Playing the Waiting Game

Day 18-20; 6-8th December

On the 7th December, I received confirmation that the refund from the international agent had hit my account, which cheered me up from my misery. I felt trapped in the hotel and Sentani had no tourists sites to speak of. I was concerned about haemorraghing money the longer I stayed in the hotel. There was no-one else to hang out with or speak to and my frustration and sense of isolation was starting to wear me down. I phoned the local agent and he told me he still hadn't heard back from his clients but would know by Wednesday. This was a big blow. I decided to walk into Sentani proper just to get away from the hotel. Every time I had breakfast or dinner I was the only guest and it started to seem a bit surreal. I'm sure the hotel staff were wondering what the hell I was doing because I certainly was. I treated myself to Papa Ron's pizza (I though I deserved it after walking for 45 minutes to get there...) and started to relax a bit away from the confines of the hotel.

Later that day, I got a very aggressive email from the Czech agent claiming that he hadn't left me in a difficult position in papua, depsitre cancelling the Carstensz Pyramid leg with 3 days notice! I couldn't believe his arrogance but didn't have the time or energy to get into a fight with him. I'll just make sure that if anyone asks me in the future, I'll tell them to stay clear of him and his company.

On Wednesday 8th, I got the email I was dreading – the local agent confirmed that his clients had refused to allow me to join their expedition. It was a crushing blow. However, I immediately started trying to create something positive out of this disappointment. I decided to postpone Carstensz Pyramid until after my contract with German Red Cross i.e. until July 2011. At least now that I knew either way I could now plan to access Puncak Mandala. I wasn;t sure of the correct protocl now – should I contact the Bimers beofre I booked my mission flight, or book the flight and then let them know that I was going back? I decided to check the flights first, since the weekend was approaching and I knew they wouldn't fly on a Saturday or Sunday. I decided to try to arrange a mission flight back to Bime for Friday morning i.e. 10th December. I sent a message to Bob Roberts from Adventist Aviation to ask if he was around. He phoned right back to say he was on the way to Jakarta for dental treatment so instead I sent a text to the other Bob, the Ops Manager at AMA, and also to Eric Robnerts, the AMA pilot, to ask if a flight was available for Friday. I neede to contact the Bime representatives to inform them of my changed travel plans (they expected me in Bime just before Christmas) and I wasn't sure what further negotiations that would entail.

Realistically, I didn't know how many days I would need as none of the Bime representatives were clear on either the route or how many days walk it would be. The last person I knew who attempted this route failed to make the summit due to a hailstorm, after 5 day's walk from Bime. However, when I showed his sketch map to the Bime locals and representatives they told me that the names of some of the villages they passed were wrong. I know that Mark Anstice and Bruce Parry had some trouble on their attempt from the south when they were taken partly up the wrong valley so I would plot my progress carefully using GPS to make sure we'd be heading in the right direction at least. I planned to take max 5 porters but again knew that I may have more forced on me by the community. I hoped that I could leave the day after I arrived (i.e. Saturday), but again I didn't expect it would be a straightforward process. Hopefully, I could get in and out in a maximum of 3 weeks.

I informed the Fellowship Manager (Julia) at the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and formally requested permission to postpone Carstensz and to return to Papua in July. I sent a text to Titus's father informing him of my plans and I got an immediate response asking how many of the delegation I wanted to take back to Bime with me. The answer was t hat I planned to take only one, Titus himself (to translate and help with negotiations). He then sent another message telling me that Enus would fly to Sentani on Friday (the day I planned to fly), which troubled me a little bit......