We are off!

On Saturday,I will leave my house in Manchester,to travel down to Dave Archer's house ,ready for the flight to Delhi the next day.I'm really looking forward to the expedition. I began planning this in March, and now finally, we are ready to go.I hope we have a great adventure,but more than anything,wouldn't it be wonderful to bring back some proof of the existence of the Mande-Burung!
Well, we couldn't have done any more preparation.These sort of expedtions, trying to unravel mysteries that have persisted for hundreds of years, are always a long shot. Will we be lucky?Here's to hope, and in the words of Winston Churchill ,we will `never, never give up!`
You will hear from me as soon as possible............now is the time.

India-The Countdown Begins......

This weekend , as a preparation for the India Expedition, I climbed Snowdon.Llanberis, the village which nestles in the valley below, is simply gorgeous.The place has an undoubted Alpine feel about it.The ascent was shrouded in mist,but one I got to the top, I could see for miles;miles of rolling green Welsh hills and valleys,peppered with twinkling clear blue Lakes.At night, in the Hotel bar, I joined some of the other people who had reached the summit that day, and witnessed some amazing crab like walks, as they wearily negotiated the now preposterous stairs!
We haven't got long now people, and the plans are laid,the equipment is bought ,the deal is on.I can hear the Mande-Burung calling me in my dreams now;lets hope these dreams turn to reality in a few weeks time!

Mande -Burung.Team Members and Objectives.

• The Team will be on expedition for approx three weeks.We will depart on Halloween, 31st October, from London, and return on 19/20 November.
• I will be leading the team.I will be joined by Dave Archer and John McGowan, who will be bringing their tracking expertise to the team ,whilst Dr.Chris Clark and Richard Freeman will be providing technical and Zoological expertise respectively.
• Dipu Marak will head up the Indian Team,which will include both trackers and porters.
• We will be deploying traditional tracking techniques, as well as using hi-tech equipment such as infra red, camera traps, thermal imaging and field microscopes, as well as a helicam, if appropriate.
• The team will be engaging in both arduous physical treks,and night stake outs.
• We have already arranged a series of appointments with alleged Mande-Burung eyewitnesses.
• The expedition will be filmed for a forthcoming documentary.
• I would love to see one, but at the end of the day, its all about the science.Getting pictures on the camera traps would be amazing.What the expedition really hopes to do though, is get tangible physical evidence of the creature,should it exist,which can then be analysed by independent scientific experts.(e.g. to extract D.N.A for the mapping of genomes).
• I also hope to have a great adventure whilst we are there, and get to chill with the locals!
  

Mande -Burung.

Over the last few weeks , I have spent much of my free time preparing for the expedition to India,which departs at the end of October.The leader of the Indian team, Dipu Marak, has worked hard on comprising a really excellent itinerary for the three weeks that we are there.
As we have vehicles this time, we will be able to cover a large area of the Garo Hills. We have arranged interviews with eyewitnesses, and will of course , be trekking deep into the jungle, in the hope of finding evidence of the elusive creature.As well as the the normal camera traps,and G.P.S. etc, which we normally take out,we will also be taking silicon moulds , rather than than the plaster of paris, which has the potential to degrade, as I learnt from my last time in Sumatra. We will also be taking field microscopes, for on the spot anlysis of any finds, as well as infa red game finders and night vision equipment. We may also employ the use of a helicam,if it is apprpriate to do so.
The expedition will also be filmed for a forthcoming documentary,so you will be able to see for yourselves what happened.
I'm off to the Doctors tomorrow, to find out just how much the price of Malaria tablets have gone up.Time to dust off that knackered old rucksack again!

Its getting nearer.

Over the weekend,Dave Archer and his girlfriend Natasha hosted a meeting of the expedition team for India. They were, as they always are, very hospitable, and I would like to thank them on
behalf of all those who attended. The weather was great, and we were able to do some lovely walks to the villages of Turville, and West Wyckham respectively.Most importantly, we also began to get down to the real detail of the expedition planning.This of course, includes projected costs-in other words how much money we will all need to bring! Afterwards, we went through all the various roles everyone would have. Dave and Dr.Chris Clark, continue to research the equipment.Some of the kit we tested out, such as the latest game finders and infared technology , looked very promising indeed.
Of course, there was some time for celebrations over the last successful expedition.Marlow, was as ever, more than capable of handling that!

What is the Orang-Pendek?

The scientific validation of the existence of the OP is obviously great news. On a personal point , I have been to Sumatra five times, and spent thousands of pounds of my own money on these expeditions.Each time I went ,I learnt more about the creatures movements, and refined my own techniques. I am delighted that I led such a great team, with such fabulous results.
For me ,the story now moves on to what the OP actually is. Right now I am inclined to go very much with the view that it is a variant of the Orang-Utang species which has evolved to walk bipedally, in other words ,to walk like us. The research is of course,ongoing, so we shall see.

Last week ,I took my daughter on her first roller coaster ride. We had just got on it, when some ` entertainer `jumped out and started hitting people on the head with a pretend plastic club ,grunting BOOM BOOM , as he did so. Ducking to avoid the idiot's club, my head conncted with the safety bar, resulting in a huge blackeye. The name of the ride ? King Kong!!! I have had some serious mickey taking as a result,I can tell you-no irony there, eh!

All I can say is that you may have won that round,Kong, but I won the war..................

The results are in! Orang-Pendek proved to exist!

Today , a press release was issued by both myself,and Jon Downes, the Director of the CFZ.The synopsis of it is, that after lengthy research, Dr.Lars Thomas of Copenhagen University, has confirmed that the hairs we brought back from the Sumatra expedition ARE able to be identified.Right now, it seems that the OP is probably a variant of the Orang-Utang, but one it seems, that has learnt to walk bipedally.
Its fantastic news!!

As you can imagine, things are a bit hectic today, but I will post more on the subject at weekend.In the meantime, I would like to thankLars, and the magnificent team I had the pleasure to lead on the 2009 expedition ,for all their hard work.