STANDING in the shadow of the terminal building at the Batang Ai lake jetty, Catherine Ningkan patiently waits for longboats to take her and her family back to their longhouse at Ulu Engkari, which is an hour away by boat.

The 42 year-old housewife and her family group of 10, which includes her brothers, in-laws, son, nieces and nephews, are among thousands of Dayaks in Sarawak who have been making their way home to their longhouse for the end of harvest celebration.

Catherine must reach the 41-door Rumah Wesley Bakak at Nanga Stamang in Ulu Engkari before tonight’s big party to usher in Gawai Dayak.

Gawai Dayak can be translated into “Dayak festival”, a festival to thank the many gods that ensured a bountiful rice harvest.

Catherine and her family had started their journey home in two cars from the LNG town of Bintulu early yesterday morning for the 435km trip to Lubok Antu, timing their trip so they could reach the jetty by mid morning.

The drive was slowed down by heavy rain which turned the Pan Borneo highway they took treacherous.

The two-lane road is unlit, has no divider, and ongoing works to widen it into four lanes pose a hazard.

The river they had to take to their longhouse also swelled with the rain, with waters flowing dangerously fast.

“The journey back home could take longer than the normal one hour,” Catherine said ruefully as she pointed across the lake and the general direction of her longhouse.

“But we’re used to it. We grew up with such things and nothing is going to stop us going home for Gawai.”

Because her family has several longboats, it saved them several hundred ringgits in fare.

To charter one of these longboats to her longhouse would normally cost around RM150 per trip but on days when demand is higher, the fare could double.

For those who do not need to charter longboats, they could hitch a ride with neighbours, if they are lucky, paying a nominal RM10 “for the fuel”.

Catherine’s 9 year-old nephew Desmond Libau was very excited to get back home.

“The river is waiting for me. I can’t wait to jump into the river,” he said.

In Sibu, 9,000 people have been estimated to have taken the express boats to get back to their longhouses that lined up the banks of The Rajang River and its many tributaries.

Anticipating the rush, the Sarawak Rivers Board (SRB) had approved dozens of extra trips to ferry everyone safely home, with some boats going as far away as Kapit three hours away.

Mindful of the Gawai 2013 tragedy in Belaga, SRB had roped in hundreds of officers from the police, Rela, Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism to enforce their “No Ticket, No Entry” policy to avoid a repeat.

In that incident, a small express boat that was designed to carry only 75 passengers, but reportedly carried over 200, struck a submerged rock near Belaga and sank.

Miraculously only about a dozen died in the mishap.

The boat was the only one on the Bakun to Kapit route, forcing workers at the Bakun hydroelectric dam, plantation workers and timber camp workers to overload the boat so they could be back home in Kapit for Gawai.

For those who had reached home safely, tonight is the time to party with relatives and friends they might not have seen in a long time. – May 31, 2017.