A dose of Salts...: Team Green!

The Vogel family are amazing! They took us under their wing from day one and adopted us as our Tungog Lake Foster Family. Martin, Janet, Bobby and TJ live at the camp in what I can only describe as a supped-up camp deck. They fit an entire 4-people home complete with kitchen, living area and all of their belongings, into a camp deck that usually sleeps 2 people, and has no windows, just mozzie guards. As you can imagine, this requires and organisational feat of epic proportions, and the use of an absurd number of water-tight, squirrel-tight and civet-tight variations of tuppawear and plastic storage units that are able to withstand the crazy climate. This wonderful little home goes by the name of Camp Deck 10 and is the place all the magic happens.

Janet is a whirling dervish of enterprise, of creativity, of practicality, but most importantly a culinary genius who has furnished our stay at Tungog Lake with an array of mouth-watering cakes that would make Delia Smith’s knees quiver. Janet very quickly discovered our naughty sweet teeth, and indulged us considerably by baking a fresh cake every other day or so to take with us while we work, or just to have as a yummy afternoon tea! Every day she’d bring the Vogel Family dinner down to the dining area where Bro and I would usually be finishing off our dinner, and we’d be invited for our ‘Second Dinner’, at which we’d would jump up and help ourselves to a bit of theirs too. This lady is a tremendous cook, and when you consider that she has no fridge, no oven, just a hob and lots of yummy ingredients, it is doubly impressive.

It is Janet who took me out to the lake and gave me yoga lessons and Janet who pumped us full of delicious home made Kambucha if one of us was feeling a little below 100%, who dug into her extensive first aid kit whenever we were short of something in ours (often), who would emerge with special eco-soap which has the double whammy-effect of repelling mozzies, when I was getting too bitten, who showed me how to make environmentally-friendly loo cleaner, who applied first aid when a guest lacerated his hands down to the bone, who surprised us all with her sly moves at Cheat and who made us laugh when she spent a good week mastering a simple hand gesture, and then forgetting it again straight away! She's an inspiration and I have learnt so much from her and her wisdom.

Martin is like no person I’ve ever met before. He is a rainforest Warrior of heroic proportions who is on a life-long mission to save his beautiful corner of the planet, one tree, one hornbill, one fungus at a time. This man is literally a machine…he is up before dawn, works like a dog all day, and often will still be working at 1,2,3am…or even on occasion all night...whatever is needed to get the job done. He’s a mentor he’s a guide, he’s a DIY-master, he’s a pontoon-builder, a tree-climber, a weed-basher, a welder, a pioneer, an engineer, a one-time barman, a boat-driver…a jack-of-all-trades and master of most of them too, and he’s someone I admire immensely. If I could take half of this man’s drive, dedication and passion for the world then I would be doing OK. I feel privileged to have had the chance to spend this time with someone I respect like I do Martin.

And it is Janet and Martin who are also responsible for introducing us to a magical and exciting new world….

….a world of the most incredible fruit you can imagine! They have introduced us to Cempedak, Durian, Soursop, Mangosteen, Snake fruit, Starfruit, Dragonfruit and my absolute favourites…boiled Plantain with Janet’s home-made coconut sprinkles (yes it’s as good as it sounds!!) and the very wonderful Tarap. Whenever they do a supply run, they come back with a whole load more, and very generously share it with us…Its absolute heaven! Some of these fruits are like no other thing we’ve tried before-a taste, smell and texture revelation, and we’re addicted!