TELs - July - Snakes, Caves and R&R

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!

Borneo- April Phase 2010 Update

Trekforce Borneo – Kelabit Cultural Site conservation project – April 2010

After our gruelling introduction to the wild brilliance of the Sarawak rainforest during jungle training, we enjoyed some hearty celebrations to conclude our first venture 'into the wild'. This involved relaxing and repairing in the palatial longhouse in Bario and imbibing 'Bar Y2K''s locally renowned and tasty combo of karaoke and moonshine. The vocal talents displayed have spawned a group-wide desire to create a new musical phenomenon - 'Mouth Full Of Wax' (Watch this space for the full band line up and tour dates).

Once packed and thoroughly re-hydrated, we headed back into the jungley fray for a fortnight of incredibly challenging conditions on our first jungle conservation project. Despite now being trained to a level of expertise rivalling both the majestic Mears and the ludicrous Grylls, the weather, insects and the group’s collective malco-ordination had other plans for us. They clubbed together to provide some quite remarkable challenges and frequent unscripted drama in this unfolding jungle epic...

The start of project brought with it four skilled local guides backslash Jungle Supermen: Ken (the climber), Josh (the happy accident-prone hero), Migan (the permo-giggler) and Timor (the most efficient swordsman to ever wield a perang).

Over the next two weeks, we were led to a total of five fascinating Kelabit cultural sites including giant stone megaliths (allegedly carried there by Kelabit warriors as a display of their strength) and several burial sites with intricately carved dragon burial jars.

Our task was to GPS mark these sites before cutting and marking 300 square meter boundaries around each site. In four competitive teams we scythed through the jungle to cut and mark our own sides of each boundary. The benefits of this project are manifold as we are simultaneously protecting this valuable Kelabit cultural heritage, creating large areas of protected rainforest, protecting the wildlife within them, as well creating a both barrier of legally impassable rainforest to the onslaught of the logging companies (due to the profligacy of the sites in this area rendering it uneconomic to harvest). Finally, the site protection creates alternative employment for local people in the form of guiding eco-tourists rather than working for the logging companies.

For some, the project also served as a period of advanced perang training. For Rhi, Mike and Andy however, it was a case of lessons learned as they soon became a trio of thumb related casualties and the three most likely to try to blag a lift back to Bario.

The daily challenge of cutting the boundaries brought together some legendary partnerships, such as Oz and Ben (who recreated the film ‘300’ with their fierce perang attacks on the vines and thorns while bellowing King Leonidas quotes with every step) and then Rian and Josh’s breath-taking boundary cutting pace.

Due to the aforementioned triumvirate of insects, weather and sheer clumsiness, the medical kits were in almost hourly use. Also our Jungle Guide Rian providing us with his cryptic riddles, magic tricks, card games and occasional supply of surprise chicken and sausages.

The most influential challenge of all however was the RAIN. The continuous, torrential, tropical, thunderous, angry, lashing, all-powerful rain that hammered the jungle and our camp in particular for almost the entire duration of project. The camp became a boggy quagmire (with mud somehow climbing up your clothes to shoulder level even on just a short walk to the water collection point). Legs were weighed down with around 2 stone of mud per foot and keeping ‘dry kit’ to bearable moistness required extreme skill and labour.

Two weeks of these conditions barely dented the groups collective enthusiasm for jungle life, but when dead fall began to compete with the rain for air space, Al and Oz decided to de-camp and retreat to Rian’s village Pa’ Umor for safety’s sake.

One cultural site remained, the site previously abandoned on the wasp infested trail. To avoid a rematch, we decided to reach the site via boat and while the continued rain rendered the river un-navigable, we happily soaked up the comfort and warmth of the Pa’ Umor long house and hospitality of the local people. Daily mud/rain/thorn/insect endurance was pleasantly replaced with the consumption of vast quantities of pineapple curry, tapioca chips, coffee with condensed milk endless 'Milos' (heart-warming and bowel-shifting hot chocolate). The dark gallows banter which had developed in the jungle even lightened to the odd possibly printable joke. Maybe not.

