| 9
May 2007: One Year into our Project - Happy Anniversary, News Page! |
| by
Marit Wechsler and Mark Pearce
Can
you believe a whole year has passed since our very first posting
following MER’s debut at ADEX in Singapore?
We’ve
just finished our second ADEX, this time in Bangkok. Andrew and
I and our support crew from FreeFlow Divers (big thanks Nick and
Heather, Angela and Michael, and Marcel and Alison!) spent the weekend
answering truckloads of questions about Raja Ampat and our project.
In
addition to introducing MER to Thai divers and conservationists,
we were thrilled to meet lots of folks who have been following our
progress on this page and update people we met at last year’s
show. The enthusiasm was contagious, and I think we all ended the
weekend even more excited about this grand project.
|
Angela,
Heather, and Michael fielding questions at the MER booth |
Forgive
me if I wax sentimental for a moment. Anniversaries have this effect
on me...
Sometimes
it’s hard to see the big picture when your nose is so close
to the grindstone. I think it’s useful to remind ourselves
every now and again how far we’ve come, how many obstacles
we’ve surmounted. The level of commitment to this shared dream
is incredible, and everyone’s dedication and hard work is
paying off. |
May
2007 |
It won’t be long before we’re sipping Pina Coladas on
the verandah, comparing notes on our latest mind-blowing dive as
the sun sets. We'll look back fondly on those sweaty days when we
survived on instant MSG-riddled noodles and sea water showers, fortified
by our dreams of diving and frosty beverages…. |
the
very first foundation of the dive centre, August 2006 |
The
hard work extends way beyond the construction site. Thanks are due
on the much less glamorous back end of things as well - thanks to
Olivier for translating this site into French, and thanks to Lawrence
Alex Wu for making our flashy new photo albums, available here for your viewing pleasure. We owe you both Pina Coladas!
And
now for Cherry’s report from the back of beyond: |
First
a rundown on our ever-shifting island population - Jorg, carpenter
extraordinaire, has left Batbitim for the first time in 6 months!
He’s left behind the hard graft castaway life for a well-deserved
month’s break at home in Germany. And against all bets, Thorben
has also taken a month off! He’ll be catching up with family
and friends in Germany, as well as renewing his passport and visa. |
Sascha
was obviously bitten by the Batbitim Bug on his first visit, and
now he’s back for a longer stay with a multi-meter in one
hand and a length of electrical cable in the other. His mission
is to ensure a good supply of power to the resort.
Ben
joins us on the island after months and months of slogging through
dreary paperwork in the UK, where he has been very busy registering
the Misool Conservation Centre as a charity. With that out of the
way, he’ll now be putting his carpentry and cabinetry skills
to good use. |
beams
of the first cottage |
With
all these able hands on deck, one can imagine that there have been
exciting developments in the construction - check out the progress
of the restaurant and the kitchen!
Those posts and beams of the restaurant were a great find. They
were trees that had fallen from the cliff edge of the neighbouring
island of Warakaket, hanging/lodged between the beach and the rock
in the most precarious fashion. We managed to get them into the
water only to find that they were so dense that they did not float!
The wood had to be tied onto large buoys, and then towed to the
island.
On
my last visit to the island Thorben showed me the wood and bet,
with a sly snicker, that I couldn’t lift the logs. This of
course was like raising a red flag to a bull. But he was right,
and I narrowly escaped a hernia. This wood is the heaviest and hardest
I have ever come across. Bodes well for a sturdy structure. |
restaurant |
| The
foundations, floor, walls and rafters of the kitchen and dry store
have now been completed. I have caught Baby, our Papuan Cook, eyeing
it up already. I suspect she’s dreaming of days to come when
she can move from the camp kitchen into something rather more deluxe
and better suited to cuisine leaning more towards the Cordon Bleu
than Gordon Blimey... In fact, we’re all dreaming of that day. |
our
very flash composting toilet |
The
concrete group has continued to charge onward with the foundations
for several more buildings, including the generator and compressor
room. We have just about exhausted the supply of driftwood in the
immediate vicinity of Batbitim, so for the last week Mr. Kapompom
and his crew have set up a small camp out on the island of Wajaban.
