The negotiations lasted for hours Wednesday night, between Evrard and the friend of Yusni, who is also acquainted with the pilot of the helicopter... At 2:30am, the deal is almost sealed, the price went down...

The flight is scheduled for Friday early morning, leaving enough time for the pilot to come back from Jakarta... so far, so good.

The only downside of these lengthy discussions is that Evrard is getting seriously tired. The intense preparations of the past weeks brought him already close to vital limits. In the last 5 days, he didn't sleep more than 8 hours in total. Needless to say, his eyes are sunk in his orbits, and Olivier that sometimes join him for his night working sessions looks pretty much the same.

We spend half of the morning waiting patiently for the pilot's answer.
A 10h30 : le pilote appelle. « Yeeaahh deal done !!! » Evrard embarquera demain vendredi depuis Kendari avec Yanick pour survoler le massif à la recherche de réponses et de quelques images de ce coin du monde si mystérieux. Nous attendrons donc leur retour ainsi que l’atterrissage de Jean Michel, Anne Sophie et Aurélie qui arriveront demain de Paris pour partir tous ensemble et rejoindre le massif.

Everything seems perfect. However, right at the moment of handing over the payment, Evrard learns that the pilot will not be able to make it that early in the morning. Does it make sense to fly later in the day, but miss the best light ? Or to postpone the flight by yet another day, but then reduce our already limited time to cross the massif ? The discussions start again.

Evrard comes up with another solution : the pilot will meet with us at the foot of the massif, pick up Yanick and himself for the flight and drop them again on the way back before flying alone back to Kendari. This option, definitely the best one in terms of timing and logistics, was not considered before in order to avoid troubles with the locals. On this point, our Indonesian friends are confident. We just need to tell the villagers beforehand, and everything will be fine.

The flight will then take place Saturday morning at dawn. Now that the decision is made, everyone is more than happy to head up to bed early.