Every morning at the Danum Field Centre looks like this. A heavy humid mist hangs over the forest. The morning temperature may only be in the low twenties but a 10 minute walk to the lab or kitchen will quickly leave you with a soaking sweat if you even slightly exceed a slow walk. Watching people walk here is a little like watching someone summit Mt. Everest, there is that slow plodding pace that no one exceeds.One fact that many people may find interesting is the near complete absence of mosquitoes. In the 10 days that I spent at the field centre, I saw 3, really! Even when you are off trail in the jungle, sweating buckets in the mid-day heat and humidity, you will not be bothered by mosquitoes. This is great because there is the risk of malaria in the area (or dengue, or Japanese encephalitis, or....). Unfortunately, the lack of mosquitoes is balanced by the abundance of leeches.
There are two types of leeches here. The large ones, as seen above that quickly get under you clothes (5 minutes into the forest and you are pulling one of these out of someones armpit), and some tiny ones that can push through the eyelets for your boot laces, and latch onto your feet. For these, you wear leech socks, something generally not available at Mountain Equipment Coop. Fortunately, leeches do not vector any diseases so they are really just an annoyance. Having said that, they get absolutely everywhere. One day at lunch I watched a leech fall out of one woman's sleeve while she was scooping rice onto her plate.
2 comments:
Cool, you have to get me that picture for my invert course, and I'll use the story too!
Hmmmm, pulling leeches from other people's armpits - glad you had to remind me...did I thank you for that?
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