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...