Trek Phase

Everyone is still well as I write from my hotel room in KL. We left early in the morning for trek but as it is festival time we got caught in lots of traffic and the journey took a lengthy 9 hours. On arrival at the rainforest campsite in the dark the heaven decided to open and we all got absolutely saturated. We cheated slightly here and decided to opt for a buffet dinner at the expensive hotel next to the campsite. The boys have eaten a lot and shared their dinner with some very large moths and a praying mantis.

Some of the boys accepted Frank's chilli challenge (Adam, Frazer, Alex and Colin).   A few red faces and a prolonged period of hiccups ensued from this.  Back to camp and the tents were put up pretty swiftly. The temperature of the tents was well into the thirties and everyone had a rather uncomfortable night.

The morning after we went to the canopy walkway which included a series of planks tied with ropes and at one point a ladder hung by ropes. Max has successfully overcome his fear of heights and watching the boys try and complete these without touching the ropes was particularly entertaining.  This was the easy part, later we climbed a hill to a view point where the boys could a panoramic view of Taman Negara. The walk was very hot and humid.

Later, we all went to the river for a swim and to cool down. The boys took turns to lifeguard. Ben M took this as a chance to sunbathe in his fake Raybands and Alex to skim stones. Another hot night at camp before we went off to do our overnight trek to a jungle view tower. This was one of the hardest days I have had on world challenge. It was physically draining with us crawling along the floor under and over tree trunks, insects everywhere. This had a varied effect on the boys. Ben F, Sam, Adam and Ollie P seemed to embrace its difficulties whereas other found it a form of torture. Not much wildlife unfortunately but the end of a python was spotted. Ben M and Adam refused to get anywhere near the creature but Ben has said he may hold part if the python at the Deerland park.

On arrival the boys set up their mats and beds. We shared our room with a colony of bees. Every time the head torches went on the boys were bombed by bees as if it was a scene from the blitz. I found this very entertaining. The boys forgot to bring one of the trangias and so food was a bit limited. The boys saw some wild buffalo and tapirs.  Our final day was a short walk to a motor boat where it took us bank to camp. Another afternoon at the river saw the boys enjoy themselves but we were pleased to leave and be back on our way to KL. I am off out in a bit but will try and blog the next couple of days this evening.

I hope you are all well.