A Spicy Weekend!

Well, I'm back in Sorowako after spending most of this weekend at the PTInco exploration camp for the Latou project, about a 2 1/2 hour drive south of here. The project is located on a small peninsula on the east arm of Sulawesi Island and juts out into the Gulf of Bone (Bow-Neigh). Distance wise it isn't that far, being only about 90km by road but it is quite twisty with some pretty sharp switch-backs as the road climbs up the side of mountains and then back down the other. The camp is right on the edge of a small fishing village called Lelewau with no more than about 20 houses. Here is a link to Google Maps that shows Sorowako (spelled incorrectly on the map as "Sornako") and the fishing village: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=-2.794911,121.172333&spn=0.642618,1.054688&z=11

Myself and 3 others drove to the camp and then, after we had been shown our rooms and had a chance to change, we boarded a large fishing boat which took us to our final destination, a coral sand beach just around the point from the village. Here are a couple of photos, one showing the second boat load off-loading and the other of the beach and the camp that had been set up for the weekend. Altogether there were about two dozen from the exploration department in Sorowako, including the department general manager, Arief Hendarman, and his wife Hermin all for a holiday excursion. I was the only non-Indonesian (Bule - boo-lay, Indonesian slang for Westerner).




While Arief and I are about the same age he started with the company 4 years later than me (although he started right out of university when he went to school it typically was for 6 to 7 years before he got his degree although now they are more in line with places like Canada where it is now 4 years). As a result he will be joining the Quarter Century Club - the Inco activity for rewarding long-term service that typically consists of a dinner party and gifts to both the new members of the club and their spouses.

We had lunch of grilled fish, rice and chicken. And then spent the rest of the afternoon swimming or playing volleyball (they had a net set up at waters edge). I had a great time as the water is not very deep but rich in marine life, including corals and many small fish. I even came across a sea cucumber and brought it up the surface for a closer look having never seen one in person before. It emitted a mass of sticky tendrils so I tossed him back and took a few minutes rubbing off the dozen or so that had come in contact and stuck to my hand.

Later on I found all kinds of sea dollars close to shore. I had seen dried examples of their shells before but never the living creature. It was pretty neat watching them plow through the sand using millimetre long cilia that cover both top and bottom. Also near the water line, on shore, were dozens of hermit crabs. While they quickly retreated into their shells when picked up with in a minute or so they would come back out, nip at your hand and try and walk away.

Late in the afternoon most of us then made the boat trip back to the village and the exploration camp. A number got into their vehicles and began the return trip back to Sorowako. I and the rest had supper at the camp and then retired to our rooms. I was supposed to share a room with one of the people who had come out with me by the name of Hassan but he had decided to stay at the beach and spend the night in several tents for those who wanted to have that experience.

Before it got dark I came across on one of the walkways a big black millipede with bright red legs. And of course I had to take a picture of another one of novelty (at least to me) creatures to be found here. I later discovered that this was only one of many here at the camp! When I finally went to bed there was one on my shirt that I had hung up on the wall earlier! And in the morning another was crawling along a board on the opposite wall.













One interesting thing about this camp is they have power being supplied by a micro-hydroelectric plant located on the stream right by the camp. here is a picture of the generator and the impeller mechanism (manufactured right in Sorowako).















And here is one of the small dam and the intake for the system. The dam is about 12 metres higher than the generator and the average flow through the system is about 60 litres per second through plastic pie: 12" that is reduced to 8" and then 4" and finally 3" at the inlet side of the power unit. Pretty nifty system.














On the way down Hassan pointed out numerous black pepper plantations on the hill sides. Along the road side, at several small villages we passed through we saw cocoa beans drying and something else that Hassan told me was "cengkeh" (pronouncd cheng-kay) but he was unable to tell me what the English equivalent was. On the trip back to Sorowako we stopped at one place to take a closer look and they were cloves! So Hassan took me to a clove plantation where I could see the trees up close a personal.












As I have mentioned previously Indonesia used to be the centre of the spice trade, thus the name "Spice Islands" with the two most important being pepper and cloves and now I can say I have stood in the middle of plantations of both! And the aroma of these fresh spices as they dry in the sun is great in stark contrast to the local markets where "fresh" fish hangs heavy in the air. And so ends another chapter of my continuing adventures here in the Spice Islands!

