July 11th

It rained all night and all day up to about 2 P.M. so that the canoes could not be loaded before that time. Our baggage is now all aboard and we are ready to start on our farewell to Albatross camp early tomorrow morning. Today for the first time since the river began its latest rise, the water began to fall a very little. We are hoping it will continue to do so. Even so it will be very dangerous and difficult going through the rapids. The fact that the river is starting to drop following the heaviest rain we have had here shows how little the stream is affected by local rainfall. Tonight we gave a farewell party at our shack. Posthumous, Korteman, Van Leeuwen, Hoffman and le Roux were the guests. We opened some wine and some beer in honor of the occasion as well as a can of chocolate. A good time was had by all, the occasion lasting until nearly midnight.