Borneo- February 2010 Update

Borneo - Kelabit Cultural Site Project

Freshly jungle trained, we traversed the logging roads from Bario further into the Kelabit Highlands towards our project site – the primary jungle around Kampong Pa’ Main. With brimming rucksacks and riotous enthusiasm, we left the 4x4’s behind and trekked deep into the rainforest.

The group was collectively keen to use their new jungle skills and once we had located a suitably beautiful spot, we set about building possibly the greatest ever jungle camp. Our tireless leaders (Al and Oz) and expert jungle guides (Rian, Andrew, Ramli and Juing) built a massive bamboo table, fire place and firewood rack while Nick (the furniture designer turned jungle craftsman) led the team in building benches, a water collection pier, a bamboo bridge and a wide range of camp mod cons. The quality of personal basha’s varied from the sublime to the ridiculous with Andy and Nick’s palatial residences providing a stark contrast to Fran’s unkempt-back-garden-after-a-child’s-birthday-party.

With camp set up, we began our cultural and environmental project in earnest. We had been tasked by the Kelabit Association (the Kelabits are one of ten Orang-Ulu – ‘men of the interior’ - indigenous tribes in Sarawak) with the protection of ancient cultural sites in the highland region. The cultural sites include stone megaliths (which were carried to their location by Kelabit warriors to prove their strength and mark sacred areas), funeral jars (intricately carved pots jars containing the ashes and heirlooms of deceased Kelabits) and animal salt licks. Their conservation involved mapping the site location and then cutting, marking and mapping 250 square metre boundaries around each site. This process makes it illegal for both logging and palm oil companies to bulldoze the marked areas and so - as well as protecting the cultural heritage of the Kelabit people - the boundaries additionally protect the rainforest and abundant wildlife within. The proliferation of cultural sites in the Pa’ Main area - and our marking of them - means this entire area of rainforest is now protected.

A daily routine of trekking to different cultural sites (lead by our local guides), photographing and GPS marking the sites before unleashing our perangs (traditional Malaysian machetes) to cut and mark clear boundaries was established. The group’s collective skill in jungle navigation, communication, machete-ing and line searching (for lost perangs and compasses) developed immeasurably over the following weeks, despite Simon’s talent for breaking steel perangs (seven so far) and Louise’s hilarious navigational directions (‘The line goes to that tree! The green, normal sized one! The one with leaves!).

The variety of cultural sites was outstripped by the incredible difference in terrain surrounding the area. Any particular day could find us trekking and cutting our way through jungle swamp land, dense primary rainforest, open meadows, wide river channels and up and down sheer jungle cliffs.

Jaki (our beloved hunting dog) and our guides also provided much appreciated variety in the staple jungle diet through hunting and gathering a wide range of jungle food. We have now acquired a taste for all sorts of jungle meat (wild boar, sambo and barking deer, monitor lizard, fish and - the frankly rank - cicada grubs), fruit (mata kuching, bua pua, sun berries, jack fruit, lang sat and durian) and vegetables (bamboo shoots, river ferns and sago palm).

One site – at which we spent two full days – was old British Military site from WW2 and the ‘Konfrontasi’ with Indonesia during the 1960’s. The Kelabit people developed a passionate and lasting bond with the British soldiers stationed there during these conflicts. The Kelabit provided jungle scouts, guides and food in exchange for military support (including the establishment of blow pipe units!), clothing and education programs. We cleared years of relentless jungle growth to discover a huge bunker system and numerous artefacts including shell casings, military clothing and whiskey bottles (sadly empty).

Once we had exhausted the cultural sites within trekking distance of our camp, we packed down our temporary Kampong (village) and trekked yet further into the jungle. Prior to moving, however, Al and Oz sprung a ‘simulated survival scenario’ (SSS) on us. We were taken individually to an isolated part of the jungle and left with 2 packs of noodles to survive for 12 hours by ourselves. Suspicions this challenge was given so that the leaders could enjoy a night of peace, roast boar and moonshine in the guide’s shelter remain to this day. The heavens opened during the SSS briefing and we experienced the heaviest rain of the trip so far for the next 12 hours. Needless to say, many of the group used this as an excuse to sack off building a fire and opting for a very early night indeed.