They’ve been hauling driftwood from the surrounding area back
to Batbitim. Our sawmill started cutting the latest haul a few days
ago, and the flow of lumber has begun again.
We
have built another WC and have installed what is probably the most
expensive toilet in Papua, the ‘Nature
Loo’. This is a very flash composting toilet, surely deserving
of much more respect than we afford it. It is near impossible to
steer away from toilet humour… needless to say that for Thorben
this was not a ‘big job!' Wee are looking forward to testing
out its performance over the next few months. Oh crap, here I go
again with these sophomoric toilet jokes! |
Helen
Newman, a marine biologist associated with CORAL, spent a whole
day with our faithful band presenting a workshop on Eco-tourism
and Conservation within Raja Ampat. Much fun was had by all, and
the crew (myself included) learned a great deal. The local crew
were given the chance to air their views on the development and
conservation of Raja Ampat and took part in several interactive
group exercises. I am proud to say that we had very positive feedback
from Helen with regard to the level of knowledge and understanding
our local staff had of the topics in question. Thanks Helen and
well done guys! |
| We
were also visited this month by Bren and Adrienne, friends from the
UK. Their visits were brief but much appreciated. Much to the delight
of Bapak, our most senior crew member and de facto crew leader, they
conducted English language classes, which were well attended by all
the crew. Now there is a large contingent of Papuans poring over English
books in the evening whilst smoking their clove cigarettes and playing
Karom (a game not unlike pool, but played on a square board and rather
than balls flat disks are flicked skillfully into the pockets in the
corners of the board.) |
| We
have continued to explore the dive sites around Batbitim and have
found numerous new world class dive sites, including a couple of very
good shark-infested pinnacles. Ambroise and Olivier, two of our intrepid
visiting investors, have penetrated Warakaket and done what surely
must be the very first dive in one of the island’s nine saltwater
lakes. A very unusual dive indeed, with a strange thermo cline: a
gin clear top 5-7m, a murky bottom and a few unusual fish… more
exploration is certainly required. Watch this space for further news. |
bait
fish swarming around one of the cottage foundations |
Every
venture into the water seems to yield something new and special.
In Batbitim's north bay, which is just a few meters deep, we have
spotted:
-Pegasus Sea Moth
-Blue Ringed Octopus
-Juvenile Batfish
-Bump Head Parrot Fish
-4 Huge schools of Bait Fish (permanently circling the pillars of
the cottages, bridge and diveshop)
-Sea horses
-The ‘Walking Epaulette Shark’ (spotted on 5 occasions
hunting in the shallows)
-Squid
-Baby Black Tip Sharks (Every evening)
-Green Turtles (most nights)
-Hawkes Bill Turtles
-Mantis Shrimps
-Porcelain Crabs
-Blue Spotted Rays
And
this is before you even get to the house reef!!!!! The list keeps
growing, and much of it can be seen from the verandahs of the cottages
and dive centre. You don’t even have to get wet! |
As
for me, my time seems to be spent mostly in Sorong. I have spent
my time here organizing the company bank account (which means wading
through Indonesian red tape), sending supplies to the island, working
on the numerous boat projects and sourcing eco building materials
such as coconut husk, bamboo, Kalsi board, and wood. The few quick
dashes to the island have been a much needed break from the squalor
of Sorong, and these excursions have certainly aided in some sort
of mental stability. |
Kaka
Jerry and his spear
|
As
we exhaust the supplies of driftwood within easy reach of Batbitim,
we’ve expanded our search for eco wood into the wilds of the
famed Papuan Birdshead Peninsula. We have found several possible
sources, the first of which is called Klamono. This area was clear
felled by the logging industry, and the ground is now being converted
into an oil palm plantation. There is a large amount of timber that
simply does not make the grade for the logging company and has been
left for the local community. This wood is essentially industrial
waste – it will either be burned or left to rot. So we have
struck a deal with the community to make good use of the wood.
