Church organist required for jungle meteorite hunt
Wanted: one organist for concert in remote Bolivian jungle accessible only by
raft. Must be prepared to face rapids, alligators and 30C (86F) temperatures.
Ability to swim a bonus.
Church organists are rarely an essential part of expeditions into the
Amazonian rainforest, but a team of scientists about to embark on a journey to
a far-flung meteorite impact site in Bolivia believe that one will be key to
achieving their mission.
Colonel John Blashford-Snell, a professional adventurer who made headlines in
2000 when he took a grand piano 350 miles (560km) along the Amazon River as a
present for the Wai Wai tribe in Guyana, intends to deliver a pedal organ to
the isolated Ojaki community as a way of persuading its people to help his
expedition.
The colonels team, which will also help to install a clean water supply and
perform medical duties for the Ojaki people, are reliant on local expertise to
build bridges to the impact site, which is five miles wide. The locals are
religious and have asked the visitors to install an organ in their newly built
church.
The organ a pedal-powered Harmonium donated by St Jamess church in Milton
Abbas, Dorset will be flown to La Paz and then transported by lorry 120 miles
over the Andes to the Beni river. It will then be loaded on to a 59ft (18m)
boat for a 430-mile journey over rapids and more dangerous, man-made hazards.
Colonel Blashford-Snell, 70, told The Times that the main obstacle would be
logs floated down the river by timber companies. You get around those by
gunning the engine before pulling the prop out of the water, he said. God
willing, your bow comes out of the water and you shoot over the log and land on
the other side.
Natural hazards include alligators, although these are not a problem unless
you step on them, he said.
The explorer made a reconnaissance expedition two years ago but had to stop
within seven miles of the crater when his party got down to their last bottle
of water. He suggests that any organist willing to join should be prepared to
face discomforts such as swarms of bees and 30C temperratures. The organist
should be fit enough to catch a bus and it would be very nice if he or she
could swim, he said. The successful applicant will also be expected to pay a
share of the costs of about £2,000.
The team hopes to be the first to bring back traces of the meteorite, which
is estimated to have landed between 5,000 and 30,000 years ago. It will also
try formally to identify the Andean double-nosed tiger hound, a dog first
observed in Bolivia in 1913 by Percy Fawcett, a British adventurer.
Derring-do
Colonel John Blashford-Snell is a former officer in the Royal Engineers who
helped to found Operation Raleigh. He will lead the 20-person team on the
two-month trip on June 21
He has twice been shot at by Ethiopian bandits, bitten by a vampire bat and
ate a Panamanian spider monkey
Blashford-Snell is the founder of the Scientific Exploration Society
He led the first descent of the Ethiopian Blue Nile in 1968 and the first
vehicle crossing of the Darien Gap in Panama in 1972
He invented a jungle hat that is mosquito-repellent, Teflon-coated and has a
refrigerated headband
He said recently: I often say at 6am as I climb out of a soaking wet
hammock, God, I must be mad. Why am I doing this?
Here is the link where the article is located:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article1499849.ece
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Hi every one! What I was wondering about this is why it has to be a church
organist? Why not just a good organist?
Well I just thought I would throw it on the list for anyone who was
interested.
Dana Hawn
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