29/5/09

Our marina berth at the Village Tekek has a magnificent backdrop of mountainous jungle and we've been told of the Village Juara on the other side which can be reached by sea, 4WD or a trek through the jungle. We decided to rise to the challenge of the trek and attempted an early start at 7.00am, heading off at 7.40 we're in "island Time" mode. Just before the track into the jungle we came across monkeys foraging at the roadside but decided to keep our nuts in case we came across some higher up in the jungle.

The path was mainly stepped, winding upwards through dense, steamy and humid jungle; our "Red Arrow" training the past few months paid off. Despite it being reasonably cool we were all lathered in perspiration and taunted by the sound of fast running water which we didn't get to see until nearly at the top 1 hour into our journey. Access to the water was fenced off, signs indicating no swimming, fishing, etc as it is the water supply for our village below which now having seen how natural and clean it is we would fill our water tanks upon return. The jungle was similar to our rainforest around Cairns but denser with enormous, spectacular trees. Numerous bird noises could be heard and some sounded like the Torres Strait Pigeons but none were visual. We managed to spy a couple of monkeys off in the distance, our nuts and calls weren't enough to entice them closer. A red snake tail was trailing out of the hollow of a fallen log which we thought must be dead until Chris bent down to pick up a stick nearby and it slithered disappearing further into the hollow.

At the top coming out of the jungle to a steep concrete road virtually straight down, quite a contrast to the jungle climb and a bit tough on the knees and toes! Another hour and we arrived at the bottom to a small windy seaside village that we wandered through, Neil and Pauline spotting large monitor lizards while Chris and I were doing battle opening a coconut. A local chap renovating a timber beach cottage proudly invited us in to see his handy work, he spoke good English and had a great sense of humour laughing at me when I offered him a piece of coconut I was eating.

Taking the easy way back we rode in air conditioned comfort of a 4 wheel drive and had a pleasant 25 minute windy steep drive back to the marina, although our driver was quite young he drove very carefully.

Time to prepare for departure the next day, Pauline & I did the washing, Neil go up town to top up the food supplies and Chris attempted to jockey a new impeller in the broken water pump without success. When I went down the port engine room I noticed oily fluid on the shelf which turned out that the steering hydraulic ram seal had blown. Chris set about removing the ram, the starboard engine water pump which had started a slow drip, and the alternator which wasn't functioning!

We decided to have dinner again at our favourite restaurant, it will take a few more nights of dining for us to work our way through the entire menu!