Back from the jungle

Our 5 day jungle trek was an awesome experience. We were unable to do the trek we had originally planned as it was deemed to be too slippery & dangerous at the present time. It would also have been a bit tough for our group, as some of them aren't the fittest bunch ever... It turned out to be a good decision as a group we met up later who did go ahead with it said that the first day of trekking which was meant to take 6 hours, ended up taking them 10, due to all the mud, & having to stop for the guides to build numerous bamboo bridges over the streams & rivers. In the end they aborted as well & made other plans. Our trek was a very civilised 3 or so hours of walking per day. We would arrive at a suitable area to camp, near a river or stream, in the early afternoon & set about clearing it with Parrangs (machetes). We would then string up our hammocks, mosquito nets & bashas (a type of waterproof nylon tarp). The next priority was building a fire & cooking frame, & also a table. The guides did it all for the kids the first night, but they then had to set up camp for themselves the remaining 3 nights. The mud was unbelievable, we all ended up wearing the same trousers & shirts for the whole 5 days, because there was no point ruining another set of clothes. Long trousers & shirts were essential to keep the leeches out. We'd also tuck our trousers into our socks as well. I, along with Ric, & only 2 of the kids were lucky enough not to get bitten by leeches for the whole trek. I ended up with about 20 or so in total on my boots over the 5 days, but I was able to flick them off. I also had 2 tiger leeches fall onto my hand, but again I was able to flick them off before they attached. The tiger leeches are the bigger nastier ones which climb onto leaves & trees & drop down onto you. They like to settle between your navel & neck. One of our 3 girls held the record for the most bites in a day, picking up 10 on the very first day! Because they release an anti-coagulant, the wounds bleed for a long time. Her legs were covered in blood. Because you don't feel them attach to you, the first that most of the kids knew they had been bitten was when they discovered they were bleeding. The kids actually coped with it all quite well, I was pretty impressed. The jungle isn't really a place for the faint-hearted!
On the last day before walking out our main guide Larry sliced 3 of his fingers open on bamboo while trying to build a bridge for a river crossing. We applied a bit of first aid, but the gashes were pretty deep. We were only an hour or so away from his village, Pa' Ukat, & from there it was 20 minutes on a moped into Barrio, so we convinced him to go to the clinic there & get his injuries seen to. He walked back in that night with 2 stitches in 2 of his fingers, & several beers each for the 3 adults & 3 guides, plus a couple of pineapples! The 2 guides who had remained had built an incredible bamboo picnic table & put a tarp over it to protect it from the rain. It was a lovely final night in the jungle! On Saturday we walked the hour of so to Pa' Ukat where Pang was waiting for us with lunch. From there it was another 45 minutes walk to Barrio, where we were staying at Nancy's place. There were 2 other world challenge groups there, so it was a good chance to compare stories & give tips to the other expedition leaders. Saturday night we were invited to a huge ceremony to swear in a new chief for one of the local villages. It was a huge deal, with the president of Sarawak present to swear him in. Pang was in charge of organising the whole thing, & we were invited as his guests. They had slaughtered a water buffalo that morning for the feast that followed the formalities. We arrived at 7:30pm, & left just before midnight, with all the locals still going strong. It was pretty tedious at times, with long LONG speeches in Malay, but it was certainly an experience that a lot of people will never have. Today we flew back to Miri, & back to civilisation. A long hot shower & clean clothes has never felt so good! Tomorrow we are off to explore the Niah caves, then we return to Miri on Tuesday. Wednesday we fly to Kota Kinabalu for the next leg of our adventure...

Building Bridges

On Wed 16th we flew into Bario airport in a small twin-otter . From there we had a 45 minute walk from the airport to a tiny little village called Pa' Ukat where we were based for our project phase. It is a jungle community 2000m up in the Kelebit Highlands. We were staying in the longhouse belonging to Pang, the village chief. Pang was an amazing guy, we couldn't have asked for a more hospitable or considerate host. He used to be an engineer for Shell & spent years working around the world on oil rigs. He was the person who had designed & written up the plans for the bridge we were building as our project. The old bridge had washed away about a year ago, & they were making do with 2 thick bamboo poles lashed together, along with a hand-rail. The new bridge was 4 ft wide, 30 ft long, & strong enough (hopefully!) to support a fully laden buffalo. The kids, along with a handful of local workers, made a great job of it, even if some of their hammering skills caused a great deal of mirth amongst the incredibly skilled locals. The Kelebit people are extremely religious, & we were expectedto take part in their church services. On the Saturday night we had to attend a fathers day service that was about 2 hours long, & quite hard work at times. We had gone straight from dinner at Pang's, but there was also a meal after the service, & being guests of honour we were obliged to try & force down a little bit more food. I wasn't brave enough for the fish porridge, but Ric tried a bit & said it wasn't that bad. The food at Pang's (cooked by his lovely wife Nora) was really good. The meat most nights was wild boar, usually with some sort of curry, & always with rice. The area is also renown for its pineapple growing, & I ate so much of it during my time there it's a wonder I haven't turned into one!

Sunday was the big church service which the whole village attends. It was about 2 & a half hours in total, but there was much more singing than the previous nights service, which helped it to go quite quickly. We were expected to give a presentation, so the 16 of us stood up & gave a rousing rendition of 'Lord of the Dance'. It seemed to go down quite well... All those Friday morning congo sessions (hymn singing practise at school) paid off, with the kids knowing all the words. We got off quite lightly with the church thing really... The villagers also attend a daily 5:30am service which we were excused from.

