October 7, 2014

Last morning on the Sepik

We had to wake up early today, have a quick breakfast and get back in our canoe at 6:00am, bags packed, in order to make the 1.5 hour trip up the river back to Timbunke to catch our next flight. We watched the sun rise over the river as we glided along. There were very few other canoes out and the ones we did see where busy cleaning the fish they had already caught.  The trees reflected in the water, looking like a cityscape and teeming with life the way a city would be, but with birds rather than people. The Egrets were out in full force, flying about and landing, feet first onto trees. They fly along, legs out straight behind them, and all of a sudden they bring their legs into a standing position and just land on a branch.  I watched lots of them in the last 2 days and they always reminded me of an airplane letting down its wheels.

We were all very quiet, just watching the scenery and trying to memorize that feeling of the wind in our faces so we could always remember it.