Easy Rider

I am beginning to get into quite a regimen here now; up at 4:30 am, shave and shower by 5 and then online for an hour instant messaging with Janice and my mother back in Canada (works out to be about 4 pm the previous day there). At 6 it is off to the canteen for breakfast and then off to work.

For the first couple of weeks I was taking a lunch (usually some fruit as I frequently forgot to place an order for a sandwich the evening before). But this last week I was giving myself a break by driving the 5 or so km back to the dorm for lunch before returning to the EMD office for the afternoon.

And at work I having been satisfied with the progress being made as I have two technical reports almost complete as well as I keep revising and improving a Resource Estimation Manual. Plus I have added several more scripts to the catalogue! As I mentioned last time it is nice to be able to focus with few interruptions, or at least until the novelty wears off. Then I will be searching for interruptions to add some variety to the day!

This past weekend I continued to take advantage of many of the different activities that, back in Canada, are only available for that brief time called summer. Saturday morning is becoming my regular golf day. My good friend Rolando Ancheta is back from a couple of weeks in North America, including a week in New York city. He joined Eugene, Ito and I and we played 18 holes (it was Rolando that got me golfing here in the first place!). Here's a picture of us after the first 9 holes, with left to right me, Rolando, Eugene and Ito. The afternoon I spent working.

Today I went on a motorcycle trip with Richard Jones and another engineer from New Zealand, Leith. Last weekend Richard had asked me about doing a trip by motorbike from Nuha, on the other side of the lake up to the coast, right after we got back from our walk through the mountain pass to Wasapunda. My initial and immediate reply was "no way!", seeing as how, back in Canada, I am not even licensed to drive a motorcycle! But on further reflection my adventurous side was piqued. Then I checked my International Drivers license and saw that I am permitted to drive everything but a bus with more than 8 seats, in addition to the drivers! So I told him, that as long as we didn't try going at high rates of speed, to count me in.

So he arranged to rent two motorcycles from a shop in Sorowako village for 150,000 rupiah each for the day. That works out to just over $16. He also managed to get one of his co-workers, Leith, to join us. There is a fellow Canadian by the name of Jeff who was here who teaches English as a second language to the locals. He is currently away right now while his contract gets renewed but he left his motorcycle with Leith who suggested that rather than go across the lake why not take the old road from Wasapunda to Malilie, on the coast to the south? And that is what we did, or at least attempted to do.

So this morning Richard and I went and picked up our bikes: a pair of Korean 4-strokes, around the 200 cc mark and then drove them back to the dorm to meet up with Leith. Well, we just made it as the bike I rode had just enough gas to get there! Leith managed to drain a litre or so out of the tank of Jeff's bike to get me to a fuel depot where I then spent an additional 30,000 to fill it up. As it took approximately 10 litres that works out to about 3000 rupiah per litre ( about $0.35/l)!

The ride to Wasapunda was uneventful although I was a bit tense at first as, while I have driven 4-wheelers a lot over the years, this was the first time on a motorcycle in about 35 years! We found the road, if you want to call it that, and began our journey. It really isn't much more than a dirt track very similar to many an old logging road back home that has become disused and grown in. Here's a picture of Richard and Leith overlooking the Wasapunda valley. As it turns out Jeff's bike is a road bike not designed for backwoods muddy trails and so the front wheel seized from packed in mud so we had to turn back.

We then drove down to Wawondula, down to Towuti lake and then up a another dirt track which we thought would take us to the first power station on the river flowing out of Towuti Lake. As it turned out it didn't go there at all. While still in better shape than the previous, it ended up again being a muddy track and we had to stop in this isolated village where Leith then proceeded to unstick his front wheel. So once more we turned around and headed back! It was kind of surreal driving down this poor excuse for a road and then coming across a strip of asphalt with houses on both sides!

Well that took all of the morning and into the early afternoon. Leith had to go to work, I had seen enough (and besides, my rear end was awfully sore as the seat on the bike is far from comfortable!), but Richard was determined to see all of the old road to Malilie. So we parted company and went our separate ways.

While a very interesting trip I don't think I will try this again for some time, if at all! Because my bike was really hard to start my right hip is sore and my shin is all bruised. But all in all it was still an excellent adventure!