Today, I am in Danang and later I will hit the road north heading to Hue and then Hwy 49 west to A Luoi District in Thua Thien Hue Province. There my team will stay overnight before we head to the field tomorrow.
A Luoi District encompasses the A Shau Valley and I will be heading to the extreme northwest point of A Luoi. As a matter of fact, advance information tells me that once I get out of the vehicle, I will be walking another four and a half hours to the site I will be surveying. It lies exactly on the Vietnam - Laos border. Good news is, it is only four hours back and the weather is cool. Bad news is, the weather forecast calls for light rain. My predication is lots of slips and lots of leeches. Hopefully we will get it all done in one day and be back. It is hard to believe that the 8-plus hours of walking will take me a horizontal distance of only about eight miles.
For a lot of reasons, I won't go into the specifics of the site I will be surveying. The importance of this activity for me is two-fold. Obviously, the mission is important to prepare a team to come in and recover the location in the future, but it is also important for me because this will be one of the longest and most difficult, single-day trips I will have been on. I am interested in finding my limits here and this work could very well take me close to or to that limit.
I got an opportunity to talk to someone in the know about this particular case and the story is very interesting. I hope things aren't so busy at the site that I can't take a minute to reflect on what happened there so many years ago and mentally recompose the events as they took place so long ago in such a forgotten place in this work.
Today is Sunday, I wish I was home with my wife and daughter. I can comfort myself by knowing I have both days off next weekend.
1 comment:
Well, at least you can say you don't have a sedentary job! I'm sure it helps keep you in shape.
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