Tricia woke me a 5.30 AM snoring my right ear off. I couldn't fall asleep after that.
Breakfast, tick. Bus, tick. Rain, tick. Off we all go.
First stop, rotting fish hanging up. With rain.
Second stop, a nice view of some lakes in volcanic mountainous area. Heavy rain and biting wind. Why the hell are we getting out of the bus. I like the 30 degrees C as opposed to what's outside.
We were then advised we should have brought cloths to wrap our cameras in and an air blower to blow the water off the lens. I recommended they forewarn tour groups of such things in future. The lightning response was that information was hidden in the guide book we were all given. The irony was not lost on me.
My jacket proved to be a water soak rather than water repellent. My waterproof pants would not stay up because the waist cord had only one end. So I was basically staggering around in lashing rain soaking it all in, with my pants mostly around my ankles. What is wrong with these people?
The third stop. I put my back brace on so it could hold up my pants. I threw my jacket swimming pool away and put a rain coat on. We had delayed slightly, to eat lunch. It was delicious, but it gave the rain a chance to get viciously horizontal. No matter, off we go. There is a lot of steam vents, lots of mud, a pretty awful place really. My boots were not waterproof either. The pools of water in them were now cold. I grabbed a few shots. How can this camera still be functioning? I'm certainly not.
When one of the pros re-boarded the bus, I asked if had got any good shots. His enthusiastic reply was "Oooh yes". The black mud pool to the right of the blue lake was spurting black blobs of goo into the air and the background was all white (the rain). At first I thought "you bastard, why didn't you tell me that was there, I couldn't see it. But I eventually realised I couldn't care less about mud spurts.
Everyone wanted a loo. The bus did not have one. We had been warned that there would be none, anywhere, all day. The driver was persuaded to head for the nearest loo.
We drove past the airport. WHY? There are lots of loos in there. And they can't be busy because nothing could be landing or taking off in this weather. After another 20 minutes we arrived in a small town, with a petrol station. It had one loo and the queue was 17 deep. I bought some towels for our cameras while I waited for 20 minutes. They were doing a roaring trade in towels today and had no idea why.
The tour leader asked if we would like to do more or go back to the hotel. We headed back. On our way back, I checked our Guide Book on Evernote. No mention of blowers, towels, or shooting in torrential rain. A topic for dinner.
This is going to be one hell of a trip.
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