After each long day of bashing through the thick jungle and cave exploration, we'd retreat to the comfort of our jungle camp. Pictured here is the camp we used for Ora cave, built on the rim of the Ora doline by the locals (with our help). Papua New Guinea is notoriously wet, and each night the rain would batter down so loudly on the tarpaulin roof it made it virtually impossible to do anything that needed concentration. In this photo, James is taking the opportunity to do some reading during one of those rare moments when it wasn't raining. We spent about a month living in this camp. One night, after we'd all gone to bed, we were all woken up about 2am being shaken violently in our sleeping bags during a magnitude 6+ earthquake. It was loud, exciting and a little bit scary. Trees, big ones, were crashing down all around us in the forest. For some minutes we sincerely hoped that one wouldn't fall on the camp. During the earthquake, I remember looking across and seeing one team member in his underwear trying to catch pots and pans as they fell off the shelves in the kitchen area. First one in the right hand, then the left, then he ran out of hands and everything just fell to the floor. I still laugh now when I think about this funny sight in the middle of the night.
