Day 95: Tiwai Island

The last day of the year.

It's dripping. We are in the rainforest.

We pack for one night, but above all we need a lot of water. There should be food and bed linen on the island. We quickly take the boat to the other bank and there – unfortunately with all our stuff – on our first long walk.

Momo, our guide, leads us all over the forest – the bushes are dense, the trees are sometimes gigantic and only have leaves in the crown. It's dark (which makes it difficult to take photos) and we actually hardly see any animals. A few pretty butterflies dance around, monkeys can only be recognized when branches move and then they are there as quickly as they are gone. But they make fantastic jumps from tree to tree at quite a height. Hornbills fly up with an incredible wing sound. The sound is certainly the inspiration for many a pterodactyl in fantasy films.

When we reach the camp we are dripping wet. It's oppressively humid.

No surprise: these accommodations are also pretty run down. On the one hand it's understandable if it rains non-stop for two months of the year and everything breaks down, but on the other hand... A mosquito net without holes would be nice or a clean bathroom. But to be fair, the fan works and there is running water. And the bedding seems clean.

And once again we're haggling over prices because what's on the website is of course no longer valid. 70 instead of 45 for food? Why is that, the screenshot is from yesterday? New Prices... Bad starting point if you're already there. But we find out from other guests in the evening that they feel the same way everywhere, all the time.

Our afternoon walk is similar to the morning walk. It's almost quieter. We hear the termites pattering in the dry leaves. The forest smells completely different, sometimes sweet, sometimes fragrant, sometimes strong, sometimes musty, sometimes disgusting.

There is rice for lunch and dinner – beans for lunch, chicken and onion sauce for dinner. Well seasoned, quite edible.

The group is nice for a New Year's Eve thrown together at random: two Austrians who travel a lot (about the same age as us) and use public transport. An Italian woman working for a year at the chimpanzee project in Freetown. Three young Germans who lead a volunteer project and install separate toilets for schools.

We more or less sleep through the turn of the year...