Caboose

Another slow start to the day, with a leisurely breakfast and then a pleasant walk along to the market. It’s quite a small market and most of the produce comes in on the “market boat” (the big one in the picture below left).

We asked permission from a couple of stallholders to take their pictures and were then beseiged by people wanting to be snapped, even after we had explained that we couldn’t get prints back to them.

While we were at the market Jenny and I took the opportunity to buy some fabric. Tartan-like patterns seem to be quite popular there, as well as patterns reminiscent of Andean textiles.

We had been told that one of the local food specialities are “forest grubs”, these are the larvae of a beetle that lives in fallen palm trees. The locals coat them in a spicy sauce and grills them on sticks. For NGN20 we got four grubs. Tracey tried one first, unfortunately I didn’t get the expression of nausea and disgust that immediately followed the photo below. It’s difficult to put me off food, so I wasn’t too bothered by the grubs, but they don’t taste great so I probably won’t bother again. Click here for a video of the grubs before they’re cooked (846Kb, Windows Media).

Our next destination was the community of Apparambie, some distance away along a path through the jungle.

On our way we met the chairman of the local health post, who told us a bit about the village and then, as it started to rain heavily, invited us back to his house. As we approached we were surrounded by a large crowd of children, some of them the grandchildren of the chairman. They loved having their pictures taken.

After the long walk back to Kongho we had a bit of a rest then wandered down to the jetty to wait for Pete and Mary to arrive on the boat from Yenagoa. There was a bit of a mix-up, with the people on the first boat in saying that Pete and Mary’s boat had arrived first. Ine went off to the jetty nearer her house, in case they had disembarked there, while Tracey, Jenny and I sat outside Mama Love’s bar. Pete and Mary arrived shortly afterwards.

Later on that night we returned to Mama Love’s for dinner, the usual rice and stew as well as a very pepperish fish pepper soup. It was lovely sitting there in the evening, apart from the sandflies mounting a determined attack on our ankles.