The following day we trekked over the main mountain ridge and set up Kampong 2. This camp was truly idyllic being braced by two rivers, filled with wild lime and other fruit trees and home to countless tropical birds. The camp even developed distinct areas - such as, the ‘meadow’, ‘village green’ and ‘blue lagoon’, in which to relax and talk cobblers after a hard day’s boundary cutting.

In total, we have now cut, marked and mapped boundaries around 29 different Kelabit sites and in the process protected a huge area of mixed rainforest and the wildlife within. We celebrated completing our main project, 28 straight days in the jungle and our final night there with a massive BBQ of two wild boar yumm.

Two solid days of trekking from Pa’ Main all the way back to our base in Bario and some much needed r’n’r (rest and recuperation? rest and relaxation? rock and roll? rum and raisin?) Followed before we began our final project – building two bamboo bridges for the remote community of Pa’ Umor.

Pa’ Umor is the home of our beloved guide Rian and these bridges would help his community to reach their paddy fields and farms which surround the village. We were invited to stay in the Pa’ Umor longhouse (which houses nine entire families) for the week and were honoured to be truly welcomed into the community.

This more relaxed project involved trekking into the jungle near the village, cutting down enormous bamboos and constructing sturdy bridges over the deep river channels. Each day after work, the group enjoyed football, volleyball and swimming with the local children before being served incredible home-cooked pineapple curry.

Our final night on project was spent celebrating in Rian’s house bar where we were treated to demonstrations of the Kelabit war dance, the traditional ladies dances and some icey cold beers. We suspect that Andy’s interpretation of the war dance and our karaoke talents will remain in Kelabit folklore for some time.

Tels- April Update

After a day recovering from the India Creek trek we were travelling to eljilo panti San Antonio. Where we met Antonio our guide, a jolly fellow of few words, and proceeded on an hour and a half walk laden like mules in the baking sun. This initiated the scenario phase, a phase where at any point day or night anyone could fake being lost, injured, or in Jamie’s case becoming suddenly suicidal, where upon it would fall upon us to deal with the scenario. For Example when Anya collapsed in the mid day sun Adam clean shaven and clad in his wicker hat bounded to her rescue as he valiantly commanded us to put her on a stretcher and move her into the shade, however, his heroically left the two genuinely ill people to cook… poor guys . We then moved onto the ranger station where we set up camp and cooked dinner and waited for a sleepless night of scenarios. Some Scenarios went well the injured were dealt with well and carried out quickly and efficiently.

Other were less smooth with Sam dealing with a fake snake bite by strapping Dom’s leg to a tree. After four days of scenario after scenario we left Elijio Panti and ended up riding on the back of a pickup truck back to a lazy few days in San Ignacio. Whilst there we were in pairs and went off to do project Recce’s around the country to find good future projects for Trekforce. Some pairs meetings were just down the road. Others like Sam and Adam were sent to a far flung fishing village called Sarteneja.

Once we had all returned from our project Recce’s we returned to Elijio Panti to begin navigation training. This is where we had to pace on a bearing in a large box shape for 800 meters which is more difficult than it sounds as Jamie’s large 300 meter triangle proved. On the actual day of the assessment we found the Americans could not navigate with Dan not being able to tell his left from his right and Elise getting confused by her compass and thinking south was north, you would think the S on the compass would be a giveaway. None the less she ended up 400 meters away lost in the jungle. It took only moments for Colin to dash off alone into the jungle. Luckily his superior navigation skills meant he quickly found Elise and got back in time to realise Dan and Jamie were also missing. In the end we all managed to pass navigation, and moved on to practicing casualty evacuation down a waterfall which is about as tricky as it sounds, especially when the raft was made with wood about as buoyant as lead. However, we managed it anyway J…

Belize February Phase 10– March/April

After completing the basic jungle training, the trekkers and TELs headed to San Ignacio to begin the ‘grueling’ training for the Ruta Maya Canoe Race (4 hours of poncing about on the river). Teams were chosen by Colin and Jade, and the Trekkers were split into 3 boats: HMS Cheeseburger driven by Taylor, Mike and Katie; The Gobi Desert Canoe Association led by Stephen, Gavin and David; and Josh joined Colin and Jade in the Lame Ducks. With about 30 hours of paddling the 170 miles over 4 days and limited bags of flapjacks and bananas, the Trekkers beat the TELs in the Trekforce race. The Gobi Desert Canoe Association earned the gold with a 70 second advance on team Spitroast, the TELs top team. Upon arriving in Belize City, that night we went out on the town and stocked up on essential post race supplies; pizza and coke. We then had a fun night and a delicious breakfast at a local guest house before setting out for advanced jungle training.

