Half the village stood laughing and in amazement around the two white men who were trying to pump drinking water from a dirty bucket through a water filter in order to refill their water bottles. "Air kotor!", "Dirty water!" they shouted and were astonished when we took a careful sip from our bottles– it didn't taste bad, at least in this situation, far away from any western civilization in the dense rainforest of Papua, Indonesia.
We had taken off by helicopter from Wamena early in the morning of the previous day. Together with Ben Hopkinson, who accompanied me on this flight, I flew the helicopter along the Baliem Valley towards the lowlands. Before we had even left the mountain range behind us, the clouds were gathering and soon we found ourselves under a closed cloud cover which lay only a few dozen meters above the humid, almost completely flat swamp area that characterizes the south of Papua.
About half an hour later we landed in Dekai, the nearest major airfield, to load building material. Our destination: the mountain village of Sesepne, only about a 20-minute flight from Dekai. In the meantime, rain had set in, and I flew the fully loaded helicopter back up into the mountains between the wisps of mist rising from the lush greenery below us. It took several attempts to find our way through the increasing cloud cover, but I finally landed on a level area just above the village– just in time before the cloud cover closed in on us. Now we were sitting in the drizzle and fog. The Papuans from the village greeted us warmly and assured us that at 11 o'clock, the skies would definitely be blue again.
11 a.m. turned into 3 p.m. and we began to unpack our sleeping bags from the helicopter – knowing full well that the window of opportunity for the return flight had passed. For dinner, we were served delicacies from the village: sweet potatoes with boiled pumpkin leaves, sugar cane, and lots of bananas. We were allowed to set up camp in a shed, but not alone - probably out of curiosity to see how white people sleep - half the village spent the night with us! Fortunately, I had brought a small tent to protect us from the mosquitoes. It also gave us some privacy.
We did not sleep well, and the next morning we ran out of drinking water and had to use the water filter which we fortunately always carry with us in the helicopter. Finally, the fog lifted a little and, when it stopped raining, we quickly ran to the helicopter and removed the covers. But even before we could try to start, we were already surrounded by thick fog once again. It also started to drizzle. So we sat and waited in the shed for hours. Around midday we knew that we had to seize the next possible chance, otherwise the window of opportunity would be gone, and we would have to prepare for another night here! We returned to the helicopter and waited there, hoping to catch a brief break in the fog. And there it was—first some trees became visible close to us, then some in the distance, and finally even the opposite mountainside! However, new fog was already creeping up the slopes from the valley, so perhaps we only had two minutes! While I climbed into the cockpit, worked through the checklist in record time and started the engine, Ben removed the last of the covers from the helicopter and a minute later we were airborne. Just in time to fly home above the fog!
Salomo, Pilot
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