Day 9 - Grass in the Eye

We got up at 5:30am and I recorded a video in the first light of us waiting for breakfast. Of course the idea of getting up early was to get going, and my growly voice protested the delay and the rain that was coming.

We grabbed a bite or two so the folks fixing breakfast wouldn’t feel that we didn’t appreciate their efforts, then set off. And it rained. This was actually the only day where we were wet due to rain. It had rained on day 3, but we’d been more wet from sweat than rain. Our hike here on day 9 was extremely pleasant (and short – under 3 hrs) by contrast to day 3. We hiked up the side of a kunai ridge, enjoying views of the gentle, green, mist-shrouded hills around us, and half regretting that we couldn’t see a little better through the rain. But better limited views than scorching sun.

Reaching the top of the ridge we began to descend. Here it got slick; rather, it had been slick, but heels are less capable of gripping than toes, so we were more likely to fall. At one point one of my heels slid out and my body reacted without first consulting my mind, jumping backwards off the trail. Everyone was kind of surprised. “Why is John jumping off the trail into what looks like a mini-canyon?”

I’d like to protest that as no parts of my body except my hands and feet touched the ground during the maneuver I technically didn’t fall ; ) Not that it really matters. I jumped back on the trail, grateful my body had merely threatened suicide without following through, and we continued on our way.

Here I must take the opportunity to point out that the flora of PNG must have something against John G. Perhaps it’s his accent. Who knows. Anyway, on day 2 a half-way fallen tree cracked him on the head, two seconds after I’d walked under it. He says he didn’t touch it, nor did I. Here on day 9 the trees had gone off the field, but kunai grass had subbed in. John had been poked near an eye, and, concerned it would happen again, put on his sunglasses. After another hour of hiking without incident, he took them off, since it was rather too dreary to be wearing them. On our way down the hill a particularly vicious blade took advantage of his lowered defenses and nailed him right in the eye. And this was no slight jab! He had blurry vision and was seriously concerned that it would not recover. Even the next morning he said it still felt like someone was just standing there poking him in the eye. It took him several days till it was ‘mostly normal,’ and the rest of that day he was out of the game.

On the descent to Onom I got to chat with Katie on the mobile phone for quite some time. It was very nice just to chat about how things were going, to describe the scenery, hear how she and Tikvah were doing. It was kind of weird to be chatting while walking through the PNG bush, but that’s life in a lot of places these days!

We left the kunai grass and the patch of mobile phone reception and plunged into mosquito infested forest for a brief period before arriving in Onom. It was a little village – 23 houses – that felt more ‘bush’ than anything since Dangal, our first village. For the first time we guys were put up in a haus boi (house boy), so Janell stayed separately from us in another family’s house.

We spent the afternoon getting our work done, then taking a wash in a beautiful clear stream. We had some sunshine to dry our clothes and packs… what more could you ask for? We even got supper, albeit a bit later than usual.