During this period of anticipation, Bario became an enormous lake. This left the herculean Oz (who had scampered there alone to retrieve additional medical supplies and several crates of Oranjeboom) stranded (in the palatial luxury of Raja Inn).

The river eventually receded and we piled into a long boat / colander - which required continuous bailing of muddy river water to stay float throughout each trip. Such trifles, were quickly put aside however as we witnessed the beauty of the primary rainforest from the outside for the first time. This included a truly magical sighting of a large short-tailed Macaque (We await the development of Mike’s disposable camera to see if he was captured)(On film that is. We left the monkey well alone).

With our final cultural site protected, we celebrated the completion of our first conservation project and Andy's birthday in epic fashion. The weak-stomached scamp was forcibly dressed in some bizarre attire to raise his spirits and with a hearty Raja Inn feast inside us, we retired to our local – the Y2K bar – for hilarious chat with the Bario locals, electric shape cutting on the dance floor and some riotous renditions of 80’s power ballads.

Happy days with lovely people. Bring on project two...

Borneo- April Phase 2010

After various sporadic arrivals to Miri (largely due to the volcano disruption in Europe), our whole group met up on the evening of the 24 April; fresh faced and eager to start the trip of a lifetime we had been anticipating for months. Our first foray into the unknown was stepping out from the comfort of our air conditioned hostel, into the searing mid-morning heat, which, within ten minutes caused its first victim, Ali, to faint. A trip to the local mall and finding somewhere to eat amongst the western-looking bars proved only that this concrete oil town was a far cry from the remoteness we had all perceived Borneo to be. Things, however, were about to change!

The next day we crammed into a small sixteen seat by-plane, no less than twenty years old, which weaved its way through the spectacular tree-covered mountains of the Kelabit Highlands. During the flight, we observed from above the true nature of Borneo's wilderness, as well as the increasing threat of palm oil plantations and logging (something that we would be trying to reduce in our project phase), before landing at the small barn-sized airport of Bario. This isolated town, set deep in the jungle, would be our base for Initial Jungle Training.

Activities throughout the next couple of days included brushing up on basic medical and navigational skills, and being introduced to our local jungle guide, Rian, who taught us the history and traditions of the Kelabit and Penang tribes that inhabit this area. These days quickly passed, and before long we were trekking out of Bario to our first training camp deep in the jungle. The journey started with a gruelling long open road and Rhi was the first one to suffer from blisters on her feet (something that most of the group would experience throughout the day due to new boots). However, we soon veered off into the wilderness, and after some steep slippery trails and a crossing over a rickety bridge, we made it to our partially built jungle camp.

On arrival we quickly began to set up home for the next three days; constructing our bashas (carefully making sure Oz and his deafeningly loud snoring were a safe distance away!), lighting the fire, and being introduced to the dreaded 'long drop'. By this time large numbers of bees, wasps and mosquitoes had descended on us, most of which were attracted to Ali.

Over the next few days here we continued our jungle training; consisting of more navigational skills, river crossing, animal traps, fire making, man-made stretchers, and of course how to use our parangs. Ben took an immediate liking to this last activity, launching himself at every tree in sight, and in the process breaking two parangs one after another! Evenings were spent getting used to the questionable 'veg curry', as well as intense games of Mafia, with Mike and Andy's constantly guilty faces, and Rian's convincing innocence causing havoc.

Within three days we were all becoming used to living in the jungle; from washing in the river, to coping with the dreaded leeches, which silently attach themselves to any unsuspecting victim, including Holly, who was surprised to find a particularly large one feasting on her leg during the middle of the night. A rather proud Becca has been the only one not to have experienced this pleasure – so far!

Jungle training concluded on the evening of 2 May, with some much needed drinks, karaoke and dodgy dancing (Al!).

Bring on the project phases!

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.