I'll cut the intro, here's what we've been doing.........
Set off from Kota Kinabalu on Wed I think it was, don't quite know where I am any more, and headed 45 mins out of town on the bus to the starting point of our trek. We set off through a couple of small villages, where people laughed and waved as we walked past in our stupid hats and massive rucksacks in the searing heat. When we got to the beginning of the actual trail I was overjoyed to see a rickety Indiana Jones style bridge crossing high above the river that we were expected to cross, there were missing planks and everything - it was like my worst nightmare come true. We were only allowed to cross it 2 at a time in case we plummeted into the fast flowing river far below. I cannot lie, I cacked it! but at least I wasn't the only one. It turns out that we crossed 5 such bridges over the duration of the trek, but the first was definately in the worst shape. Now I'm an expert and can hand-spring along them, with my eyes closed, and a machete in one hand.
Before entering the jungle we stopped to eat ramboutans with some local people staying in a hut, then we went in. It was soooooo hot, we were sweating as much as an ox, never known anything like it - although nobody really cared as we were very excited about being there. Next thing we knew the sky turned pitch black and it bucketed with rain, and we got totally drenched; was good though as it really cooled us down.
The rainforest certainly didn't disappoint, such an amazing experience. We went through some really dense bits and had to cut our way through, we also went down some very muddy slopes and wiped out in spectacular style - I had a large streak of orange mud running down the length of my side - it's a good look. Anyway, we set up camp, put up our hammocks, and headed down to a pool where we all took a dip. A fish sucked my toe, it was weird, but I think I liked it!
After a group meeting our 2 guides - Naz and Hanry taught us tribal dances and songs around the camp fire, and we all made tits of ourselves.
Just before I retired to my hammock Naz took my arm and told me to switch my torch off. He lead me to a clearing and showed me a tree covered with fluorescent fungi - it was nuts, ain't seen owt like he before.
I could see it glowing throughout the night, as no, I didn't get much sleep due to all the howling and croaking - it was cool though. In the middle of the night there was a huge thud and a screech, everyone was quite startled, then we realised it was just this fat kid whose hammock had collapsed!
I finally got a bit of kip - resorted to my ear plugs in the end. Waking up in the rainforest was a pretty wicked experience!
The next day we trekked to our 2nd camp where I cooked everyone dinner, what a joke. They all ate it though, fools - and there were no bokers this morning, which was surprising.
At 10am today we did white water rafting, come alive!!!
I loved it. We split up into 3 boats and did lots of silly stuff like head-on bumping dodgem style - yeah! We also sat in opposite directions on each side of the boat so that when we rowed down the rapids the boat spun in circles. We did lots of jumping in, and body rafted for about 20 mins down the rapids passing herds of water buffalo. As I floated downstream feet first, a huge dragonfly landed on my shoe, which was cool. I've decided to become a professional white water rafter, can't see that being a problem in Newbury.
Anyway, we got back to Kota about an hour ago, it's horrible being back in a town again, but it's only for tonight. Tomorrow we've got bus journey to go and see those little orange blighters, then after that we're climbing Mount Kinabalu - saw it this afternoon from the bus, looks rather large!
Anyaway, it's been a brilliant couple of days, our guides were excellent and showed/taught us loads of interesting stuff. I'd better go, have to go to a meeting so that we can discuss our plans for the next couple of days. I think it's Karaoke tonight, good grief....
Byeeeeee!!!!! xxxx
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