Miscellaneous

Earlier this week, when I arrived at the office, I observed another geologist who had arrived just before me, as he was walking across the parking lot stop, pick something up, and then carefully carried it over to the garden and put what ever it was down. That got my curiosity up so I walked over, after he had left, to see what it was. And lo and behold there was this humongous rhinoceros beetle!


At the end of the day I checked to see if it was still there and it hadn't moved very far so I picked it up and took it back with me to the house where I could take some photos before releasing it back to the wild. For scale I have included a loonie, which looks awfully small beside this monster! Note the dangerous looking hooks on the ends of its legs. While it looks pretty intimidating it actually was pretty passive.




On a previous trip here one of my friends pointed out to me a very unique plant. It is very innocuous looking having fern like leaves. But if you touch the leaves in a second or two it folds them and then the branch drops down! Absolutely amazing to watch as it does this in relatively slow motion. So this past weekend I came across some on the side of the road and took before and after pictures. In the second one notice the three leaflets at the bottom of the cluster as they have closed right up just like shutting a book. So there you have just two of the many unusual plants and animals here.












Yesterday I went out onto the mine proper with several other geologists to take a close hand look at how they do their grade control sampling here. From what I saw there certainly is room for improvement, both in the type and quantity of sampling never mind more efficient control of the mining equipment with trucks sitting waiting their turn to be loaded. But even so the equipment is pretty impressive. For example this next picture is of a backhoe loading a 90 tonne truck with ore. Yes, that red "mud" is ore, averaging between 1.8 and 2% Nickel!





This next one is the largest backhoe I have ever seen! It is used to strip off overburden to expose the ore beneath. Pretty impressive looking machine!

Some "Fotografi"

This past Sunday I went on a trip to visit Matabunto Falls accompanied by my friend Younsel. I wanted to scout out the road to see if it had been upgraded from when I was there last (it had not) and Younsel just wanted to take some photographs. In Indonesian the word photography is "fotografi". As mentioned previously Younsel is an award winning photographer and recently placed in the top 18 of a competition sponsored by Garuda, the Indonesian national airline. Here are a couple of examples of his handy work. The first is one taken of me the day before while we were on our rafting excursion and the second is of the upper cascade at Matabunto Falls.

And here is one I took of Younsel while we were at the upper cascade.

The falls as you may have figured out by my frequent reference to them (this was my 3rd time there) are fantastic! Even though the road is passable only by 4-wheel drive, or motor bike, the number of locals visiting it on any weekend appears to be increasing by leaps and bounds as more and more people learn of the place. Many go there and have a picnic, swim in the many pools or just lie back as the water falls around them.

My First Day Off!

My modelling was finally going quite well so I decided to take the full weekend off. Now that I have been here a few time I no longer wait for invitations but try and see if I can get something organised, or at least started, myself. So late in the week I asked Selvi what she was planning on doing and she told me she was going to go to Matano village at the west end of the lake as she had dropped her camera during a dive the previous weekend (she is an active scuba diver). So I asked if I could go along!


Before I knew what happened arrangements had been made to rent a "raft" from the village fleet and so it quickly grew to a much larger group. I invited along Younsel Evand Roos, who is very active in photography and has won some awards for his pictures. I also extended the invitation to Rosalyn, Alan Matano, Arham and Anto and their family's. For various reasons only Arham, his wife and their young son made it. Selvi invited some of her friends including her close friend Tuti (short for Pujiastuti - one of the people here who go by a single name). Here is a picture of our raft.





Unlike the ones owned by the expats which are made using steel fuel drums the two hulls, as can be seen, are conventional wood construction. Power is provided by two single cylinder diesel engines directly connected by a long shaft to fully exposed propellers! Note the aquamarine colour of the water, likely due to high levels of dissolved limestone which also make the water very clear.







