yesterday the anti-greenpeace protest in rengat was apparently pretty
cool, no violence or anything like that – when the group of 100 or so
arrived at the rengat office they shouted 'evil greenpeace f**k off'
and the like but happily received the cold drinks our volunteers were
armed with. although last night the office in rengat was visited by a
small but angry mob armed with sticks. the police arrived quickly and
no-one was hurt (just a bit freaked out – still planning strategy &
debriefing until 4am)
back here at the camp last night at about 3am we were woken by the
sound of automatic weapon fire. not sure if it was an attempt at
intimidation or if it was just an over-powered local trying to protect
his chickens.
this morning Sergio, Alex, Richi and I took trailbikes (we have 4
here) to the forest wall (slippery and quite dangerous but we all
arrived back safely) and I had my first experience of the jungle.
hardly pristine, canals had been dug in to drain the forest and float
out the most valuable logs. which had been selectively cleared. we did
see some macaques (sp? makaka in indonesian) and a very animated
looking woodpecker which was pretty exciting.
it's getting really hot here again today. at least the batteries are
nice and full thanks to this crazy equatorial sun beating down on the
solar panels. I really should write a blog entry for greenpeace's
forest defenders camp blog but it's a bit too hot to bother with
creative writing or respectable grammar.
I've got some tools to clean then i think i'll go for another swim in
the river while i give some dirty clothes a wash.
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