Rather a lot has happened over the last week or so, but I'll put all my diminishing brain power into trying to remember what I've been up to....
Left the city of Miri armed with all our food supplies for the trek in Bario
- they don't sell nuffin there but rice (but it is the best rice in the world - so people keep telling us) The flight to Bario was interesting, it took took 50 mins, and was all going smoothly until we climbed to 7000 feet over the Kelabit highlands, where it became really rather lumpy. Mmmm, turbulance - one of my favourites. The view from the plane was amazing though, as we flew above the vast expanses of rainforest. There were 10 of us on this flight as it was a tiny plane, and the other 5 from our group were due to catch the next flight a few hours later. On arrival in Bario we were loaded into a truck 'cattle style', and driven to a local long house by a woman with those weird stretched earlobes. She had scary lead weights hanging from them that swung when we drove through pot holes, not really 'feeling' that particular look. The long house was great, and had a good deal of length to it. Anyway, the hours passed by, and the rest of our group had still not materialised... we were beginning to worry. To cut a long story short, our plane had left Bario, carrying a World challenge group from Wimbledon back to Miri. At the edge of the highlands the cockpit had filled with black smoke, and they had to make an emergency landing. Glad I wasn't on that bad boy return flight. Meanwhile, back in Miri, the rest of our group were becoming frantic, as no more Bario flights were allowed to leave, and flights for the next few days were booked solid. Luckily, the in-country rep for WC (Sampson) was with them, and managed to flag down a pal of his in the airport who he knew had a plane. A deal was struck, and he agreed to give them a lift to Bario - he made them wait for an hour though, while he went to the bar.
That night, with our group fully re-assembled, we had a big gathering in the town hall with several other WC groups and all the locals - it was by way of a thank you for all the work WC have been doing there (various building projects - more on our project later) and for bringing over loads of boxes of books from the UK for the local school.
It was a great evening, we had a massive feast, and there was lots of singing form 'The Kelabit Bad Boys', and some of the musicians from Radley did a few numbers. The highlight of the evening however, was when old droopy lobes and her droopy lobed buddies dressed up and did a dance on the stage - it was an ear-swinging spectacular. One of them was really drunk and couldn't stop laughing, ending the routine with a spectacular tumble down the stairs.
The next day was the day we'd all been waiting for - our main jungle trek through the Kelabit highlands. It absolutely poured down when we set out, just enough to stir all the leeches on the forest floor. We spent 5 days and
4 nights in dense rainforest, quite an amazing experience. The walking was really tough due to the weight of our packs, and the difficulty of the terrain. It was all up and down hill, scrambling over boulders, balancing on logs across the river, and just general sweating and getting covered in mud.
At about 4pm each day we'd stop and clear a bit of jungle with the help of our 2 armed guides, Samuel and Johnson, so that we could set up camp. We'd be next to a river each night so we could have a bit of a swim in the dark brown water - the same dark brown water that we were drinking every day....
how I'll miss the taste of iodine. I particularly enjoyed the evenings - cooking food on an open fire then talking about stupid stuff before retiring to our hammocks. On a couple of nights wild boar came into the camp and stole our hot chocolate powder. You could hear them grunting above our snores, and one lad felt one brush against the underside of his hammock. On
2 of the nights our guides went out hunting and brought back deer that they chooped up and cooked. I went for the lung and spleen, but equally enjoyed sucking on a bit of deer spine. The worst bit of it all was the leeches - they were everywhere, and they're vile. You don't feel them bite, and it's not until someone points out that your clothes are soaked in blood that you have the joy of lifting the fabric to reveal a plump blood filled parasite attatched to your stomach - or in the case of one unfortunate individual, the bum crack. The boys were obsessed with constantly checking down the fronts of their trousers for slippery blood-sucking invaders. I managed to seal myself from leech attack with leech socks and attractive tight fitting garments, and only had one close call when a particularly sly specimin launched itself from a tree and landed on my finger tip.
When we finally emerged from the jungle 2 days ago we were quite a sight to behold - totally shredded, blood-stained, and stinking. Everyone was filled with a great sense of achievement (all except the girl who didn't make it up the mountian - she dropped out on day one, and went back to join another of our groups in Bario) and we sprinted the last part back to the accomodation.
Having a shower and feeling clean again has never felt so amazing.
For the next week we're staying with a couple called Nancy and Harris and their 7 kids. Nancy is a pretty big cheese here and owns pineapple fields and a petrol station - 2 businesses that naturally go together. Her cooking is amazing, and can usually be seen walking around and within the property before it gets as far as our plates. We've been warned not to go around the back of the house as there is a ditch filled with poisonous snakes, but other than that, it's all good. Bario is as rural as an ox, nowt here but paddy fields, huts and hills - it's like the pages of the national Geographic - quite something. We're doing a project on the hill above the local school - the school used to be on that hill, but it blew off. It's our job to construct the high-tech complex that is 'The Bario Motivational centre'. Two other teams from Downe house/ Radley have started it off by making a shelter, a pond, and a trust fall, and we're constructing some other activites, some benches, and I'm painting all the signs. It will be a hard week working in the sun up on the hill, but there are incredible views, and I'm looking forward to seeing what we manage to achieve. We have however been warned that we have to lie on the ground at roughly 11:30 am each morning as a huge swarm of bees comes through at that time.
This morning (Sat) we were invited to join the school's 'Walkathon', a charity event to raise funds for a new hall. It had to be put back half an hour as we were late, but eventually we set off with 200 kids who were told 'not to run' before they sprinted off from the start line. Myself and the 2 other group leaders - Ben and Ruth, took it easy, and strolled the 6k, talking to locals on the way, making videos, and taking photos. Everyone else was so far away that we lost sight of the backmarker (surprise surprise
- our drop out girl) and we got lost for about 20 mins. We finally made it to the finish - where the rest of the school was waiting, and had already eaten and drunk all of the post-walk food and drink. They announced our long awaited arrival on the megaphone and everyone cheered as we sauntered in.
Ruth and Ben upped the pace for the last 20 metres, sly beggers, and did one of those bum wiggling fast walk finishes - leaving me to come in dead last - the pride I felt at my special achievement!
Anyhow, I've nearly run out of internet credit so I'll finish up. Tomorrow we're off to church, where we're expected to perform - our number is being practised as I type, I'm sure it will be a real crowd pleaser. After that we're climbing the highest peak in the region - a straight-up scramble hauling yourself up using plant roots appararently - bring it on! After that we're having a big feast and a party for one of the boys who turns 18 tomorrow, so all in all, should be a good one.
Anyway, bye for now... Kirsten xx
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