How to get a van off a boat in Kalimantan in the 1990s

Last weekend I came across some old Super VHS tapes from my big trip around the equator back in the early 1990s.

One included footage of a  minivan being unloaded off our boat in East Kalimantan.

We were halfway along the Mahakam River on our way from Samarinda to Long Iram.

There was no dock for the van to drive on to. Or a crane to simply lift it off.

Just a muddy slope for the boat to pull alongside, a couple of metres below the deck the van was sitting on.

As it turns out, that didn’t pose much of a problem for the local villagers.

They simply set about building a makeshift ramp for the van to drive on to.

I can’t remember how long it took them to knock up the ramp but it wasn’t long. 

Once the van had rattled down the ramp and disappeared over the top of the riverbank in a cloud of dust, the ramp was disassembled and pulled down just as quickly.

In time for us to motor off on our way again, just as the sun set over the mighty Mahakam River.