TELs & Trekkers - Feb 2010- La Ruta Maya Canoe Race

After arriving back from the jungle we started canoe training, ready for the start of La Ruta Maya, the second hardest canoe race in the world.

After learning basic paddling techniques we went on to learn how to deal with the inevitable capsize. This ended up as an absolute shambles with our group managing to sink the rescue boat as well.

Any how two days later, and slightly more competent we woke up at 5 am ate as much porridge as we could and then headed off for the start line in San Ignacio.

There was a great atmosphere at the start with over 75 boats in the water and the banks lined with spectators all cheering. At 7 am the claxon went and we were off, there was absolute chaos with all the boats heading for a natural bottle neck in the river resulting in many collisions, and lots of the super fast, thin, lightweight boats capsizing. after an exciting start it all calmed down and we soon settled in to a steady count of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 switch which had become very tedious as we crossed the finish line 9 hours later, which was such a pleasant feeling to finally stop paddling. we all got as much food down us as we possibly could then headed off for an early night, under our makeshift tent which was a tarp tied between the Land Rover and a telegraph pole.

The next morning was an even earlier start as day two was to be the longest day of the race. The day had been rather uneventfull until about mid day when we hit a section of rapids where due to a misunderstanding Sam and john stopped paddling causing the boat to steer violently towards an overhanging branch which John managed to duck under, rather comically Sam did not see the branch until it hit him causing the canoe to capsize. We were soon back on track and cruising past the finish line 11 hours later. Day three became more interesting when jade became ill, however Colin and Josh carried on without her and showed there superior paddling skills by setting of at an awesome pass which unfortunately they couldn't keep up, so Colin decided to take a nap in the back of the boat instead and left Josh to paddle on his own.

Finally the last morning came and it was the shortest day in the race so far, all the teams set off at an incredible speed which they all managed to keep up all the way to the finish line in Belize City, where we were greeted with burgers, chips and cold beer which all went down. We then set off to a guest house overlooking the sea where we had plenty of beer, rum and pizza to celebrate our amazing accomplishment of 170 miles in 4 days.

TELs & Trekkers - Belize Basic Jungle Training Feb 2010

Two days after we said a goodbye to each other in Wales, we were stood outside Belize international airport together. Well, almost together. The boys nearly left without Sara after airport staff told Colin her plane had been and gone without her on it, when in fact it was just late leaving Miami, she made it to the vans just in time though, unlike Dan's bags, which didn't make it to Belize at all - perhaps no surprise as he had 4 stopovers on the way and also cursed it himself, saying to the baggage handlers in South Carolina "they're not coming to Belize are they". Rhona and Elise were on later planes, so the rest of us bundled in to the back of a sweltering hire van, our spirits were gloriously lifted thanks to Josh's ipod speakers and Sam's phone playing the sounds of "You're the Best Around" from the Karate Kid. We drove down to Hummingbird Haven aka Mike's Farm, where we would be stationed for our Basic Jungle Training. Somewhat of a culture shock after Whales - cold showers, outside toilets and rationed food, gone forever the glory days of being able to walk across the road to Spar for some kinder bueno and Max's pitchers' of coffee!! At Mike's Farm, Josh from the Trekkers group (who had met Sam and John from the TELs at check in in London) was reunited with his group as Jade's gang of Trekkers arrived later in the day, fresh from their first Spanish trip to Guatemala, along with Rhona and Elise from the TELs.