Monday was our last day working on the bridge. We were well on schedule & Pang was very happy with the work done. Another world challenge group were coming in after us to finish it off & put a roof on it. As Monday was our last night, Pang put on a huge BBQ, with the most divine wild boar, & lots of chicken wings. He mixed up a whole bottle of Bacardi for the kids, but only mixed it with 3 cans of lemonade for the whole bottle! Soft drink was relatively expensive compared to the alcohol. It had an interesting effect on the kids... One boy we have nick-named "Tom two-sips" because he was silly after only a couple of mouthfuls! Later that night after the kids were in bed Pang also insisted that we drink more Bacardi with him & his wife, & would not let us go to bed until we had finished the whole bottle! That was the end of our time in Pa' Ukat, as Tuesday morning we set off on our jungle trek.

Borneo!

On Thursday Ric, myself, a world challenge leader called Debbie, & 13 kids arrived in Borneo for the start of our 4 week adventure. We had a very good flight to KL with Malaysian airlines, then had a couple of hours in transit before the 2 hour flight to Kuching, which is the main town in the Sarawak region of Borneo. We stayed 1 night in Kuching, then headed for Baku National Park which is a 1 hour bus trip , followed by a 40 minute boat trip away. It was a lovely place right on the coast, with some very nice beaches. We had 2 nights & managed to get a bit of walking in. My highlight so far has been seeing a bright green viper which was very very cool!

We slept in our jungle hammocks for the first time, which was an interesting experience, especially considering we had some full on thunder & lightning storms & it absolutely teemed down!!! We were going to do another walk this morning before heading back to Kuching, but had to abort because the rain was far too heavy, the lightning was really close, & we had to go up (& down) a hill that some of the girls found quite slippery & tricky in the dry! It meant we got back to Kuching earlier, giving a chance to do a bit of laundry & use the internet. It might be the last chance for a while as tomorrow we fly to Miri, then the next day we get a little 10-seater plane to a remote village in the jungle called Bario. We do our one week community project here, which is building a 30ft foot bridge over a river. We then do our full-on 5 day jungle trek, before flying back to Miri. There may/may not be internet in Miri, I'm not sure how big a place it is.

The kids are doing well so far, although they are a bit rubbish when it comes to speaking to the locals & trying the local food. We have had rice for nearly every single meal, including breakfast, & some of them are sick of it already. Only 3 & a bit weeks of it to go! Meals are incredibly cheap, dinner in a local restaurant is about 60p per head.

Wimbledon!

My holiday has started well. The highlight so far has been the postman turning up on Friday with my passport! I was starting to stress a bit, considering that I fly to Borneo on Thursday!!! I am now allowed to stay in the UK as long as I want, as long as I don't leave the country for more than 2 years. The next step is to apply for citizenship, and then I will be eligible for a UK passport. That is the master plan, because it means that when Will & I return to NZ, we can easily both head back to the UK & work should we wish...

On Thursday night I met up with Nicola in London & we headed for Wimbledon. It is her birthday a few days after I fly to Borneo, so we wanted to get together before then. We got the cheap 5pm tickets, but as soon as we got into the ground the heavens opened! We weren't too bothered, we spent an hour or so chilling out in the rain on Henman Hill & having a nice catch-up... On the way into the ground you pass through the walk of champions, so Nic felt obliged to give Roger a kiss...

The rain eventually cleared & so we decided to try & get charity tickets for centre court. When people leave for the day they can hand their tickets in, & they get sold for £5 each, with all proceeds going to charity. We manged to pick up a couple of fantastic tickets, & we watched the second half of Serena William's semi-final against Zheng, which had been delayed by rain.

It turned into a gorgeous summers evening, & they even had enough light to play the men's doubles semi after Serena had done the business against Zheng.

Will & I have just enjoyed a nice relaxing weekend. I got a bit of shopping done, picking up the last few things I needed for Borneo. We were both pretty tired & enjoyed long lie-ins on both days. This evening we watched pretty much all of the Wimbledon men's' final. What a match! We were both cheering for Nadal, so were happy that he finally managed to nail it.

No other news... The next post will probably be from Borneo. I'm not sure how much time & opportunity there will be to keep this updated, but will do so if given the chance...

The South Downs & Jack

My last couple of days of 'school' went well. I was on the bronze DofE trip to the South Downs with Giles, & Murray the kiwi OAG (old-aged gappie!). We had a lovely time, the weather was perfect, sunny & hot. The kids route just happened to take them past a pub, so Murray & I felt obliged to stake it out, obviously just to stop them going in! We managed to sneak down a midday shandy in the sunshine...
The South Downs is nice gently rolling countryside. It doesn't quite have the same wilderness factor as Dartmoor, but it is still very pretty. We came across some very friendly cows, in a field next to a 12th century church which you can just see in the background. The campsite we stayed in was lovely as well.


On Wednesday night Will & I had tickets to Jack Johnson in Hyde Park. There was a bit of light rain when we caught the train into London, but it cleared to be a gorgeous balmy summers evening. Just perfect for downing a couple of ciders & lounging around listening to the mellow sounds. Supporting Jack was Mason Jennings, G-Love, & Ben Harper. A good night was had by all!