On our way to becoming Jungle Warriors (the next level up towards becoming a Jungle Ninja Pirate) we set up camp at Jaguar Paw and began our training. Marcos the Jungle Jedi began teaching us about local flora and fauna, advanced navigation, how to follow different types of trails, firelighting, shelter building and how to make successful animal traps. All did not necessarily go to plan however, Jade “trapped’ six chickens from a local market but one particularly fast rooster led the entire camp on a frantic chicken chase through the jungle.

Dave’s medical skills were tested when Anya, our medic, fell from a tree in a mock rescue scenario and the rest of us had to carry her across the river and up a steep hill on a stretcher. Unfortunately, Anya wasn’t the only casualty – Colin decided to drown himself in the river with the hope of a rescuer, but no one paid him any attention… just kidding. In a camp game of Cluedo Dave was taken down by John (a TEL) with a bottle of deodorant while taking Anya’s vitals. The fun continued when Katie celebrated her 19^th birthday with coke and chocolate ice cream floats.

For the first time ever, the Trekkers and TELs experienced 2 belt kit nights – we had to build our own shelters, fires and animal traps. Our rations then reflected the success of our traps. Notable events included Stephen accidently burning down some of his shelter then redeeming himself by winning the live chicken in the trap making contest, Gavin witnessing a vine snake eat a lizard, Mike chopping down a cohune tree to eat, Katie’s close encounter with a snake and Dave’s battles with ants and a scorpion. After two successful nights the Trekkers and TELs parted ways and we headed off to begin our project.

We have now been in the jungle for almost two weeks, working with a crazy monkey lady to facilitate and assist with a census of rehabilitated and released rare black howler monkeys. We’ve been having fun clearing trails, tracking monkeys and building a kick-ass camp featuring a fire shelter, clothes rack, benches (complete with back rest) and a table. In our free time we have visited the Belize Zoo, swam in the Sibun River, and helped Dave compose entertaining songs on the guitar. Overall, we are having a great time and very much looking forward to the challenge of trekking up Victoria Peak in a few weeks!

TELs - India creek trek

The morning of trek we woke to a nice quite camp, a camp without the lonesome cockerel crowing at 4am waking us all up. After the usual breakfast of porridge we all cleared our bashers and hammocks down, packed our bags and grabbed any rubbish lying around them as well. We then set about tidying camp, although after inspection from Colin showed we needed to look a bit harder for rubbish.

We started our trek a bit behind schedule but with the good spirits we made up for it with the pace. The trek was a good opportunity for us to practice leading a group as we took it in turns through the 3 days to lead a different section with little or no help from Colin who's answer if someone asked him a question was ''I'm not the leader, I know nothing'' which meant we had to make sure we had got information from Marcus, the guide/hardcore SAS trainer.

The first day was a good day of our first encounters with some caves, first of which was called dark night cave, about a kilometer long with indian creek running through which meant at points we had to get our toes wet but it was worth it to see the spectacular inside, the next was daylight cave which hense the name was light inside because it wasn't as long but still amazing, especially when Rhona spotted a fer-de-lance, the most aggressive snake in Belize, just chilling on the bank right where we were walking past.

Then the next entertaining bit was when Marcus showed us a jaguar skull he had found on the trail a few years ago and now hides it so he can show groups, even though each tooth is worth $400...
We reached camp around 3pm but we had to cross some questionable logs to get over the break in the loggers trail, none of which I would have said could take my weight be the resident fat boy of the group but with spreading our feet across 3 of them they held up just fine. We got camp set up swiftly and with our priorities in order we got the water boiling for a cup of tea. Then a quick dip in the river with the dead flesh eating minoes to get clean and crack on with dinner.

The next morning we knew what had to happen from yesterday’s example so we were ready to rock on time at 7am, we started the day with some tunes from the beautiful voice of nick but the extent of his lyrics ran out after the first line or two so we flicked through the play list pretty quickly.
I think the pain of the feet and a slight case of jungle fever had started to set in which caused some strange conversations to occur.

