gravity phase 1

So onto the main event and preparation for the venturers arrival was under way with the official raleigh olympic committee (myself, nat, komal & alex) creating a challenge of tug of war, welly wanging & an obstacle course, obviously we had to try it out first on ourselves & spent a fun afternoon testing the events.

Dress rehearsal, olympics planning

We then went onto the airport to meet 50+ venturers, split them up into delta training groups and welcomed them to Borneo with an immediate swim test & some quite frankly awful cheese & cucumber sandwiches.

Olympic competition, with added water

We spent a couple off days passing on our newly acquired skills and trekking into the jungle for a night before the allocations for phase 1 and heading off to the project site for the expedition to begin for real.

Delta 2 heading to the jungle
ruth, noah, ruben, serene, kenly, laura, john, becky, simon, nat, lara, emma, kitty, tom

Delta 2 enjoying life in the jungle

We were incredibly lucky to begin the phase with an invitation to the wedding of the head man's daughter.  Despite the slightly awkward feeling of turning up to a wedding when you've not met either the bride or groom, we had a great time and presented the newly weds with raleigh t-shirts - surely the highlight of their day.

Wedding shot with the happy couple
nat, meghan, laura, simon, kenly, barnaby, steffi, jon, john
jake, kate, bou, thijs, eddy, anna

We then got down to some real work with the creation of a concrete base for the water tanks, fencing off the water source and laying pipes along the main route which is due to feed most of the village.

Starting the water tank foundations

The walk to work

Carrying pipes

unravelling pipes

Our housing was an enviable, half built, construction at the top of the village, where we slept upstairs and created a kitchen and communal area downstairs.

Kitchen

Wildlife was not exactly abundant but there were a few odd visitors to the house and around the village

A visitor in the food store

Dragonfly at the water source

The most dramatic thing was sunrise, from around 5.30 nearly every morning we were treated to spectacular views , always worth getting up for & since we were without any electricity following the light became the norm, starting working at 7 to avoid the heat of the day and often in bed by 8 or 9 after a couple of hours of darkness.

Sunrise in Nungguh

We finished the phase with the water tanks in position, fencing completed and most of the pipes laid, not bad for 18 days.

Alpha 2
barnaby, thijs, jake, simon
kate, bou, steffi
nat, laura, jon, kenly, meghan