It took us about an hour to get to our destination which was not to the village at the west end of the lake as it turned out but a small group of islands not too far way. Apparently there are a lot of pottery artifacts in the water off of one of the islands and that is what Selvi had been exploring. When she surfaced she gathered all her equipment together but forgot she had her camera (a Sony digital in a plastic water-proof case good to 40 metres depth) and had inadvertently let it go. As it turned out it didn't take very long for her to swim to the spot and found it lying on the lake bottom. Based on the quality of the case I would say it was pretty expensive so it was no wonder she was happy that she had found it. We stayed there for about an hour swimming then had lunch on board of "padang" - an regional ethnic cuisine noted for for being spicy and typically eaten with your fingers. Many of the Canadian expats, especially the ones from Thompson, usually go to a padang restaurant for lunch every Friday.

Here we have a picture of Younsel, Tuti and Selvi. And on the left is Irada, another geologist working in the exploration and mine development department.









We had a great time! As is typical I got a bit of sunburn - too stubborn to put on sunscreen and always underestimating how much UV gets reflected off the water even when under shade. But no big deal as it is a light burn which for me will soon change to a tan. The scenery from the raft was gorgeous and the weather cooperated very nicely. Fortunately it usually rains only in the afternoons so it doesn't pay to be tardy.

And finally, here is a picture of the "Yacht Club", a place I have mentioned a number of times previously. Rather rough looking but does an excellent job for being a demarcation point for an adventure such as the one we had this day.

A week in Sorowako

As mentioned in my previous entry I am now residing in a house located at 52 Jalan Anggrek (Jalan being Indonesian for Street, or Road). It is quite large and spacious. All of the PT Inco houses are of similar design but with more living area the more significant ones position with the company: the "A" house is the largest and is occupied by the Chief Operating Officer (the highest ranking position on site); "B" houses are for General Managers (the next level down from the COO); "C" are for managers and "D" are for superintendents and lower ranking staff. The house I am in is a "B" house. Note that the design style involves being elevated on posts and essentially is a single floor layout but that there is a small concrete block room at ground level that is typically used as servants quarters (the latter only with A, B and C houses). No one on staff appears to own their own home here. Instead they rent from the company. As such the size of the house is dependant on ones standing and not on family needs. Very different from what am used to but I believe harkens back to an older time when even Thompson was dominated by company owned houses.

The black van is a "Kijang": a rear-wheel drive Toyota that is pretty basic. While it has air conditioning, it doesn't even have demisters! I guess they assume it is too hot for moisture to condense on the inside of the wind shield. That is my personal transport while I am here.

Being in this house is not so bad as I sure have a lot of space. Lots of furniture and a nice bed in the master bedroom, since I had first dibs. But there have been problems. As already mentioned it was about 4 days before I had network access. Then this past Monday I found myself without hot water. It was quite a shock to the system taking a cold shower to start the day. Plus I had cut myself when shaving that morning too! The next day I found myself with the beginnings of a cold sore which has now become two (the second on top of where I had cut my upper lip when shaving). It has been some time since I have had a cold sore and now I have two! So no, it is not all beds of roses here, but I do admit it could be a heck of a lot worse!

About the middle of the week I finally quit a little early, in the middle of the afternoon, well before sunset. I therefore finally had time to go for a walk while it was still light (I had been pretty reclusive up until then and definitely not getting enough exercise). Not far from the house there is a tennis court so I went there to see what was going on and to explore a bit. Low and behold and what did I find but some kids, and one adult (obviously Canadian) playing road hockey! That sure brought a grin to my face.





After watching them play for a while I noticed that the area they were playing in was beside a cultivated area with plants that at first I didn't recognise. So I went and had a closer look and discovered they were growing pepper! Not the vegetable but the spice. And that reminded me that Indonesia used to be called the "Spice Islands" and is famous for things such as pepper, cloves and other formerly exotic spices. Here is a picture of a pepper bush (actually it appears to be a vine as they have a central stake for it to cling to).