We then got to the trails of one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Through the thick jungle and up a hill we came to today’s treat, a huge cave opening with huge stalactites up to 10 feet long hanging 30 meters above our heads. The clearing where we had left our bags looked like the surface of mars. This was a more extreme cave than the 2 previous with some rope work required just to get down to the river entrance.
We climbed through the cave and came to a rocky beach where we gathered around Marcus for tales of the Mayan culture. We all stayed engrossed in the story until we were rudely interrupted by some snoring form Dan who had fallen asleep in the darkness. We then progressed on through to a chamber where Mayans conducted sacrificial ceremonies to honor their gods. We saw some Mayan pottery that dated back to around 800 AD. We made our way back to the light and worked our way back up out of the cave system to rejoin the logging trail once again. The logging trail took us to a coconut and orange plantation where a feeding frenzy ensued. By the time we moved off it had began to rain, and continued to do so until the next morning, which made setting up camp a bit more interesting, I don’t think we had ever moved so fast to ensure we didn’t get even more wet.
The next day had an interesting start having to cross some rivers along skinny logs where some people managed to stay dry and others didnt.*cough Elise and Sarah cough*. We passed the stunning blue lakes and finished with a 5 mile sprint to the end of the logging trail, where we met Kent with ice cold cokes and the pimp mobile to shuttle us back to San Ignacio field base.

TELs- Belize Advanced Jungle Training Feb2010

Advanced jungle training phase began deep in the jungle at "jaguar's paw". After setting up base camp and getting settled in, we met our badass jungle instructor Marcus, a Belizean who knows everything about the jungle, and then some more. So much so that the special forces get sent to learn from him! Our first lesson was on plants, trees and their uses. We all felt quite bewildered trying to take in all the information from the mighty Marcus! We drank from vines, learned to use to trees to help us survive with anti fungal trees, trees with antiseptic properties and then the trees that are not so useful, like the Bokanaboi tree (also known as the bastard tree and poison wood!) After this fairly mind boggling session we moved on to fire lighting techniques and had a race to boil some water for Colin’s tea but the real highlight was watching Marcus demonstrate the use of natural techniques to start fires.

Day 2's lessons consisted of traps and more plants. Everyone was looking forward to making some traps but once again Marcus blew us all away with dead-fall traps and snares before we got let loose into the camp to practice making them for ourselves and discovered just how tricky they really are to make. Our second plants lesson focused more on plants that were edible and we all beat the hell out of a Kahun tree with our machetes to get to its edible "heart" that resembled a sweet cabbage!

Day 3's lessons focused on the art of water collection- how to do it, where from, and improvised methods of collecting water, followed by a lesson in the slaying of chickens. After 3 chickens being accidentally decapitated and quite a bit of blood, we plucked and gutted our 5 chickens for a feast later on that night that left everyone a big greasy mess, but everyone was chuffed to get some fresh meat in their bellies.

On day 4 Marcus took us into the undergrowth once again to show us how to construct an emergency shelter, which was more physically demanding than most of us expected I think, but the lessons learned that day became incredibly useful during the brief rains on belt kit night. Later that day we practiced some trail finding techniques that would help to teach us to follow trails in the jungle and hopefully not get lost, but some of us still managed to get lost during the exercise!

The next 48 hours of advanced jungle training consisted of the infamous belt kit test. We each disappeared deep into the dense undergrowth armed only with our machetes, emergency rations, our belt kits and most importantly, our badass jungle skills. I think everyone really enjoyed the test and we got a chance to practice our shelter and trapping skills, however a few individuals did suffer due to the lack of caffeine (Max!), or a good night’s sleep in a hammock (Dan!).

After finishing our solo 48 hours, we had a well earned wash in the creek and spent some time relaxing before the next day’s activities.
The remainder of our advanced jungle training consisted of lots of navigation practice and medical practice so that we could look after Colin when he inevitably gets lost. The final lessons were in river crossings which everyone had great fun doing as we all got to pretend to drown and get dramatically rescued.
To conclude, everyone really enjoyed learning some badass jungle survival skills in that week and test our metal during our 48 hours alone in the jungle...

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.