Love in a Cold Climate
- 17 Dec 07, 09:38 AM
Posted from: near Wijint
We left the Achuar village of Wijint with not the greatest of send offs, just two small boys waving at us - and they were there to take a pee.
As our two small boats wove downriver our driver at the back worked with his assistant, who sat high on the front to make sure that we avoided any sunken logs. The two of them were not on speaking terms and this, combined with the fact that our propeller had been damaged on the way up, meant the journey was painstakingly slow.
Zubin and I were sat side by side on a bench in the middle of the boat with our shooting kit ready in case we suddenly had to spring into action. Behind us were Willow and Steve, and Bruce sat upfront with Mike [the team medic]. While the other guys seemed happy to sit in a bum-numbingly upright position, Zubin and I felt that with a little co-operation we had it all figured.
One of us would stretch out and lie across the bench, while the other would lie on a blow-up mattress in the foot-well. Once the game of double bluffing of who would lie in the foot-well was over we would swap every couple of hours. Despite the constant drone of the engine, the fact we were able to stretch out made the long journey fine.
Unlike film one in the Andes, where the provisions had been good, the food on film two has been terrible. By now even the last remaining emergency rations were eaten days ago. Pretty much all we had left on the boat were boxes of soda biscuits. These must have been taken as a job lot because we had boxes of them. They tasted like sawdust and even the locals, who usually love trying new things, turned their noses up at them.
After 12 hours it started to get dark and our pace slowed down to a crawl as the driver and assistant navigated the bends and log-jams by torchlight. Bats danced and circled in the beam of light as we made our way down the tunnel of trees.
After 18 hours non-stop our driver was too tired so we pulled into the bank for him to rest. Because we were now not in the centre of the river there were mosquitoes everywhere and it was starting to get cold. Luckily for Zubin, we had stopped with him on the bench so he stretched out and made a bed with his sleeping bag, which he had wisely packed in his bag.
I made the best I could in the foot well and good old Zubin felt a little sorry for me so let me borrow a corner of his sleeping back to hide a little from the mosquitoes and cold. At 5.00 am we woke to a beautiful mist over the river and found myself all cosy and totally wrapped up in Zubin's sleeping bag, which I must have pulled off him in my sleep. Realizing why he had woken up so cold, Zubin was gracious enough to see the funny side. We continued on our journey down the river and after 30 hours of travelling and far too many soda biscuits for a lifetime, arrived at our next destination.
Comments
I hoped you'd have a narrow space for me in your over packed boat but spending 30 hours in the river is too much for a normal man… And I thought the conditions for the crew were 3, or even 4 stars (: