Guest journal written by Nick Shankle:
So here is the story so far. James and I landed on the 23rd and set up a camp on Simushir at Nakatomari. That night a typhoon hit the island and by four in the morning James’ tent along with the kitchen tent and one of the Russian volcanologist’s tents fell apart. We were able to save all James’ stuff but the tent was completely broken. Thereupon the front of my tent split a seam. We then stood in a gully for about a half an hour, before we made our way to the kitchen tent. We were able to salvage some of the tent and took refuge there. Around two a.m. the typhoon ended and once we were able to get our gear out of the rain, we spent the rest of the day scouting for archaeological sites. When we got back to camp our Russian counterparts had repaired the kitchen tent and were able to provide James and me with a tent.
The next day my tent and So here is the story so far. James and I landed on the 23rd and set up a camp on Simushir at Nakatomari. That night a typhoon hit the island and by four in the morning James’ tent along with the kitchen tent and one of the Russian volcanologist’s tents fell apart. We were able to save all James’ stuff but the tent was completely broken. Thereupon the front of my tent split a seam. We then stood in a gully for about a half an hour, before we made our way to the kitchen tent. We were able to salvage some of the tent and took refuge there. Around two a.m. the typhoon ended and once we were able to get our gear out of the rain, we spent the rest of the day scouting for archaeological sites. When we got back to camp our Russian counterparts had repaired the kitchen tent and were able to provide James and me with a tent.
The next day my tent was repaired and we spent the day scouting again. The following day we walked about 10 km but were not able to find any sites. During that time the ship came back and we got aboard and moved to the Vodapadnaya site. I’ve spent the past two days here excavating.
Nick Shankle, Dima Chvagian and James Taylor arrive at Vodapadnaya on July 27 via the zodiac. You can see the Iskatel in the background and many of the others from the archaeology field camp group awaiting onshore.
All and all it has been an exciting trip and it is nice to be able to do some archaeology. So I’d like to say hello to all my family and I will be home in about two weeks, give or take. Lindsey, I will see you soon and I love you. I will send you an e-mail as soon as I get the chance, until then I love you and I will see you soon.
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