We
now have a team of 9 very tough Papuans camped out at Klamono, cutting
furiously. When we set up camp and the team arrived, I have to say
that it was the first time that I have ever had an employee turn
up to work with a chainsaw in one hand and a spear in the other!
Apparently there are deer and wild pig in the area, a hunting opportunity
too good to pass up.
Every
3 or 4 days I make the journey to Klamono to check in with the camp.
It’s a 5 hour round trip, and I must say these rutted, muddy
tracks are taking their toll on both me and my tiny motorbike. I
have had 3 punctures, had to remove the mud guards twice and on
numerous times I have had to push, carry the bike around, through
and over impassable sections of road. I always return to Sorong
looking like some kind of swamp monster covered head to toe in mud,
blood, sweat, and the odd leech.
Nevertheless,
it’s all worth it - the team has now cut the first 20 cubits
of premium iron wood and are waiting for a break in the weather
so that we can start to transport the wood to Sorong and then on
to Batbitim. |
I
have also sourced a good amount of VERY eco wood on Kapatlaf, an
island about two hours from Sorong by longboat (large dugout canoe
with a 40hp outboard). Again this is premium Merbou, a kind of ironwood.
The trees have fallen naturally and are scattered around an area
which is laced with streams and rivers. I was accompanied on my
first visit to the island by our adventurous investors Eric and
Noemie. We had a fantastic day, starting out early in the longboat
with Adir, our chief chainsaw guy.
Adir
has been living in the jungle cutting wood with a chainsaw for the
last 15 years. As one might imagine, he has biceps like anvils and
forearms like Popeye. He’s also got a big smile full of red,
beetle-nut stained teeth. He’s got an immediately likeable
character, and over the last month has become a good friend. |
Adir
in Klamono |
Adir led us to his village where we picked up his brothers and the
village elders. Then this quite motley crew of eco wood hunters
headed off into the jungle. We were surrounded by huge trees and
deafening bird song. The smell of the jungle vegetation was intoxicating,
and the undergrowth so thick that we had to hack our way through
with machetes.
|
Adir
making quick work of giant free fallen tree |
We
soon found that the jungle was impenetrable and had to take to the
water. Noemie bravely volunteered to be the first of us to go in
the sampan (dugout canoe) with a couple of local guides. We were
assured there were no crocodiles, but Eric and I still felt that
it would be prudent to send women and children first … to
test the water as it were! After no more than four strokes of the
paddle, one of our local friends got to his feet (in this very unsteady
sampan) and launched his spear into the water. He then nonchalantly
retrieved the spear with a good sized fish attached, that was his
dinner sorted. Eric and I followed behind in a slightly larger canoe,
winding our way up the river. As we alighted our sampans on a muddy
river bank, the heavens opened and we ran for cover in a little
shelter the local hunters had made.
Inside
the shelter, we laughed and joked with our merry band, and Eric
and I became very curious about the beetle nut that our guides were
chewing. We decided that it was time to give it a go. Adir deftly
peeled the little nut with a huge machete, and then gave it to Eric
and me to chew along with a type of bean and lime powder. The mixer
soon turned our mouths red and made us salivate copiously. Our mouths
numbed, and we experienced a very subtle high. The local onlookers
fell about with much hilarity as we screwed our faces up at the
unpleasant taste and tried to find a dignified manner in which to
spit the rapidly-increasing red juice. |
The band voted to carry on regardless of the rain which was now
bucketing down. We again hacked our way through the jungle, fording
rivers and eventually coming to several very large iron wood trees
that had fallen naturally. We tested the wood to find it was it
in perfect condition -BINGO- We had the ultimate in eco wood: naturally
fallen trees owned by the local community, and it seems there is
a good supply. We then slowly made our way out of the jungle and
back to the longboat.
We finished the day with a trip to the village, where we chatted
with the villagers and inadvertently created absolute havoc in the
local school, culminating in a joyful singsong. Noemie and Eric
and I then headed back to Sorong after a very enjoyable and successful
adventure.
|
Adir
is truly an expert with a chainsaw! |
| |