At work they operate in conditions totally foreign to what I am used to. The group I am working with consists of 6 people all crammed into an office no bigger than the one I occupy back in Thompson. And only just recently did they get some new computers to replace the ones that are at least 5 years old. Here are a couple of pictures showing most of the crew. We have Alan, Arham and Rosalyn (I usually occupy the spot behind Rosalyn). On the other side of the room is Anto. Sopi usually occupies the spot taken currently by Anto but is away in France on a training program for the next 9 months. Also missing is Mashury who provides technical support and is the only one native to Sorowako. So here I am living in this huge house but working in this small, cramped office. But the latter is pretty good in that they are a great bunch of people and they frequently take advantage of me being there by asking advice or instruction on numerous matters associated with the job. It sure is nice to feel useful!

And another trip to Indionesia Begins

Hello everyone! It has been a while since I have posted anything, partly due to not having much to say and in large part due to "technical" issues which I will soon elaborate. But now I have pictures and comment! In fact too much for one post so I have broken it down into 3 segments: my return trip here to Sorowako, life in and around Sorowako, and my latest true adventure!

To those of you who were not aware, I departed Thompson in the late afternoon of October 16 and will remain here in Sorowako until November 15 when I begin the long journey back to Canada.

As has become the norm I ended up spending an afternoon and night in Denpasar, the capital of the island of Bali. This island, as reported previously, is unique in that the primary religion here is a form of Hinduism and is characterised by numerous sculptures depicting Hindu related gods and mythological events. Many times in the past I have been driven by some pretty fantastic looking large scale sculptures and this time I made it a point to photograph two of the most prominent. Unfortunately I cannot tell you anything about the story behind them but still find them impressive! In addition Awang, who is now my regular driver when ever I am here, took me to a Hindu temple called Pura Desa Lan Pusen which of course is decorated with typical Balinese Hindu motifs. He had also tried to take me to a park with more Bali architecture, but it was closed. This was the first of many negative aspects so far this trip!

As usual I continue to be impressed by the artistry that is typical of Bali and the contrast with the general lack of craftsmanship in the building trades here and elsewhere that I have seen in Indonesia.

Upon leaving Bali once again I flew to Ujung Pandang, or as it is usually called, Makassar. There I stayed in the brand new terminal building until my flight to Sorowako. Unlike previous times they were using a 18 seat Beechcraft 1900 rather than the larger turboprops used previously (Dash-7 and then an ATR). As a result they had to make two flight and as it turned out I was on the second one. I finally made it to Sorowako late in the afternoon where I was met by Tim Lloyd, one of the members of the group I belong with who too was in town on work related business. As there was no room at the dormitory I was put up at a local hotel; the Luciana. Unfortunately my suitcase was not on the plane even though it had made it as far as Makassar with me.

Well, that led to an interesting development! As a result I only had the clothes on my back (shorts, shirt and sandals)! Usually I keep a complete change of clothes with me but used them once I arrived in Denpassar and made the mistake of assuming I was now safe from any baggage issues. So the next day I tried to show up at the office looking like a tourist but was rejected by security, primarily because I had no safety footwear! As a result I had to return to the hotel until such time as my suitcase arrived, a few hours later having made the journey by car!

Obviously, once my suitcase arrived, I could get down to work - the reason I am here in the first place. So I spent the next 12 days working away diligently. After 4 days at the hotel they arranged for me to move into a vacant house as there still was no room at the Dormitory. It is a large place which is currently occupied by just myself. While there are network connections none worked and it took a few days for the IT department to figure out why and finally making it possible for me to connect to the outside world!

I only had a short break of a few hours the morning of my first Sunday here whereby I went for a walk with one of my New Zealand friends, Andrew Osborn. He wanted to scout out some potential routes for an upcoming Hash Hound Harriers run/walk. We did our stroll along jungle trails. For the uninitiated "The Hash", as they call it, involves a couple of "Hares" blazing a trail along which the "Hounds" soon after follow and is an opportunity for an organised run or walk, as one prefers, exploring new routes in and around Sorowako. Having walked this muddy and slippery trail in the jungle, along much of which a previous run had been traveled on I vowed I would NOT take part. Especially since it is every Monday afternoon, which of late is when it typically is raining! This picture is of a jungle stream we forded on this trip.

On the return journey we passed by a local Bali Hindu temple which I had been unaware even existed! And to think I had walked by this location a few times in the past and not realised t was there. Again, very impressive statues and other motifs!