Our first day on the farm was spent being blindfolded by Colin and Jade and set a number of tasks, like making animal noises to locate our buddy pairs and then playing football with one half of all the buddy pairs blindfolded. Much hilarity and some minor injuries ensued. Safely buddied up, the TELs then set about teaching the Trekkers everything they knew, up first were Henry and Sara teaching them CPR and moving casualties, getting all the TELs involved for a refresher too. Rhona & Elise took on more First Aid, while Sam, Dan, Max and John taught Navigation and Jamie, Dom, Adam and Nick took on River Crossings. Both the TELs and the Trekkers were let loose on some Machetes, the following day we were all let loose on some line clearing, getting to know our Machetes and Belt Kits better. After some hard days hacking through the jungle, we all took a dip in the creek, where Nick and Henry saw a Green Vine Snake on the bank. More wildlife appeared later on, as a Scorpion wandered in to the house, it quickly drew a crowd of curious TELs and Trekkers and resorted to playing dead to be left alone. TELs/Trekkers 1, Scorpion 0. The TELs and Colin also introduced Mafia to the Trekkers, Jade and Dr Anya, Jamie's catchphrase still in full force as the villagers cruelly killed him off in the first round three times in a row. After a crash course in Basha set up, we all set off for our first night in the Jungle. We walked for an hour, found a suitable place for a campsite and then set up our Bashas and Hammocks, before taking on Jade's jungle observation course - 15 items hidden in the jungle, we all failed massively on the first try, getting an average of 3! 3 more attempts and we all had it nailed, though some people still missed Dr Anya hidden in the bushes!! While having a 5 minute break we heard 6 whistle blasts and immediately flew in to action - running to the location of the whistles, hacking down stretcher poles, waking up Kent at fieldbase with the Sat Phone and then transporting Jade through the jungle and a river on the stretcher. Turned out she was faking it and the whole thing was just an elaborate (and exciting) exercise to give us our first taste of Casevacs, so we left her there. Henry and Dom did a brilliant job with the Jungle rations though and we had one of the best meals of the trip so far with our noodles on the campfire (a sachet of flavouring! Amazing!). The first night in Hammocks and we had 3 fall out straight away - Sara, Max and Jamie, all TELs too, leading from the front.

The next day Max and John taught everyone Navigation 2, which was to include some 100m boxing exercises and trail finding, however, shortly after the first group finished and Gavin and Colin set off to mark the first trail, they saw 6 Peccary bottoms crossing the path in front of them, over in the jungle minutes before, Sara, Elise and Dom had heard some squeaking and were trying to work out what animal it could have been, question answered. Not wanting to take a risk, the whistle was blown and Nav 2 was cut short, we all hiked back to camp Machetes at the ready for the Peccary (they were wise to not come back and take on the Jungle Ninjas and Pirates). We cleared away the last few signs of the camp and Rhona and Sam led us all back to Mike's Farm for a well earned break, before the TELs teaching River Crossings took over. The remaining TELs packed up our gear and got a bus in to San Ignacio with Jade, an adventure in itself, complete with ice cream stops and our first taste of Belikin. By the time we'd changed buses and found our way back from the supermarket, the remaining TELs had arrived at Fieldbase in San Ignacio too. Reunited again, we had some well deserved Belikins whilst playing with Flapjack the kitten, ready to take on our training for La Ruta Maya.

TELS- Feb 2010- Wales Phase

The new group of TELs all managed to arrive safe and sound in Wales, despite some last minute running for late trains and cancellations. With 12 people, we were split in to two houses, 4 of us taking up the "Love Shack" (as christened by John), while the rest were in the main house. For the first week, Colin battled manfully with all 12 of us, teaching us some basic navigation and leadership skills. By the end of the first week, we were set a task to plan out our route around the local area with the intention of leading the rest of the group on an 8 hour walk. We had time to plan before the rest of the group could vote for their favourite, which we would then complete the following day. Unfortunately no one was able to partake in Henry's tea & medals at the bothy on Snowdon as the unusually snowy winter made the peak too dangerous without crampons and ice axes (Colin having had the good sense not to give us either), so instead we went on Rhona's route - up Elidir Fawr and on to Y Garn, down through Devil's Kitchen and back to Llanberis with only a little snow on the peaks. We were joined by Helen and her dog Cluny - presumably a failsafe by Colin as Helen and Cluny work for the local Mountain Rescue team! The following day, we were again joined by Helen and Cluny and also Tilly (another search dog) for an Orienteering course where we practiced our fabulous navigation skills, hampered somewhat by the forestry commission cutting down a lot of the markers. Back at the Big Broth- er, sorry, Trekforce house, we took part in some team bonding as Colin got us to play Mafia, where Jamie's catchphrase quickly became "You will regret this" as he was Mafia 3 times in a row!

