The Blanching of Perkins
As you know, Perkins is a small stuffed monkey with white paws and hands. The rest of him is orange.
He didn't come out of his back basket for three days after the flight to Hiva Oa and we were more than surprised to see that he hadn't blanched completely. As for his minders.......
Georgina, Camille, Darren and self had one of the most frightening experiences of our lives:
The flight to Nuku Hiva from to Hiva Oa is supposed to be 35 mins in duration, but we soon realised that the visibility was worsening and the journey would lengthen. We were flying in cloud most of the time but after an hour or so I glimpsed some sea and then a bit of coastline with very low cloud on it. We soon realised we were traversing the side of the island and circling down to the sea every now and then. It was getting incredibly hot and humid and we were told in French that we would soon be landing, but nothing of the sort. Shortly after that the windscreen wipers packed up (we learnt later that the GPS had as well). After nearly two hours of this the pilot announced ' nous commencent nos dernier tosse'. Not knowing French at all well I took this to mean 'last throw of the dice'.
Night was on us and suddenly the pilot put us into a steep climb and we cleared the cloud at about 4 thousand feet. We then dived down into the dark cloud and miraculously emerged high on the island in a clearing where we could see runway lights and two big strobe lights to guide us in. With much buffeting we landed and taxied to the airport which was closed and unlit. After some time people arrived and after a further wait our hotel director turned up and his first words were "you have all had strong emotions". The passengers were hugging each other and I must admit I was shaking, having been rigid, speechless and drenched in sweat on the plane. Georgie thought I was going to have a heart attack. Me too. Camille and Darren were further up in the plane but were both very shook too. Camille said Darren didnt want to fly again, something we all felt.
The 35 minute flight took 2 hours 5 minutes. We also learned later that we could not return to Nuku HIva because their runway lights were inoperative.
Again my admiration for aviators and their skill and sang froid increased. I have never felt so strongly that the 'last toss' was upon us .
The hotel director assured us that the pilot had been one of France's best military pilots and had also been in the French Control (What that? Foreign Legion?). We heard that he was not well the next day although apparently unconnected to our jouney. Apparently.
This has been the lowpoint of our travels.
He didn't come out of his back basket for three days after the flight to Hiva Oa and we were more than surprised to see that he hadn't blanched completely. As for his minders.......
Georgina, Camille, Darren and self had one of the most frightening experiences of our lives:
The flight to Nuku Hiva from to Hiva Oa is supposed to be 35 mins in duration, but we soon realised that the visibility was worsening and the journey would lengthen. We were flying in cloud most of the time but after an hour or so I glimpsed some sea and then a bit of coastline with very low cloud on it. We soon realised we were traversing the side of the island and circling down to the sea every now and then. It was getting incredibly hot and humid and we were told in French that we would soon be landing, but nothing of the sort. Shortly after that the windscreen wipers packed up (we learnt later that the GPS had as well). After nearly two hours of this the pilot announced ' nous commencent nos dernier tosse'. Not knowing French at all well I took this to mean 'last throw of the dice'.
Night was on us and suddenly the pilot put us into a steep climb and we cleared the cloud at about 4 thousand feet. We then dived down into the dark cloud and miraculously emerged high on the island in a clearing where we could see runway lights and two big strobe lights to guide us in. With much buffeting we landed and taxied to the airport which was closed and unlit. After some time people arrived and after a further wait our hotel director turned up and his first words were "you have all had strong emotions". The passengers were hugging each other and I must admit I was shaking, having been rigid, speechless and drenched in sweat on the plane. Georgie thought I was going to have a heart attack. Me too. Camille and Darren were further up in the plane but were both very shook too. Camille said Darren didnt want to fly again, something we all felt.
The 35 minute flight took 2 hours 5 minutes. We also learned later that we could not return to Nuku HIva because their runway lights were inoperative.
Again my admiration for aviators and their skill and sang froid increased. I have never felt so strongly that the 'last toss' was upon us .
The hotel director assured us that the pilot had been one of France's best military pilots and had also been in the French Control (What that? Foreign Legion?). We heard that he was not well the next day although apparently unconnected to our jouney. Apparently.
This has been the lowpoint of our travels.
posted by Tim Goulding at Sunday, March 06, 2005
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