The places we find ourselves

I think this thought came to Scott when he found himself by himself on the side of the mountain, the second day into his trek. His companion had walked ahead of him and had not communicated exactly what he was doing...of course Scott does not speak Indonesian and this man did not speak English. He was standing at the edge of a land slide that had obscured the trail. Scott did not know if he was to go up the slide to find the trail, or down. It was getting dark, it was raining, he was alone with absolutely no idea where he was, how far he needed to go, what the man had said and if fact..who the man was. The thought that came to his mind at that time...'it is really amazing the places you find yourself'.

The day before, he had left Wamena on a rented taxi to drive 4 hours up to Habima lake. The picture on the left shows the road and the lake from the plane I was on flying over the trail Scott was on. The one man Dinus who was going to take him had morphed into Dinus, his whole family and 2 other men. Upon arrival at the lake, Dinus became violently ill and remained ill for the whole 3 day trek. His wife was walking with sore knees and his kids, well they were all younger then Nick, and they all were barefoot. Scott went ahead with another man and they began the journey.

The first night they camped in cave overhang. It was rainy and very cold. The elevation was 10, 000 feet and I was cold at 6000 feet with all my blankets in a warm and dry house. The next day was the most difficult because it was coming down from the high ranges into the valley of the Mbua. Naik, naik, naik....climb, climb, climb....mud, rain, logs, mud, small small trails, side of cliffs, many river crossings...and finally all alone in the middle of it all.

Scott made the decision to go up the slide and find a trail, hoping it was the one he was supposed to be on. He hiked for a good 30 minutes on his own before he found the net bag of the man who had gone before him. That night they camped in a hut...a fire was quickly built and smoke quickly filled every spot in that hut. Scott did not care, fell asleep and only woke when it seemed that things were crawling around him. They were...what to do...sleep again till morning. This Was Sunday morning and at 8 AM he walked gallantly into the Mbua and up to the house.

The Ndugas have claimed him as their own, it seems if you can walk with them...you are in.

As he was bathing, I proceeded to clean out his bag. IT was crawling with cockroaches...little bitty ones...but EWWWWWWWWWW.

There is no way in this short little story I can fully impart this experience. Details of the story keep coming out. Scott is pretty amazing that he would attempt this adventure without the security..well of anything. He lost a few more pounds...but I don't even think he was sore. He has a connection with the Nduga people and a very deep respect for these amazing people. I know this story is a bit disjointed...it is second hand and if you know Scott he isn't a verbose man. I am attempting to fill in the outline of the journey but I have a feeling, you are going to have to sit down with him to hear the depth of this experience.