Confident that we could now fend for ourselves, Colin left us to plan things for the Belize phase, while we embarked on our Mountain Leader (Summer) Award training with Gareth and Simon from Blue Peris. The minute Colin left though, things started to fall apart and we had our first casualty - Dom tripped while out for a walk damaging the ligaments and chipping a bone in his wrist. The weather turned nasty as well, and our day of grade 1 scrambling with the Blue Peris boys was cut short after we were battered by torrential rain all day. Things then went from bad to worse as our overnight camping expedition in summer conditions was conducted in nearly a foot of snow! Apart from the weather (which they can't be blamed for!) the chaps at Blue Peris guided us through our ML training with ease, covering river crossings and ropework as well as expanding upon our navigation skills. The Love Shack started to live up to its name this week too, with Sam waking up one morning to find Max cuddling up in bed with him. Our time in Wales coming to an end, we did a ninja style cleaning session on both houses to make Colin proud and discovered Dan had been stashing Nutrigrain bars in a microwave!

Borneo- February Phase 10

We hit the ground running in Miri with our full team coming together for the first time with everyone getting on like a hammock on fire, after long flights and jet lag we were finally here. Next morning we boarded our light aircraft and made our way to our new home in Bario leaving behind bread, starbucks and Tristan's Ipod charger. We were startled by the amazing views from the plane of jungle canopy and the snaking rivers. However before this we would witness the vast palm oil plantations and logging inroads which were enveloping the jungle that we are trying to protect.

When our plane landed in Bario we were immediately impressed with the hospitality of the locals with a ride to our long-house in the back of several pickup trucks. We met Rian, our local guide to the wonders of Bario and the jungles beyond. He explained that cultural sites deep in the jungle would be a key to the conservation. If we found these cultural sites, that included tombs ancient long-houses and megaliths to ancient warriors, we could create a large perimeter of protected jungle around them. The next day we begin our training with our trek medic Darren, who would assure us in a Douglas Adam's approach that no matter what happened he would be there to help us. The next few days would be spent learning simple but essential survival skills, including navigation, how to use our kit and search and rescue while enjoying the food and hospitality of the kelabit people, not to mention karaoke in the bar.

The next day we made our way to jungle training camp and we would soon be taught to sling our hammocks and prepare for our first night in the jungle. The next morning we were woken by “delicious” porridge waiting for us. We started the day with parang training which we were eager to get into; we then headed off to the nearest river and undertook our first river crossing, but soon warmed up when we learnt how to start camp fires with wet or damp wood. The camp fire banter has been quite hilarious with regular inputs from our leaders, most of which are not suitable for internet publication, along with the regular Guildford verses Wales jibes. Our group is quite diverse with tall people, short people, ginger people, hairy people and even a northerner. The jungle washes in the river have turned into a debate as to whether Andrew will get his kit off.

The day has turned into a regular routine of gourmet porridge, Dan searching for the night panther and Frances trying to convince everyone she hasn't fallen out of her hammock. We are all still waiting for Nick to carve a throne out of a tree and for Sophia to announce an engagement to a water buffalo. After spending our last day making animal traps for survival situations and jungle shelters we began our long trek back to Bario. The trek was tough but it was the last stage of our jungle training. That night we had a ceremony where our fearless leaders Al and Oz and Rian, our local guide, congratulated us for our efforts and awarded a certificate and our very own parangs. That night we had a party in the village of Bario and were inspired by John Tarawe's epic use of the G chord. Many beers later we returned to the long-house and spent the night on the balcony under the stars. We look forward to beginning our jungle project.