Obviously this trip has not started off as well as previous ones! Check the next post to see how this adventure is continuing to unfold!

A trip to Zeba Zeba

This past weekend I made the long journey back to Canada. For those of you wondering about how long this trip is, it is over 24 hours on planes with the longest leg being 12.5 hours in the air. And of course multiple hours between flights at various airports along the way: Makassar, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Vancouver and Winnipeg.

On the Thursday before leaving I had the opportunity to visit the Bahodopi project and spent the night at their main exploration camp, Zeba Zeba. There were 5 of us who made the trip: myself (I drove), Sopi, in charge of resource modelling and who has never been to Bahodopi before, Gia, a surveyor, Gunter, a geologist responsible for organising the drilling, and Sigit, a geologist working on the project.

This project is the next laterite concession to the east of Sorowako. It is only about 60 km away but, up until earlier this year, was very difficult to access involving taking a boat across Towuti Lake and then by dirt road to the camp. All told this journey previously would take at least 6 hours. This spring they began building a road from the mine site and they are now about 2/3rds done although the right of way is cleared pretty much the whole way.

This first picture shows the new road, on the left, and a portion of the old on the right.

Construction is being focused currently at the west end of the road and involves dumping rock and coarse aggregate to form the road bed. It is pretty rough right now as they are not grading or using crushed or screened top surfacing. The middle portion is pretty much done although they do have to upgrade a few culverts. Still a bit rough due to the course aggregate being used (river channel bouldery gravel) but even so I was able to do 60kph for a little while. Here is a view of one small river and the source of some of the road building material.

The last 15 or so kilometres has had nothing done to it other than the clearing of the right away and the exposure of the underlying laterite which, thanks the plentiful rain of late, is nothing but mud! The only saving grace is that under this mud is bedrock and bedrock boulders. These give a solid but very rough base that allows vehicles to still pass although with great difficulty.

About 5km from our final destination we caught up to a red Ford Ranger truck with a load of fuel drums that was stuck pretty good! We were able to pull them backwards at which point they took another try at moving forward and were successful. We made it through our first try but it sure wasn't easy! Just before the camp we had to scale this long and steep hill. I wasn't able to make it and ended up getting the truck stuck at the side. One of the other guys got in, switched to 4-high from 4-low and flooring it managed to get it moving again. He drove to the top of the hill and I drove the rest of the way. Altogether, including the delay pulling out that Ford, it took us about 3 1/2 hours to make the trip in. This is a far cry compared to how long it took to make the return journey the next day!

The camp is on top of a plateau and apparently it rains there every day! The buildings are made from rough sawn lumber that likely was milled right on site, all done with chain saws as you can see the characteristic cutting pattern in every board. While not fancy as exploration camps go it was pretty good. They were kind enough to give me a guest room with a mosquito net as apparently at least two of the other guest rooms did not and so their residents had a less than stellar sleeping experience. Each room is fairly spacious with a mattress on the floor, a couple of pillows, a single blanket and a shelf. The dining area has open walls so it is airy but protected enough to keep the rain off. The food was all right but since it was just Indonesian fare a lot of it is deep fried, something I try to have as little of as possible for health reasons.

The reason the camp is called Zeba Zeba is because this area is endemic to a special kind of plant sometimes known as "ant plants" and with the scientific name Myrmecodia. The local name for this plant is Zeba Zeba, or Seba Seba, depending on where you are. This plant appears at first to be a parasite in that it grows on the trees but in actual fact is a symbiotic plant as it requires ants and fungus for nutrition and its root structure is only to fasten it to its host and to absorb moisture off the surface of the host tree. Here is Gunter holding one of these plants.

It is shaped like a rough-surfaced gourd with a few leaves at the top and has numerous passageways in which the ants live. It is considered a medicinal plant and when found is sliced up and each slice dried and then ground so a tea can be made that is said to improve vigour. It is highly prized by the Indonesians with it selling for 30,000 to 50,000 rupiah (~$3.40-5.70 CAD) per slice.

