As those of you who have been reading know, my summer started with heading 14+ hours around the globe to Brunei in Borneo for a field trip. This already seems like a distant memory, despite being less than 3 months ago. Nevertheless, it's an experience I don't want to forget and hey, didn't I mention I'd share some pictures with you?
Meeting some friends of friends (and some of their friends!) and getting taken on a tour of Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital...
Finding that THIS was our view for our first week; experiencing the rainforest which is sort of like British woodland but at the same time NOT AT ALL THE SAME. (I mean, so many different sounds, smells, different species of animals and plants where ever you look and an amazing sense of God's creation, despite being surrounded by atheist scientists); and having "ooh! can we catch that?!" being exclaimed every other second in the evenings when insects galore were enticed by the bright lights....
Handling tiny bats (this one here is a fruit bat, Latin name of Balionycteris maculata if you care...) and catching, marking and recapturing dragonflies, as well as seeing many other stunning critters everywhere we looked....Dissecting a fish from the swamp which had a gut length of almost a meter which is about eight times as long as it's body length....
Entering C3 forest (basically forest that's so protected we could only going in because we're 'scientists', had permission, and had rangers with us) and seeing hords of termites and ants absolutely everywhere and getting bitten but a number of ants (the smaller being the more painful!)...
Travelling between sites primarily by boat via a mangrove where we saw this cat snake...
Having tree frogs right next to where we were sleeping and finding a giant spider in the bathroom. Apparently the story goes that one of my friends went to the lecturer saying "there's a spider in the bathroom", the lecturer assumed it wouldn't be that big and went up to see it/remove it by hand only to go 'oh...' and go fetch a rather large jar/measuring cylinder from the lab. Side note: that spider then started to spin a fine web at the bottom of that jar as if preparing to lay eggs so we released it pretty rapidly!
Getting up before sunrise so early (about 4am!) that with the 7 hour time difference, my friends in England were still awake, but not regretting it at all because we got to see the run rise over the canopy and walk in amongst the highest branches...
Finding a beautiful mantis in the shower and having bats flight mere centimetres above our heads as they were catching the insects attracted to the lights on the walkways....
Watching my lecturers get so excited over the creatures they found, as well as getting excited myself by giant stag beetles and another giant spider spinning a web on the side of the walkway....
Finally, having to leave the beautiful, hot, sweaty, mesmerising tropics, wishing I could have taken more photos and treasuring the memories and few decent photos my little point and shoot managed to capture for me.
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth"
Genesis 1v1
When you were kayaking in the river, did you feel tempted at any point to try and stroke a crocodile?
ReplyDeleteDid you sleep in the jungle at all or did you just sleep at the (very kindly built) resort lodge in the last 2 photos?
We didn't quite get close enough to stroke any crocodiles; they pretty much all bolted before we got within oar's length, let alone arms length. No, we didn't sleep in the jungle in a tent or anything like that but the building is basically on the very very edge of the forest, next to the river, which then had even more forest beside that, so we were Perry much in deep forest, even if we had the luxuries of a bed and cold shower!
DeleteWe didn't quite get close enough to stroke any crocodiles; they pretty much all bolted before we got within oar's length, let alone arms length. No, we didn't sleep in the jungle in a tent or anything like that but the building is basically on the very very edge of the forest, next to the river, which then had even more forest beside that, so we were Perry much in deep forest, even if we had the luxuries of a bed and cold shower!
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