Ok, I am struggling to find time to write on this blog thing. I am getting a little exhausted. I’ve got to find a better way to approach life. There’s just so many cool things to do in Timor Leste. One of the highlights was having some great friends visit us from Australia. We got to climb the highest mountain in Timor – Mt Ramelau.
Driving up I saw some strange hollow logs on farms. The lid on this one is made from an old wheel barrow. What is it? Its a Timorese version of a grain silo, painstakingly hollowed in a special way for storing corn. The idea is to stop rats eating the corn.
The town of Hatobuilico – base camp at the foot of the mountain.
On the way up – great views of rugged country although a photo doesn’t do it justice.
This is what hiking up a mountain with a family really looks like. “Do we have to go any further?”
Lunch on top with Mary and Mary’s keeper (centre back) and his little girl (far right). They live on this desolate mountain top. He’s not quite your Ghandi with pearls of wisdom but he’s a lot of fun for a chat. Mary has a metal strap around her so she doesn’t fall over which is a good thing because it gets very windy up there. Funny how a mountain top makes you feel a little bit closer to God.
Keeping with the mountain top theme, my mate Rob decided to take a group on motor bikes up into the mountains. The track got very narrow and the mountains got very steep. Unfortunately, Chris went off the track. Due to the steepness, he travelled downwards about 10m before making contact with the ground again, or rather with a log which caught him on his downward flight (one of those classic cartoon scenes might help you to picture it, although nothing about it was very funny). It also happened that the motorbike got caught on the same log which was helpful. Due to the remoteness, God sent along a horse owned by a man named John the Baptist which was very helpful.
It took a couple of hours on horse back to get to where we could pick him up with a car. I’ll try to put in a little video in memory of the occasion.
Chris is a great bloke who has done a lot of cool things during his 5 years or so in Timor Leste like improving the rocket stove, making our pizza oven and teaching Serenity how to play the song “Hallelujah” on the guitar. Thanks Chris, I hope you come good and find your way back to Timor one day.
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