Belize- November Phase 09 Update

Elijio Panti and Mountain Pine Ridge Trek

Trek began in San Antonio where we met our guide Javier, and after unloading the landy, realized we’d forgotten our cooking pots and utensils- a great start.
After a good telling off from Boo we continued on our way to Elijio Panti Ranger Station and crossed our fingers that Javier could scavenge some pots from his wife’s kitchen. We were in luck, and spent the night playing cards and shivering amid Belize’s freak cold front. Fran and Rich very much regretted not packing their sleeping bags.

The next day saw us follow the perimeter of Elijio Panti while marveling at Javier’s jungle expertise, from navigating without equipment to telling the exact time without a watch. Doug parted with his bot fly in the river and we all became accustomed to the many many hills that we would encounter.

On Christmas Eve we found ourselves leaving the jungle and following a barren road that, with the baking heat and orange sand made it feel like a desert. By early afternoon we had arrived at Big Rock waterfall and after scrambling our way down the practically vertical walkway we plunged into the pools for a well deserved shower under the falls. Greg managed to scare away the few remaining tourists by recreating something similar to the ‘Herbal Essence’ adverts while the rest of us plucked up the courage to throw ourselves from some very slippery rocks into the pools. Back at camp, Boo and Doug had been busy creating a winter wonderland between the pine trees- its amazing what a couple of santa hats and a bit of tinsel can do!

Christmas morning bought with it a much needed lie-in, but with the smell of pancakes cooking on the fire we could not resist and practiced our pancake making skills until we were no longer able to move. And with lunchtime came more food treats, with fresh pineapple salsa, heated beans and corn tortillas – a far cry from pour usual soda crackers and chickpeas. The highlight of the day came in the form of Secret Santa as we presented each other with our thoughtful gifts. Among these gifts was a rasta hat, complete with dreadlocks for Greg, a cheerleading vest for Rich and a book for Dr Doug.

So with our hearts warmed we made a start on Christmas dinner. Bring on Plucky, Clucky, Lucky and Dead – aka The Chickens. Lauren, Mike and Greg were the lucky 4 to be selected for the chicken sacrifice and under Javier’s instruction took up their machetes for their first experience of live food preparation. Christmas ended on a high with Sweet Tings Carrot cake and hot chocolate. I’m sure it’s a day none of us will forget.

Boxing day saw us parting company with Kent, Mike, Liam and the landy as they went back to field base to recuperate for a couple of days. Little did we know that the next 2 days of trek would be the hardest. We set off bright and early for a whistle stop tour of Mountain Pine Ridge, frolicked at Rio On pools for long enough to cool off from our baking morning walk, and reached Rio Frio cave in time for Rich, Fran and Justine to literally stumble over a large boa constrictor (Rich squealed the loudest!)

Our final day of trekking was largely uphill and in some places very steep. Fran fell through some brambles and became very tangled waste deep while Justine took her first first tumble of the trek much to the amusement of Rich.

The almighty Javier became unnerved when we stumbled upon the trail of some wild peccary and proceeded to arm himself with sharp spears from the trees. We weren’t reassured by his advice to dump our bags and climb trees should we get attacked so continued onwards hoping that we wouldn’t encounter a 200 strong herd!

We arrived at the Five Sisters Waterfall feeling exhausted and ready for a day of relaxation. We said goodbye to Doug and awaited the arrival of Kent and Liam who were trekking back from fieldbase to meet us. Little did we realise that Kent and Liam had trekked to the wrong camp and spent the night alone with only ½ a tin of tuna, ½ a packet of soda crackers and a lime….survival rations indeed!

Meanwhile, back at camp group mentality was taking its toll on the food situation and Kent and Liam arrived to find us bickering over our supply of noodles. Their dire night in the jungle made us hang our heads in shame and we were soon back to our happy selves frolicking in the waterfall.

All in all, a very enjoyable trek with some fantastic memories!

Guatemala

After a new year celebration dressed as pirates on the beach it was time to move on to Guatemala for our Spanish language phase.
We arrived in San Jose and were introduced to our Spanish host families. What more can we say except that they were very Spanish!