One of the geologists who was supposed to come in with us had to leave his departure from Sorowako until the afternoon. By the time he left it had started to rain and he eventually got stuck at the same spot that red truck. In trying to get out a couple of people got seriously injured and so they had to arrange to turn around and get these two to the hospital. Sigit took the truck we had driven in and had gone to provide assistance. While he helped get the other truck out he ended up getting stuck too and had to walk back to camp!

I had a good sleep but was still up at 5:30, well before anyone else. They only have the generator running from 7am to 10pm so I couldn't do much, not even have a hot bath as the water heater is electric! I did find a place that had enough natural light and worked on my computer until everyone else was up. After a couple of hours we headed back to Sorowako. As it had rained all night it was a lot muddier than when we came in. While I was prepared to let someone else drive everyone was satisfied enough in my abilities that they asked if I could drive out on the muddy part of the road. It was like driving on grease! It was very hard, even at very low speed and in 4-low to keep it going in a straight line. One of the members of our little group, Gunter, as he was one of the few qualified to do so, drove out in a 4-wheel drive tractor to pull out the stuck truck. That red Ford also was going back out so we made a bit of a convoy. It was a good thing we had the tractor as he had to pull both trucks out of mud holes several times!

It took us about 4 hours to go that first 15 kilometers, thanks to all vehicles getting stuck at least a couple of times. But I think I did the best at getting stuck! At the one place that was the most problematic it became obvious that you needed to build up some momentum if you wanted a chance of getting through. But because it was so slippery any attempt to accelerate got the rear end slipping sideways. That plus obstructions buried in the mud and voila - I had the truck nose first into the mud back at about a 30° angle unable to go forward and too slippery to reverse! Again, thankfully we had the tractor and after several tries he managed to pull me backward and then had to reverse and pull me through going forward. What a mud hole!

We finally made it to the river that divides the good road from the bad. After fording the stream we stopped at the other side and washed off some of the mud (you couldn't see through any of the windows because of a thick coating of mud, except where the wipers could do their work, with a lot of assistance from the windshield washer)! Once we got things clean enough to see again we then parked ourselves on a platform located in the middle of the river and had a late lunch. Here we have Gunter, Gia and Sopi enjoying lunch.

That evening, once we finally made it back to Sorowako a group of my Indonesian friends and most of my students from the Datamine course I presented the previous week, threw a barbecue in my honour. We had barbecued fish, shrimp and chicken and all was very tasty, especially the chicken. I took the opportunity to take some pictures of everyone. Note that the men and women ate apart. How this fits in with the local traditions I am still learning so I don't know if this is normal, but I suspect, for group gatherings it is.

From left to right, followed by their husbands name in brackets, we have Gita (Alan), Aci (Yohan), Dewi, Hera (Sopi), Sri (Wanni), Erna (Anto), Rosalyn and Selvi (I don't know the children's names).

And in the next photo we have, again left to right, Yohan, Alan, myself, Anto, Sopi, Gunter and Wanni. Missing is Sahlan, who had to leave to pick up his wife Nelly.

Here is a picture I took of Sahlan and Nelly at the airport the next morning. He, Rosalyn and Wanni were all heading to Bali for a course.

Well, that concludes this latest chapter. One thing I can say, boredom has never been an issue, even now after being there so many times. Great people, good food and many more sites yet to see!

The Adventures Continue!

I apologise to everyone in that it has been a while since I posted anything, especially since I had more to share from my trip this past April.



Before I left Sorowako to return to Canada I had the opportunity to visit the site where they have initiated construction of a new power dam on the Larona River, power from which will be used to supplement the power required for the Sorowako nickel processing plant.



This first picture is of the Larona River and you can just make out the tail end of the diversion tunnel that was being constructed at the time to carry the water from the river around the construction once it begins. The dam will be built where the bend in the river is.

This next picture is looking downstream and shows Terry, the geologist working on the project keeping track of the rock types they encounter and providing geotechnical control. Across the river is the bailey bridge used to access the diversion tunnel side. The main road is up on top of the right bank.









After seeing the construction site my guide for the morning, Paul, was kind enough to take me to the Balambano dam site upstream from Karebbe, about 5 km. Here is a view from downstream of the dam. It was built using compacted dry mix concrete, the same method planned for Karebbe.

