Gathering in Binuang

Last week saw an amazing amount of people from all over the Kryons and surrounding area wanting to go to Binuang. I was intending on blogging about this last week but got a little distracted with my overnight in Long Alango.

Banners in place in Binuang, welcoming everyone

I’m not entirely sure what it was all about but everyone seemed rather excited. Taking to some of the local people, they were saying something about the Bupati (local mayor) of Nunakan (a small island city located in NE Kalimantan) coming to the celebrations which would include lots of dancing, eating, music and people apparently trying to climb a large pole that was being erected on the edge of the runway.

Large pole being erected

Whatever was going on, it was nice to be a part of helping the people from the surrounding villages get there. MAF, as the only other operator out here in the Kryon mountains, were of course flying in and out of Binuang too. I reckon Binuang was probably the busiest airstrip in the area for those 3-4 days!

People beginning to gather in Binuang ahead of the celebrations

Donny, the chap who arranges our flights in Binuang, invited me to join in but as I was (and still am as I write this) the only pilot based out of Malinau who can fly the Porter, I had to decline (that and I ended up spending the main night in Long Alango anyway!). It would have been nice to go along as he mentioned there was going to be a number of pigs and buffalo killed for the celebrations which would be great eating!

Donny and myself in Binuang

It was also nice to catch up with a couple of the MAF pilots who I seem to run into a lot recently at various airstrips, Dave and Tripp. Dave was going to be spending a few nights there with his family which I’d loved to have done if there was someone to take over from me flying.

Dave departing Binuang

Tripp giving the locals a fly past down the runway

After I’d dropped my last load of passengers, Donny really wanted me to at least have some of the food they were going to have, so he handed me two bags of home made snacks for my return flight back to Malinau. Enak sekali!

Home-made snacks from Binuang