Feeling somewhat bewildered and overwhelmed by how little we understood we looked forward to our lessons and spent the rest of the day getting to know San Jose – particularly its beautiful lake and many steep hills, and its phenomenal ice cream shop!Morning lessons on grammar and vocab proved challenging for the following 4 weeks while our practical lessons saw us become experts at making jewelry, tortillas, empanadas and digging plantains in the community garden.

Poco a poco (little by little) we were all able to communicate a bit better with our families and left with at least a basic level of conversational Spanish. Liam, on the other hand, acquired a somewhat more impressive level and silenced us all with a speech at our graduation ceremony.
We left Guatemala having been fed a hearty diet of corn tortillas and icecream and weighing significantly more than when we left the jungle.

A crash course of teacher training now sees us set for our teaching phase and tomorrow we split – boys and girls – as we head to our villages and host families. We’re a little apprehensive, but excited for our new venture!

A special mention must be made with regards to FlapJack – the new Trekforce kitten. The group stumbled across him whilst celebrating their final night together at a local Indian restaurant. Needless to say Jade took little persuasion – and FlapJack now joins the Trekforce

Team – Welcome FlapJack!

Belize- November Phase 09

Ticks, Mites and Halegtites

Within half an hour of leaving fieldbase, our adventure had begun as Boo strayed off road and drove through a river.
Trek began on an open farm trail with the baking Belizean sunshine beating down against our bulging backpacks. Within minutes the ground became waterlogged and Justine maintained her title as most unsteady person in the group by falling in the mud twice! Greg watched her flail around from a distance as he didn’t want to get his feet wet.

The first sit down came as a relief to all as we realized the trek was going to be harder than we first thought – flapjack rations raised spirits enough to progress to our first cave, Dark Night Cave, where we formed a chain through the water to pass on our bags. Wading through nipple deep water (Fran fully submerged) we got our first taste of cave exploration.
No sooner had we arrived at our first camp outside Daylight Cave, than we began a nighttime investigation of the chambers inside. 2 hours of clambering and climbing saw Liam’s high-tech Canadian Zip-lock socks make a debut and we got our first glimpse of Mayan pottery.

Day 2 proved to be an eventful day full of exciting new sights. Liam’s high-tech Canadian jungle trainers held up well along the mammoth 8 hours of walking and once again proved that the kit list is indeed a necessary part of jungle living! After numerous jaguar tracks, some surreal jungle leprechauns, a Menonite staring contest and a couple of cows, we finally arrived at camp in a state of exhaustion. We bathed in a beautiful lagoon in the style of a Herbal Essences advert and awoke well rested after a peaceful night without Sand flies.

Day 3 begun by a 4 hour trek through Manatee Cave – lots of time underground, some more water crossings and Mayan pottery and we finally arrived on the other side to see the spectacular Haunted Forrest (an upside down forest of green stalegtites).
A seemingly uneventful trek to camp actually revealed a series of blunders from all trekkers.

Liam received jungle karma for planting coconuts in Justine’s bag and fell face first in the mud. Meanwhile Rich presented himself to the group on all fours, demonstrating the ‘downward dog’ yoga position over a log. A humoungus tarantula hitched a ride on our guide Marcos’ bag and Steve and Liam cooked up a storm, despite it taking several hours to prepare.

Day 4 – A short walk from camp took us to ‘The Bat Cave’. With no Bat mobile to transport us, we made our way along the underground river and were confronted by hundreds of friendly bats. We then followed Marcos into unknown territory to unearth previously undiscovered Mayan artifacts. An underground mud war ensued as Liam pelted Steve in the face with clay, Lauren became the target of mud bombs, and all remaining trekkers bombarded Dr. ABC, this in direct juxtaposition to Justine, who faced her fear of small spaces by crying in the corner.

We rinsed off the mud bombs and a thick layer of clay and set off to our final camp. Justine and Lauren put the boys to shame by feeding the group in record time while Marcos returned from a cave with a hand sized Scorpion Spider.

