Never have so many owed so much to the teachings of so few as under Marcus’ calm instruction we undertook advanced jungle training and continued our development from urban warriors to advanced jungle ninja’s. Traps, fire lighting and shelter building are all now part of expanding repertoire of skills for belt kit night.
A life on the stage is calling for Trekker Gavin whose stunning performance as a suicidal teenager was widely applauded and gave a healthy dose of realism to our first 2am night time scenario. It culminated with him lying unconscious in a river, with first aid and a stretcher carry from the TEL’s his only hope of survival. Success is relative and though we missed the helicopter pick up and he died from a broken neck we all learnt masses and with lots more scenarios to come it was deemed an early success by all the TEL’s.
Sadly the group had to say an early goodbye to Jasper who learnt quickly the disadvantage of being 4-8 inches taller than everybody else on a long stretcher carry after his back gave way. The onset of “man flu”, which took down James too, meant an early exit for both. A temporary setback with both rejoining the group a few days later.
The group also sadly said goodbye to Melissa. The “Doc” who had performed a heroic task in teaching us first aid and had quickly become the sixth TEL to all of us. Her constant cries to “man up” and seemingly endless supply of little goodies to pull from her bag (cappucino’s in the jungle!) will be sorely missed. We look forward to the UK reunion!
Harry the snake magnet continued in his rich vein of form, picking up his belt kit to go to bed he inadvertently disturbed a coral snake that had made it home. “Close-ish” examination by Dom, Harry and Dick led to identification of a Coral rather than King snake with understandable excitement. After settling down Harry and Dick went to bed comfortable in the knowledge that it was last seen heading in the direction of Dom’s hammock.
Advanced jungle concluded with solo night, early practice for belt kit night and our first night alone in the jungle, a challenge we all relished! All survived but first prize went to Harry who in a 12 hour period built a 3 storey condo with foot spa, closely followed by Wendy whose non-stop macheteing from start to finish of solo night led to an impressive shelter. True to form Dick set a fire, built a basic shelter and relaxed for the afternoon with coffee and biscuits, tasks accomplished. All reflected on how good it felt to be on your own in such a fabulous place.
It’s difficult to briefly describe the packed 5 days that made up rescue training but needless to say 5 days with the Belize Disaster Recovery Team is to be recommended to all! Reunited with Marcus and apprentice son Francis they set about teaching us knots, improvised stretchers, splints and belay set ups for people and stretchers. The undoubted highlight for all was the 100ft abseil. All the TEL’s acknowledged the added pressure of setting up your own anchor and belay when it’s the only thing between you and a 100ft fall. The camp itself was beautiful, right on top of a ridge and a 5 min walk to the river. The well deserved swim and wash every night was a welcome break for all. The only disadvantage of a high ridge became clear on night three when a truly awesome lightning, thunder and rain storm sat over the camp for the night. It was a pretty sleepless night for everyone as we soon discovered that bashers don’t work well in horizontal rain.
Harry again managed to find himself face to face with a snake the next day, a fer-de-lance this time, while walking the bank for a swim in just his lycra undies. Needless to say he was quickly seen running the other way, better judgement telling him to find somewhere else to swim!
Day 5, the final day of rescue training and all the TEL’s knew a scenario was looming so the 6 whistles and a call to arms at 2am came as no surprise. A quick pack and we were on the road in the dark for an hour march to our scenario location “Dragons Bottom Cave” where a 24 year old female had managed to injure herself in the back of the cave. The caves were never more than 2 ft high or 5 ft wide and usually a lot less with mud and clay covering the floor and bats screaming around overhead. It certainly wasn’t a place for the faint hearted or claustrophobic! Harry led the team, supported by medic dick, Wendy and James all ably helped by Dom, Marcus and Francis. Quickly the team formulated a plan set about the belay for the stretcher and headed into the cave to deliver first aid and package the patient for Casevac. 8 people in the tiny spaces led to the TEL’S getting closer than at any other time in the last 2 months but 5 hours later, a lot muddier and with patient in tow we emerged into daylight! Our joy and praise was short lived when it became clear we still had more to do. Another belay set up and this time we were working the stretcher and patient down a steep drop to the river and safety. Scenario complete 10 hours after it started. Our reward, a thirty minute drift down river and rapids without a canoe or raft in site (the perfect way to travel in the jungle) to the road, the bus, civilization and most importantly 4 days of R&R.
All TEL’s reunited for R&R, James decided to head to the Cayes and the beaches, the sensible choice it later transpired. The remaining 4 paired up (Jasper & Harry, Dick & Wendy) and embarked on “The Big Hitch”, an audacious and as it turns out hopelessly optimistic plan to hitch down to Costa Rica and back in 4 days, covering Belize, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. All went well after setting off at 6pm and both pairs arrived in Belmopan an hour after setting off having successfully picked up rides in pick up trucks. The plan to hitch through the night to Punta Gorda proved impossible as with everyone else heading to bed the roads emptied and the 4 TEL’s found themselves wondering the quiet highway in the dark. With much regret we flagged down a bus to Dangriga and hunkered down there for the night and an early start. The 5am start began well with a lift on an arctic lorry carrying breeze blocks meaning we made good progress for the planned 9am ferry to Guatemala from Punta Gorda. Unfortunately 2 hours in it took a wrong right turn and reluctantly we had to jump off. A hot, sweaty couple of hours later without another ride we reluctantly flagged down a bus to ensure we all made the 9am ferry and to stand a fighting chance of hitting Costa Rica. Little did we know the bus would take 5 hours to cover 70 miles, stopping every 200 yards and working it’s way through villages picking up cement, animals and laundry. It meant we didn’t arrive till midday much hotter, sweatier and a lot less enthusiastic for more travel. We had made the 1pm high speed ferry and hit Porta Barros in Guatemala that afternoon.
Maybe it was the sea air or the tranquil beaches that passed us as we rode the ferry but as we sipped a couple of beers in a bar in Porta Barros before hitching on it hit us all. The thought of a hot highway versus golden sands and cocktails was no contest and so we made a group decision to abandon the hitch there and then. 3 days resting in Livingstone, next to the beach, the bar and the cocktail menu proved it to be the right decision, it was after all R&R!
A fresh influx of trekkers arrive tomorrow. It’s now time for the pupils to become the teachers and our challenge for the next week and beyond is to impart our knowledge and newly learnt wisdom to them all. Final lesson plans and logistics planning before their arrival are the important tasks for now. 6 weeks remaining of our TEL’s course and we’ve lost none of the excitement or trepidation about what lies ahead!
