The final countdown

The last couple of days have been pretty busy around Fieldbase. We’ve been doing our final bits of training and making sure that everything is ready for our venturers.

Tim and Lee have been making sure that Logs is full to the brim with bamboo, food, Trangiers, jerry cans and pretty much anything that else you can think of.

The shop has been fully stocked, with shampoo, hand gel, zinc oxide tape and chocolate bars (well we all need a little treat!).

To celebrate the end of training we had a team day at a nearby river. We popped into our local village, Jayapura, to buy vegetables for our packed lunch and, of course, to have a quick chai.

The PMs did their swim test at the river and after lunch Mark taught us how to build rafts. After a nice relaxing cruise down the river, we also learnt how to make a shelter out of bamboo, so that we can make our project sites nice and cosy.

Safety must not be comprised! Helen and Lee prepare for going in the river

The PMs do their swim test

The locals were very interested in our raft building skills!

Ready to set sail

A relaxing cruise down the river

Putting a sturdy base in place for our shelter

Building the sides to our shelter

The house that the VMs built!

Oh yes, and we had a little party...fancy dress, of course! I have to say it’s pretty impressive what a root through the Logs store and a lot of creativity can come up with! There’ll be plenty of time for fun (and no doubt fancy dress) during the change-over phases between projects.

The host country venturers (HCVs) arrived yesterday afternoon and it feels like Expedition has finally started. Ed, Hannah, Clare and I are off to Bangalore a little later to pick up the venturers from the airport. We can’t wait to finally meet them all and bring them back to Fieldbase to meet the team and start their expedition.