so only lasted another 5 minutes! :) But, you never know what could be out there...
The next morning, we had our hike which didn't go down well. We were tired, Gaz was injured again with a hurt coccyx and a possible broken toe but we did the hard descent that I did on the first one. With Neil and Rosie being in their 60s, they found it difficult too. The main complaint we had was that we hadn't been told it would be hard and long and we hadn't been asked if we wanted to do it. I didn't anyway after a tiring week but we stuck with it and the whole hike took 5 and a half hours. We were very glad to finally get back but all of us were exhausted and we've decided to raise a few questions about how things happen here as we're not too happy at the moment. We're going to be constructive and suggest how things could be organised better but there is a general feeling of discontent right now.
Anyway, today (Saturday) is Rosie's birthday and we're going to prepare another meal and just take it easy this weekend. Y, who has been here for just 2 weeks is leaving us tomorrow, meaning we'll be down to 5 volunteers and Alex, who is an assistant coordinator but sometimes works with us. With no-one else due to come till November, things are going to be pretty quiet round here for a while.
(We saw this little fellow on the way down! Apparently, it is a poisonous one but he stayed there watching us without moving.)
We went back up to the second campsite to build a compost toilet. Again, this was done with no real plan but it is a triangular pyramid-shape, made from logs of wood and with palm leaves used to cover the sides.
We started work on it before lunch on Thursday and finished it by 3.30.
There was nothing else to do but all 7 volunteers went up and we stayed overnight, when we could have easily walked back before sunset.
However, we started a camp fire to make some tea and while that was going, I decided to make some benches from spare logs that were around. Otherwise, the bits of wood we used to sit on the last time were not comfortable enough or too low down. We managed to quickly make 2 long benches and I put a table together using an old plank of wood. It turned out to make the whole area nicer to be at and we stayed round for the rest of the evening.
We had kebabs for dinner (veggie ones for me) and I gave the others lots of lateral thinkers to solve. For those of you who don't know what they are, they are puzzles where you explain a situation and the others have to ask questions to work out what caused it. It kept people entertained for some time so I've had a look for some more online to take back with me.
For sleeping at the campsite, I had no sleeping bag this time - this was after I'd prepared myself better than the first time and remembered my jacket and took a towel to use as a pillow. Why wasn't there a sleeping bag? Because I hadn't asked for one, apparently. Not because the people organising it hadn't asked me. Luckily, Neil lent me his blanket and I slept in my clothes. It wasn't as bad as the last time and I got more sleep.
Oh yes, one interesting story that happened while we were round the campfire in the dark. We heard a noise behind us which was unquestionably an animal. Some of the others immediately turned round with their torches on and located it. All I saw was a white face low to the ground. And it was still coming towards us. It didn't take more than 5 seconds to work out it was actually a cow that had escaped from its field and come all the way up there. Well, that was a relief as we know there is a puma or pumas that live in the reserve. It makes me a bit nervous when, for example, walking to the toilet in the dark because every noise you hear makes you think it could be an animal.
I didn't want to go to bed until as late as possible because of the thought of not getting any sleep but after all the others had gone away, I didn't feel comfortable being outside on my own so only lasted another 5 minutes! :) But, you never know what could be out there...
The next morning, we had our hike which didn't go down well. We were tired, Gaz was injured again with a hurt coccyx and a possible broken toe but we did the hard descent that I did on the first one. With Neil and Rosie being in their 60s, they found it difficult too. The main complaint we had was that we hadn't been told it would be hard and long and we hadn't been asked if we wanted to do it. I didn't anyway after a tiring week but we stuck with it and the whole hike took 5 and a half hours. We were very glad to finally get back but all of us were exhausted and we've decided to raise a few questions about how things happen here as we're not too happy at the moment. We're going to be constructive and suggest how things could be organised better but there is a general feeling of discontent right now.
Anyway, today (Saturday) is Rosie's birthday and we're going to prepare another meal and just take it easy this weekend. Y, who has been here for just 2 weeks is leaving us tomorrow, meaning we'll be down to 5 volunteers and Alex, who is an assistant coordinator but sometimes works with us. With no-one else due to come till November, things are going to be pretty quiet round here for a while.
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