Water Boys

Pic 1. Our water supply (on a good day)

Pic 2. Filling up

Pic 3. The walk back to BC.

So the last two days in BC have been somewhat interesting. We have been exploring some of the area (searching a couple lines that the boys have had their eyes on over the past month) and of course been having fun along the way. In fact we were so distracted yesterday, we arrived a couple hours late for lunch and as we all expected, Buddhi was not impressed. After apologising to Buddhi a number of times, the team all found a chair and a spot to enjoy the afternoon sun. Of course Buddhi popped into his tent and rustled up some tasty egg fried veggie noodle soup. I chucked to myself, being reminded of my childhood and being told off by my mother for being naughty, I wonder of the boys shared the same sentiment. J.

This morning I followed Buddhi and Santosh on their daily water run to film them filling up the BC water bottles at a nearby mountain stream. I must admit, I was not really expecting anything special but I absolutely loved the experience. The stream itself was very small and in fact resembled more of a trickle from a leaking tap. The way the boys harness this small volume of water is so simple, it is undeniably brilliant! They have cut the bottom off a typical plastic cool drink bottle, wedged it amongst some rocks at a small step in the stream. The large opening of the bottle was facing upstream and the smaller end protruding out over the "step", creating a mini "drinking fountain".

The water containers that they are using are also quite fascinating, the one large industrial blue 35 litre bottle original contained the fuel that Buddhi uses to cook with (we stopped taste the fuel in the water about 2 weeks ago) and the other two 5 litre bottles are those rather common opaque foldable water bottles resembling a musical accordion. (Although common, when emptied into the larger barrel we have at BC, they have a rather satisfying way of shrinking in your hands as the water empties out, so fascinating in their own right).

Perhaps my favourite receptacle is the large curved aluminium jug used for transferring the water from the "mini drinking fountain" to the water bottles. It is thick and solid and almost resembles the kind of pottery jugs you might expect to find in archaeological dig. It too has a very satisfying look and feel about it, especially when watching the shimmering glacial water running off the stream bed and flowing into the bottom of this heavy metallic vessel, listening to the almost metallic echo of splashing water as it fills up.

During the time it has taken to write this blog entry, you might be interested to know that Buddhi and Santosh had built a largish "H" out of rocks in preparation for our helicopter flight back to civilisation in a week or so. I am hoping that it was just an activity to kill time, rather than it being an actual reminder for Pemba the Pilot for where to land.

David.