[Leica] Adventures

[tmanley at gmail.com (Tina Manley)]

PESO:
Now that I'm safe and warm and dry in a hotel, the adventures of today seem
almost funny - almost.
We signed up yesterday for a night safari in the Nam-et Phou Louey National
Park along with a German couple in their early 50's and 3 British doctors
in their 20's. We headed up the Nam Nern River in 3 long boats with guides
and boatmen. Because it's dry season and the river was so low, we had to
portage the boats three times, crossing over steep rocks and mud. After 4
or 5 hours we arrived at the place where we had a picnic dinner and waited
for sunset. After dark, we headed back down the river with the motors off,
in total silence, spotting animals with our flashlights. We saw deer and
civets and owls. We arrived at our very basic camp about 10:30. The next
morning before dawn, I had the urge to visit the outhouse. I forgot that
there was a large step down from our cabin to the porch. I fell hard,
landing on my hip and slamming my head against the porch post, splitting my
ear. There was a prodigious amount of blood. I managed not to scream and
wake everybody up but as soon as the doctors were awake they examined my
ear. Thank goodness, they had a very impressive medical kit, including
suture glue that is used instead of stitches. They cleaned my cuts with
iodine (!) and put my ear back together with the glue. After wrapping my
whole head in gauze, they said I really should have it looked at by the
doctor at the local clinic. Tom and I headed back down the river with 2
boatmen and a guide. The boatman was so alarmed by the amount of blood that
he was going as fast as he could down the rapids in the river. The guide
told him several times to slow down. About 3/4 of the way there, the boat
hit a tree stump under the water. The front of the boat went up in the air
and the back went under the water. Since Tom was in the front, he only got
his feet wet. In the back, I was in ice-cold water up to my neck. I held my
cameras up and yelled, "Save my cameras!" The guide and boatmen pulled me
out of the water and onto the rocks where we waited half an hour for the
other boats to come by and pick us up. Our boat and motor were wrecked so
we rode back in with the others and went immediately to the clinic. The
doctor cleaned my ear again, pronounced the glue as doing a great job, and
said I would not need more stitches. I was still sopping wet and shivering.
We drove 5 more hours to our hotel and I gradually dried out. The SL camera
is fine. The Monochrome is not. I hope it will recover. I have all of my
electronic gear spread on the bed to dry and I have had a hot shower and
washed all of my clothes. Now I'm going to have some rice wine and download
photos.--

My Monochrome is still not working this morning.  It's full of moisture.
Any suggestions on how to dry it out??  I thought about getting a bag of
rice and putting the camera in it but I'm afraid the rice would get all in
the camera and make it worse.  Maybe it's shot.  ?

Tina Manley
www.tinamanley.com
http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley
<http://www.alamy.com/stock-photography/3B49552F-90A0-4D0A-A11D-2175C937AA91/Tina+Manley.html>