A long day

Remember when I said that the Hunting Hood story arc was going to be relaxed, and you could expect several intermissions between story parts? What I actually meant was that there will be intermissions between each story arc. I often mean what I say, but I seldom say what I mean. As in, "What do you mean?" "I can't say."


A few old friends of my father visited our town from the big city this weekend, and my father wouldn't hear of anything but he had to take them around and show them the sight-seeing spots. Yesterday he took them to a firefly show and the night-safari zoo. As for today, he told us he would take them to a mangrove swamp. I asked if this was the mangrove swamp at Port Weld, and he said it was. This is the very same mangrove swamp that my Biology teacher so roundly recommends us students visit. So I thought, why not? I tagged along. My older sister came too, and we towed along my baby sister as well.


So we went to the mangrove, and guess what? Renovations all over the place. We hardly went very deep into the forest, when we found all the planks on both forks of the bridge had been removed. Oh yes, we were walking on a bridge into the forest. I mean, its a swamp for tourists. Of course we wouldn't be sloshing through mud. Yeesh. Anyway, we couldn't go deep into the forest, but I was able to get a few decent nature photos on my camera, as will be seen later.


After that, since the plan for the mangrove was botched, we went to a nearby charcoal factory instead. Apparently we were really lucky, because we just walked in there to poke around, and who should we bump into but a patient of my father who works at the place. Well, of course he gave us a grand tour. Of course it was interesting. And, of course, of course I got a few significant photos there as well. And of course the tour took until way after lunch to finish.


In short, because of the mangrove swamp mishap, followed by the unexpected tour of the charcoal industry, lunch started late. Real late. I mean, like, high-tea time late. Well, we went to a "riverside" seafood restaurant to eat, and before the food even arrived of course I was feeling tired. Well, we eventually finished lunch, then got in the car, and dropped my dad's friends off at their hotel, then shoved off home.


It might not sound like much, but this is the ultra-condensed version. I left out a lot of the bits where we walked some way around the swamp looking for a way to get in, and I left out the bit where my baby sister started crying because of the smell in the charcoal factory, and I left out all the car trips. Just keep in mind that we left at 11 o'clock, and got back at 6 p.m. That's seven hours long. Take into consideration the events I have revealed to you, and add in all the trifling details found in any such, what should I call it, journey, and try to stretch it to seven hours long. You'll understand how tired I must be.


Because of my tiredness, please excuse me of my slightly rustic language in today's update, and I'm also inclined to stop typing right here. Instead, I'll let my photos do all the talking for me.

So, this is a mangrove forest. Lots of trees. Squee.

Oh, looks like the bridge has been torn appart. We can't go
any further. Let's turn back.

There's got to be another path into the swamp.
But all I see are even more trees.....

Hey, look, a different kind of mangrove tree. This one
has funny roots that poke out of the ground.

Wait, what's that in the water? Its an exquisite mud-skipper!
Is that an oxymoron? What does that mean anyway?

We've walked as far as the jetty. Looks like we take the boat,
or turn back. Or swim. Oh, and the view is nice too.

No mangrove, no problem! We passed a charcoal factory
a while back. Let's go there instead.

Wow. So this is where charcoal is made? I see lots of wood.

Oh, and there's a canal too. Apparently its for transporting
wood from the mangrove forest. Remember that boat we
saw back there?

And remember all those trees? They take the trees, and they
turn them into something like this. Now, its ready to be
turned into charcoal.

The end-proccess charcoal looks something like this.

As for the actual charcoaling proccess, I guess I should have taken some pictures of those too. There was a large kiln and everything. If you want to know more about charcoal, Google can probably tell you something.