Photo: My sister and I chat about whether we really should get on to a bright pink bus with fringed pink curtains and blue seventies plush seating, while student Fiffy – who will spend a large part of the next 10 days collecting mammal shit – chats on the phone.

I have just spent 10 days or so gadding about the rainforest and assorted islands and forests and mountains and so forth, most of it out of telephone range, let alone internet connection.

(Sorry, Tash, did try to phone from assorted
places, including the mountain, but couldn’t get through…)

Will regale you all with my numerous mishaps (missteps?) in the next few days, as soon as I wade through 590 emails, and dispose of 580 of them, and get a mountain of washing stuffed into my pocket-sized washing machine. The smell emanating from my back pack practically fuminated the house on our return… wet sweaty clothes stuffed in the bottom of a pack. Nothing like it for killing roaches or curling your hair.

Anyway, all of you, thanks for bearing with me and returning to my blog after my absence! I shall be reading all your comments and replying soon. In the meantime, here’s a glimpse or two of what I’ve been up to. It all started with the bordello bus from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau, down in Sabah’s south-eastern corner not far from Indonesia…

And included braving leeches
and climbing mountains
and one part involved lots of bananas

Back tomorrow!