This day later came to be known as Epic Day. The story about Day One being the hardest day of trek was soon to be completely rubbished. This day turned out to be the most knackering day of our lives, and one I'm sure none of us will ever forget. We left camp at 8.30am and did not reach camp until long after night had fallen at 9.45 pm. After about only half an hour after leaving camp Rebecca remembered that she'd forgotten her perang, and Pen (one of our guides) zoomed back to get it for her while we carried on.
This day was filled with steep uphill and downhill jungle trails, with each mountain getting bigger and our energy getting lower. At the top of one hill during a short breather we were told that we had one more downhill, a 'hill' to go up and over, one river crossing an we'd be there. So thinking this nobody bothered refilling their water, thinking to save weight on the last 'hill'. However, this hill turned out to be a never ending m
ountain. Ben had a high point whilst climbing this mountain and chattered away spouting out encouragement and random chat giving us something to listen to, which helped some of us no end to get up that mountain. Mike meanwhile was up at the front with 'Warrior Man' aka Robin, one of our guides, who seemed not to want Mike to overtake him. In a fit of competitiveness they ended up having a running race - up the mountain!
When we reached the summit of the mountain at 6.30pm we were told that camp was only 40 minutes trek and one river crossing away. Alas, this was not to be the case.. The summit of this mountain turned out to be far from the top of the mountain, one river crossing turned into eight (one of which was chest height and terrifying!), and 40 minutes turned into over three hours. After losing the light head torches came out, apart from Ben, who had sw
apped torches with Ali, couldn’t work it, so had to struggle through in the dark! We actually lost the trail at one point and our guide had to cut through very overgrown parts of the jungle with his perang. The new trail led us over what was basically a cliff face, and in torrential rain, it became mudslide haven, with us eventually giving up using out feet and simply going down on our bums. Or as in Holly's case clinging desperately to the guide Tim and claiming him as her own! Over thirteen hours later, and eleven hours of hard trekking we finally reached the village of Pa'Tik. We were relieved to say the least to arrive to a house and not have to put up bashas. We were all mentally and physically exhausted and the comfort that a warm Milo and some noodles gave us was inexpressible.