A competition of bravery involved Lauren, Steve, Mike and Boo placing the spider on their face and quickly turned nasty when Greg decided to get a little closer and licked its giant mandibles. An honorable mention goes to Liam who managed to place the spider on his face despite being on the verge of tears. This unsurprisingly made for some great entertainment and some comical photos!

After a night of constant rain, we began another tough day of trek. We negotiated dozens of river crossings to arrive in an overgrown expanse of jungle marshland that slowed us down as we all lost our footing. Thanks to Marcos’ machete and amazing navigation skills, we found our way back into the jungle behind schedule, but very relieved.
After a quick stop for flapjacks, we passed through a ridiculously small opening in the rocks. We arrived on the other side reborn with a new sense of purpose as Marcus told us we were only half an hour away from our destination.


We arrived at ‘Five Blues Lake’ exhausted, but excited about the platform which we duly flung ourselves from into the beautiful blue waters of the lake. A short walk along a track saw the Trekforce Landrover arrive in perfect time, and after a short sunbathe on the hot rocks of ‘Dry Creek’ we were packed back into the truck and making our way back to project.

TELs Update – November

In the weeks leading up to the new Trekkers group arrival the TELs worked hard to plan and prepare for the re-vamped jungle training experience. We all made ambitious jungle training plans and transport plans…only a few minor errors. Fortunately Boo and Colin were constantly on hand to guide and ridicule our attempts.
The final days of our own training included more work on river crossings. It is fair to say we weren’t entirely on form…again Jade ended up drifting down the river as Frankie threw a line but forgot to hold his end of it, this was followed by various inaccurate attempts with the throw line, the safety line was not secured and ended off downstream and we topped it all off by leaving all the kit and nearly driving off in the landrover! Not our finest hour, summarized by Colin as a total shamble. We redeemed ourselves in our second attempt in which all crossings were successfully completed…no people or ropes ended up downstream.
We completed our preparations just in time for the arrival of the new group. Day one of Jungle Training at Sylvestre Village we allocated buddy pairs by blindfolding the Trekkers and getting them to mime and make animal noises in order to find their partner. Dr Doug stole the show with his impression of a panda eating bamboo!
Everyone seemed to enjoy the training – the Trekkers mastered several jungle ninja skills including navigation, first aid, machete use, shelter building and trap making. To test their abilities we sent the Trekkers off on a solo night. It happened to fall on Friday 13th so Doug, Jade and Boo decided a bit of spooking was in order. We tried to creep with ninja stealth around the camps and even had sticks moving spookily across the camps on the end of fishing line. The Trekkers apparently heard our giggling and not so stealth-like crashing through the jungle and remained totally unphased by our attempts.
In an attempt to heighten the senses of the Trekkers to the sounds of the jungle we went on a night walk without headlamps up a nearby hill. At the top we all stood quietly in a circle for a few minutes to listen to the night sounds before everyone took it in turns to share their highlights of the trip so far. It was a quality moment.
Jungle Training concluded with the Trekkers successfully completing a belt kit night followed by the usual antics at the legendary Jungle Jim’s party.
Next we surprised the Trekkers with a canoe trip from the ruins at Lamanai. Having told them that we only had 2 canoes – Colin and Boo sat in the safety boat and we persuaded everyone else to cram into the other one. 9+ people in a canoe - the result was inevitable!
Unfortunately we got lost in the labyrinth of small rivers and it was left to Colin and Frankie to wade waist deep in the swamp to find a way out. Frankie commented that it looked like someone else had been through here. Colin decided that wasn’t the moment to tell him they were following a trail made by a crocodile.
The Trekkers are now working hard at El Pilar archaeological site building benches, a palapa and steps. Highlights so far include sneaking across the border to see Mayan treasure holes, and spotting toucans and spider monkeys.
And so our story comes to an end – it has been physically, mentally and emotionally draining, it has had some serious low points and some definite “what are we doing here” moments. But, ultimately the knowledge and satisfaction that we can wander into the jungle armed with only a machete (ok, a match as well!) and happily survive has made it all so worthwhile. The jungle has become our friend rather than our enemy now. What more can you ask for?

Bosh