TRAVEL NOTES
Since we only had time for one full day in the Madiun region, we chose to visit the fossil museum at Trinil, described earlier in this book. On the way we stopped off at the old Dutch fort (Benteng Pendem) at Ngawi, where we took photographs of a group of children riding buffalos beside the cane fields. On arrival at Trinil we were informed of the recent death of Pak Wirodiharjo, the old museum keeper, in a car accident. This was sad news indeed, made all the more tragic by the fact that the man most responsible for the creation of the museum would not be able to enjoy the 100th anniversary of the discovery of 'Java Man', in 1991.
It was late afternoon and the thick groves of bamboo growing alongside the banks of the Solo River radiated that intense glow, so typical of the Javanese plains at this time of day. After standing silently for a while at the water's edge, we wandered back up to the museum, where we were shown the most recent discovery to date; yet another section of a fossilized mammoth's tusk, this one about a foot long.

Golden Bamboo and the recent fosil find at Trinil