Monday 17th November, on board the Airaha 2. Waking up off the island of Tumbu-Tumbu: it’s paradise! The day’s schedule is à la carte. There is the choice between a walk round the island, snorkelling, diving by day or night; and it is possible to choose several options. Régis even proposes a first diving experience for the neophytes. The diving … Lire la suite →

Sunday 16th November, on board the Airaha 2. Sunday, a day off? The atmosphere at land base camp is somewhat peaceful. It is not a non-working day, but the excitement of the first days has disappeared. We can feel the expedition is coming to an end. We will be leaving in three days for Kaimana, before continuing to Sorong, then … Lire la suite →

Saturday 15th November, from base camp in Kumawa. To begin with, let’s reassure those who are worried. We heard that there had been a tsunami in the area but we have not seen any of it. Today, I interviewed Yayuk and Arnaud, who are both interested in soil-dwelling and underground arthropods. Yayuk is specialized in springtails (Collembola), and Arnaud in … Lire la suite →

Friday 14th November, from base camp in Kumawa. Today, I am accompanying Evy and Tri, the two Indonesian herpetologists. In the forest surrounding the camp, they have placed lizard traps (sticky traps with mouse glue spread on a wooden base) and varan traps (pvc pipes sealed at one end and in which they put some bait). They check them twice … Lire la suite →

Thursday 13th November, from base camp in Kumawa. The speleologists and the karstologists went scouting to try to find caves. Today like yesterday, they went up river from the sea. They found some resurgences and three caves they could not explore in depth unfortunately, because they quickly ended in a siphon. To carry on, they would have had to dive … Lire la suite →