Carstensz via Bali
All of us have arrived here in Bali; which with the fine
Indonesian food will fatten us up a wee bit before the trek into
Carstensz.
Omar, Peter, Takao, Doug and myself appear to have made it thus far without any
problems, missing bags or the rest of the things that tend to go wrong
at the start (and middle and finish) of trips.
This is the Hindu part of Indonesia and small food offerings on banana
leaf plates sit in doorways. Tourist shops sell surf things and
trinkets. This is the land of Batiq and and bananas.
All the seven summits have their special flavour, Vinson is cold,
Everest is high, and this one, Carstensz, is political. The first
jungle to negotiate is the beaurocartic one. In two days we enter the
emerald forest, and though there are no canibals (I am reliably
informed, I hope) we will be food to leeches, mosquitoes and a thousand biting insecty-type things.
I am starting on the anti-malarials today, and trying to forget about the jungle by flailing around in the surf of Kuta beach.