May messages

2 May

Update: We have spent the past three days anchored in a mangrove creek on the east coast of Waigeo. It is a very remote area, with one very small
hamlet of thatch huts on the shore. Each morning we got up at dawn, and walked into the forest (cockatoos screaming, parrots chattering) to a special grove of very tall trees. There at about 7a.m. the Red Birds of Paradise come to dance and display in the sunshine on the top branches. They leave to go feeding in the forest after half an hour, but return in the evening about 6 pm to 'play' as the natives put it, for about an hour, before leaving for their roosts. They raise and shake their startlingly beautiful and strange shaped feathers as they 'dance'. It is an extraordinary sight, and to see the Red Bird of Paradise is why Alfred Wallace came to Waigeo.

This morning we left the creek and are now back at the little village where we will stay overnight and then try to find our way through a narrow strait which cuts through the hills. In 3 or 4 days time we hope to be at Sorong to meet Trondur, our other artist who is joining the team.

3 May

Update: This morning we sailed from 'Birds of Paradise Bay' as we call it, and wound our way through an extraordinary strait - a narrow channel which cuts through through a high neck of land to join two large bays. This is the route Wallace took and, as he says, you would not realise the strait was there until you come close to the shore and see a gap in the mangrove forest. Here we turned in, and found ourselves in a sea canyon, tall cliffs and rocks on both sides, with forest trees growing on them. The tidal current as rushing though the gap like a strong river, and overhead wre parrots, sea eagles, and gulls together, mixing birds of the sea and the land. Sometimes the channel was only 30 yards wide, but always deep, and at the very narrowest point there was an 'adat' (native custom or belief) sign : some spears tied to the cliff face just above the rushing water. It took us half anhour to navigate through the strait, and now we are anchored at a small harbour on an island facing across to the 'Bird's Head' of New Guinea. So few people live in this area that even this harbour, the centre for the region, is not marked on the map.

Tim

4 May

Update: Waiting at Saunek harbour, Waigeo, while land team visit the local school to talk to the children about environmental awareness and our expedition. Plan to leave for Sorong tomorrow, weather permitting.

7 May

Update: Now at Sorong harbour re-stocking food stores prior to collecting Trondur from airport tomorrow, (airport is on neighboring Jefman island) all being well. Sorong is our last revictualling possibility before Ternate, and I hope to sail directly from Jefman for Bacian island west of Halmahera, there to see if we can find another member of the Bird of Paadise family, Wallace's Standard Wing, discovered and named after him but not confirmed on Bacian in recent years.

Tim.

10 May

Update: Collected Trondur successfully yesterday afternoon from Sorong airport (his relay in Ambon worked smoothly-ny thanks for tracing him through), and currently sailing westward into the Sagewin Strait. By p.m. hope to moor off central Batanta island and scout ashore tomorrow to locate Wilson's Bird of Paradise, and bird traders reputed to work in this remote area.

11 May

Update: Visited the Red Bird of Paradise site on Batanta island yesterday evening and again this morning, but found it inferior to our earlier location on Waigeo - the 'dancing tree' was so tall on Batanta that it was difficult to see the birds, though there were at lest a dozen of the males, busily showing off to the watching females. One consolation: a fine stream flowed into the sea near our anchorage where we could fill freshwater canisters for the boat, bathe and wash our clothes. Filtered, this water will be what we drink and cook with, as we now sail westward towards Halmahera.

12 May

Update: currently north of the Boo Islands and heading westward for the southern tip of Halmahera.

Very best regards ---- Tim

15 May

1430hrs local time

Update: We have spent the last two days sailing along the west coast of Bacan Island, stopping at villages and showing a drawing of Wallace's Bird of Paradise to the villagers. None of the villagers recognised the bird, though we also visited an inland village renowned for its bird-catchers. They make a living by catching - smearing sticky gum on twigs and putting out fruit as bait - and selling cockatoos, lorys and lorikeets to traders from Sulawesi. None of them had ever seen the Bird of Paradise which Wallace found on Bacan, so we can say that it no longer lives on the island. We then sailed to a village called Sabatang where the people still collect gum dammar from trees in the forest, and our two artists Leonard and Trondur were delighted to find one dammar collector who had three large pieces of very good quality gum dammar, like solid golden brown treacle, which they will use when they get home for varnishing their paintings. Pure gum dammar of that quality is impossible for them to find in Europe, and what they can obtain there is very expensive in the art shops. Here they could get many years supply for one-thirtieth the cost. So this morning we left Sabatang with three large lumps of dammar and two happy artists on board. Also we were very encouraged because one man in Sabatang came from the main island of Halmahera, and there - five years ago- he said he had seen Wallace's Bird of Paradise. So now we are travelling north - first to Ternate, the clove island, and next week we plan to cross over to Halamahera and explore the forest there, hoping to find Semioptera Wallacea.

29 May 1996

Update: I have not had a chance to report our progress for the past few days, as the expedition has been away from our boat, walking through the rain forest on the island of Halmahera to reach the place where we could see the Bird of Paradise named Wallace's Standard Wing in honour of Alfred Wallace who first described it.
We saw and filmed the bird, which isextraordinary: about the size of a large thrush, but with long white plumes emerging from its shoulders and chest which it can make stand up in a display. It also has a pair of winglets, emerald green, which it can extend like a cape. Really unusual.
In the forest we pitched tents, and ate fresh water shrimps caught from the river byour guides. At night the forest floor was pitch dark because the tree canopy blocks out all star an moonlight, and there are the sudden sounds of tree branches crashing to the ground.
After we walked back out of the forest, crossing a ravine on a bridge made of tree trunks, we sailed our boat to Ternate, once the centre of the Spice Islands where cloves were grown. There we visited a village famous for its musicians, and recorded their traditional tunes, played on bamboo fute, drums and a gong. I hope to use the music with the documentary film about the Spice Island Voyage.

Now we are on the last leg of our voyaging, sailing from Ternate to Menado on the island of Sulawesi. There I hope we will see tarsiers.