Mountains and Monkeys

The next morning was damp. We cooked breakfast (actually, our village guides cooked breakfast), broke camp, and headed up the mountain towards the summit, taking points in kerangas forest along the way. The forest was rather odd – lots of massive thorny palms, pitcher plants, and red trees with eucalyptus-type bark. Marion seemed in heaven, and I was happy to just chill out and do as told, which mostly involved taking photos and soil cores.

After reaching the summit at around 11 am, we took a break to admire the amazing views of the lakes below, and then quickly headed home, reaching the village by 4 pm. Our party of five quickly dug in to sweet cold drinks and little cakes after a day of eating only sardines, rice and noodles. We happily set off towards Lanjak in the speedboat after paying and thanking our guides, and were rewarded with a long look at a group of about 20 proboscis monkeys playing along the side of the river plus an amazing sunset. I feel asleep to the sound of rain, appreciating the fact that my bed was made of cotton, not small poles!