Three Days on a Boat
Posted from: On the way to Wijint
I never want to see a boat again in my life. We've been on this bloody boat for three days now and still haven't got there. The river is low and strewn with fallen trees. And we damaged the propeller on the first day so progress is painfully slow.
Gerson, the boatman, is a man of incredible stamina – he drives from before dawn till well into the night every day, relieving his boredom periodically by shouting obscenities at David, the little kid at the front whose job it is to spot submerged trees before we hit them. I think it must be his first time out, because he's really crap at it and we hit pretty much every tree in the river and Gerson explodes with indignation. I can't see them staying together.
Gerson also gets pretty cross with us as we move about on the narrow boat trying to find cameras and kit and film the journey. I think he just likes shouting.
The team sail down the river Rio Ene
It feels like we are going somewhere extraordinary. We've been travelling up smaller and smaller rivers, heading north into the heart of this great forest. This is one of the most bio-diverse places in the world and one of the least developed parts of the Amazon rainforest and it feels like a very special place. There are birds everywhere, and massive electric blue butterflies along the banks of the river. I saw three pink river dolphins today too, something I've always wanted to see.
We're living on frankfurters and tinned peaches. Not great, but morale is good anyway. And we're all sleeping for about 20 hours a day. Especially Matt and Zubin, who are travelling in Business Class in the middle of the boat – extra leg room, space to stretch out and sleep. I'm back in Economy and my back is killing me. Almu is travelling like the Queen of Sheba, perched on a luxurious nest of duffel bags on the second boat.
The river Rio Ene
We're staying in little tiny Indian villages along the way, slinging hammocks wherever we can and having a nip or two of whisky to put us to sleep of a night. The stars here are incredible, the night sky is deep black with no ambient light for hundreds of miles, so you can see everything. I saw two shooting stars last night.
We get to Wijint tomorrow, stay the night, then move on again.
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