Success! Despite none of us being able to pronounce the village we were staying in we all arrived in Wales with high spirits for the Wales phase and Belize. There are 3 of us – Ralph, an American Ex-Submariner from Iowa; Myles, from Stoke and Peter from London. After a day of getting to know each other (and asking Ralph a lot of questions about Submarines) we begun our First Aid Training with Nicole. This consisted of two days of feeling each other up (for broken bones, pulse and breathing of course) and having DR ABC DE drilled into us we completed our first bit of training, confident that we could call 999 very, very quickly.
We were next unleashed onto the mountain with Danny, one of many pony-tailed mountain men that we would work with over the next 2 weeks. Basic lessons in Nav, compass and map work ensued with a little fog navigation thrown in by the delightful Welsh weather. However, the weather held off for our first overnight camp as we summitted Cnicht (sadly Myles’ one and only Welsh summit) and camped next to Llyn Adli meeting Jules, Danny’s long haired friend.
Now that we were not complete strangers to the mountain we progressed onto our Mountain Leader Course and Blue Peris. We were all looking forward to this although we had become greatly concerned with Ruby, a young girl in Home and Away that was getting herself into trouble and were distressed that we would not be able to see if she was OK. The center was great, especially the food which seemed to appear in odd tins and cupboards whenever we weren’t looking. The course consisted of more Nav, rope work, group leading, river crossings and weather and mountain hazards lessons. Various instructors passed on their wisdom with one particular leader, Mark, an International mountain guide catching our attention. No river was too deep and no scramble was too steep for this ‘Mountain Jedi’ who whilst we were out of breath and climbing with our hands and feet would dance up in front of us with his hands in his pockets.
The last day of the MLT consisted of another overnight trip and we left in good spirits due to the pub quiz we had won the night before – the prize was a crate of beer which we could not take with us but we each took a can so that we could at least enjoy some of our winnings. Peter lost his can on the mountain, turning to see it bouncing down a rocky gully and, since it was only Carling, did not go and get it. Myles successfully took his to the top and to the campsite but forgot to drink it and so took it all the way back to base the next day. Luckily, the whole Wales phase of our trip was caught on camera by Ralph who successfully took around 300 photos with no one noticing!
When we got back from the overnight we raced to the train station to catch our train to London where we would stay for 2 nights until we left for Belize.
We all had different flights to Belize, meeting up only for the last leg from Miami to Belize City. All of us spent the night at different airports – Myles in Boston, Ralph in New York and Peter on a bench outside Miami airport as he was not allowed to sleep inside – on the plus side, Miami airport was kind enough to announce the time every 15 minutes over the loud speaker so that Peter would not miss his plane (or get any sleep). Our flight to Belize was great with an empty plane and lots to see out of the window. We even shared the flight with Belizean Reggae sensation Ras Indio – although he was sitting with us down the back end of economy. We stepped off the plane (tragically for Peter in socks and sandals – for the record its worth wearing Jungle Boots on the plane to avoid a torrent of abuse) and met Colin outside the airport. We journeyed to San Ignacio where we picked up some kit to take to our Field Base at Barton Creek. Amazingly we made it there after an hour long and very bumpy journey in the back of a truck, hanging on for dear life but it was definitely worth it. Barton Creek Outpost consists of a large cabin overlooking the creek where rope swings are set up to make bathing that little bit more exciting. The first few days were spent in darkness as the generator had died but we managed with candles and it didn’t stop some excellent food.
We were allowed to sleep in the cabin for the first night but after that it was time to get the hammocks out. Initially we could have built a house quicker that putting up our basha/hammock set up but after a few tries we all got the hang of it (get it?!) and lay down for our first night in the jungle. We did manage to sleep but all woke up at 4 am for a nice little chin wag due to some lingering jet lag.
We were greeted on day 3 with news of our itinerary (which looks great) and with a list of all the things that are going to kill us during our trip, all before breakfast. We prepared our kit (with Metro Myles enduring some teasing from Colin for having a Sarong), belt kits and Machetes and after our first wet nights set off on day 4 for our first real taste of the training out there – a 24 hour Cave Rescue Scenario with BDART – The Belize Disaster and Rescue Team. Day 4: After a tempestuous night of Belizean rain which saw Peter and Ralph bravely battle with the elements from the safety of the Barton creek lodge, leaving Myles to valiantly contend with a wet solo night in the hammock which went well until 3.30am when he too retired to the comfort of the lodge! The day started interestingly with another fun truck drive into town and some bounty hunting. Our glorious leader, Colin, had lost some stuff so we went to track it down, standing outside the accused house with our Machetes and sun glasses waiting for the Police just like Dog the Bounty Hunter. The police took the report so we went into town to find that the culprit had been arrested (wearing Colin’s sandals). We celebrated with a drink and used the spare time to write this first part of our trip’s blog. Now onto the cave rescue with BDART!
