Two days out of Amarah ... heading south – 10 October

We are making progress south with a much larger crew on the boats.  We generally have 4 to 5 in the Tarada, four in the raft, two in the guffa and 1 in the kayak along with four to five people working from land as support logistics.

I will add pictures of our trip out of Amarah later … but not until I can get a better internet connection (our internet is through a Thuraya Satellite device and is rather intermittent).

Last night we spent at a shrine called Sayid Al-Majid Abu Sidra and after arriving I spent about an hour doing the water quality sampling.  Dinner was fake Nutella, peanut butter, garbanzo beans and part of a can of tuna.  V and I slept in her rather cramped tent under a few big street lights that kept the shrine illuminated through the night.  At about 5 AM, the call for prayer went off and went on, I'm sure, for atleast an hour!  

Eventually, J got us up with a delivery of breakfast (Buffalo cream, jam and fresh bread).  We packed up, jumped on the boats and were off ... Day 2 was about 20 kilometers down to the village of Al-Bahadha near from the town of Qalat As-Salih.  S helped me with the last of the sampling and we are currently cooling our heels as well as struggling to catch up on emails and posts in a reed guest house owned by a local family.

Photos in no particular order:

A arguing with the river police outside of Amarah

A, V & A discussing the future of Nature Iraq

Giving the Quffa paddlers a rest

H and our logistics staff waving us on

Remains of the Iran-Iraq War - destroyed army personnel carrier

Threat to the river

Abu H negotiating a line across the river with the help of J

Tea pot leaving Amarah

Brick factories - one of the many threats we saw along the way.

S helping with sampling at the end of the day