There is one other dam further upstream called Larona, after the name of the river. The power from the two current dams is used for the electric furnaces. Because of the constant power surges and the fact there is no other load on the system this power cannot be used for other uses as it is too "dirty" so a diesel fired generator system is used for domestic and non-arc furnace use. They currently, I believe, are in the process of converting to coal to reduce costs.



After leaving Sorowako in April I met up with Janice in Vancouver where we spent a weekend with our good friends Don and Jan Blackadar. Here we are with some of the cherry trees in full blossom. It would be over a month later before the leaves started to show back in Thompson!











A week ago (July 3rd) I began the long trip back to Sorowako, but just for a 2 week stay this time. It was a long flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong with the flight arriving in the early morning at about 6am. Here is the airplane I would soon be flying from Hong Kong to Denpasar. I especially like being on the upper level as they have some nice storage compartments if you have a window seat in Business class. This time, unfortunately, I was on the lower level.










On arriving in Denpasar I was met at the airport by Awang, who I had met back on my January trip. After I had checked into the hotel he took me for a drive to the Hindu Temple site of Tanah Lot to the north west of Denpasar, right on the coast. On that way we stopped off to get some fuel. Like everywhere fuel prices have risen sharply and now are at 6000 rupiah per litre (I had just paid 1$ per 8800 rupiah at the airport). Note the long line up of motorbikes waiting to get fuel! This service station is operated by the national oil company Petramina. I saw no others around so they pretty much have a monopoly, but at 6000 rupiah per litre everywhere the Indonesians aren't being taken advantage of.






As mentioned in a previous post, motorbikes are the primary source of transport throughout Indonesia. Here is a scene of a crowded parking area along one of the main streets on the way to the temple.

The main part of the temple is set upon a rock promontory that at high tide becomes a small island. That is Awang on the right side of the picture. It was very busy at the temple with mostly Indonesians milling around and taking in the sights.

The temple is constructed on top of pyroclastic flows (fragments ejected from a volcano that descended in a large gas filled cloud with a high speed gas layer at the bottom that deposited sandy "basal surge" sheet flows as can be seen at elbow level behind Awang. The large block in front is material deposited from the main flow and contains much coarser material mixed with finer ash. So, as you can tell I was excited to kill two birds with one stone: see some interesting architecture dating back a few hundred years as well as interesting geology!







While at Tanah Lot we saw several kids with a large python. Obviously the snake wasn't hungry as I sure he was big enough to at least try swallowing one of these young fellows if he so desired!

As we were there late in the afternoon I was able to get a picture of the sunset framed by another structure at Tanah Lot, this one on a promontory pierced by a tunnel. By the way, because they are so close to the equator sunrise is about 6am and sunset is about 6pm.

The next morning Awang picked me up at the hotel and took me back to the airport where I continued the journey to Sorowako. At Ujung Pandang (Makassar) I transferred to the plane that took me that last part to Sorowako. The air carrier has changed and rather than a Dash-7 they are now using an ATR. Unfortunately the air strip at Sorowako is not very long and so the ATR has to do a lot of braking very quickly upon landing as, unlike the Dash7 it is not designed for short take off and landing (STOL). I was a bit nervous on landing as we came in pretty fast. The Dash 7 is able to land at a much slower speed which is why it is so well adapted to short run ways like here. They will have to lengthen the runway, or relocate it, if they plan to keep using this new plane.

It has rained every day I have been here so far and not the typical thunder shower as I have experienced every other time but those long socked-in steady rain type days. It has put a damper on outdoor activities including getting out for a walk. Yesterday I decided that I needed to get out of my room for a while so took a drive down to Malili, the next major town about 60km or 1 hours drive away (it is a pretty winding road). It is located near the mouth of the Larona river where it enters the Gulf of Bone. Here is a picture looking upstream of the village and many of the fishing boats.

The company maintains port facilities just down stream in the estuary where they bring in supplies like sulphur and coal and ship out the nickel matte which is then sent to Japan for refining into finished nickel.

Well that's all for now. See you later! Sampai jumpa lagi.