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Published: December 24th 2012
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Bright and early start we are given back packs by the centre to take with us, containing hammocks for tonight, a blanket and a water proof, interesting?!
Warned that there could be leaches along the route so trousers tucked into the socks, packed breakfast (in hand woven packs) in hand and off we went.
It turned out we had booked the csamed trip as the French Canadian family that had rescued us the day before so really nice to have the time to get to know Denise, Gaitan and Fannie.
Our main guide, come camp cook is called Bo.
The first leg of the journey was a 2 hour journey on a motor boat through the eery early morning mist laying thickly over the river felt like something out of one of the Jurassic park movies all eagerly watching out to see what we could see. We picked up some local kids on the way, they tied up their rowing boats as they were to be the next leg of the journey.
Richard and I jumped on to a young girls boat and she rowed us for about an hour!!
Once on dry land we
set off on the first leg of our hike.....then we encountered the leeches or 'leeks' as our second guide chamboard called them. I didn't expect how persistent these little critters were, as soon they were on your shoe they where trying to bite though your sock and if that wasn't any good for them they were scaling your trousers looking for a way in. By the time we'd reached our spot for lunch, Richards had been severely attacked, his yellow shoes now red from the blood, I wasn't so bad just one on my stomach and one on my leg.
Both very hot and sweaty we head for the stream for a dip, just what we need to cool down. On the rocks at the edges and in the stream were covered with butterflies, if you stood still for more than a second you were covered in them, all different sizes and colours, another Dr Dolittle moment.
In the mean time the camp chief Bo and the two other guides were cooking up a feast for lunch, rice and sti-fried veg and pork, to say they had just cooked this up in the middle of the jungle it
was blooming tasty.
So all set for the next leg to our camp for the night..
I'm following directly behind one of the guides that didn't speak a lot of English, one word I found out he did know was ....SPIDER!!! Oh eck, for all of you that know me this is my worst nightmare coming true, but I must admit even without my hockey stick in hand I kept calm! This was pretty nasty, bright yellow and black and about the size of my hand, its web was very kindly covering the width of the path so there was only one way through....
The rest of the journey was thankfuly spider free and we arrived at base camp late afternoon. More war wounds from the lovely 'leeks' we were all rather pooped. That was as far we were going for the day so as the guides set up our hammocks we settled for another dip in the river and our very own fish pedricur by wild fiupsh in thge river. Once sun set it was pitch black we all sat in the raised wooden frame where we would be sleeping and played cards by candle light,
great way to get to know everyone and everyone to try out either there English or in our case our Khmer.
Bed time, now the fun starts... The hammocks are really comfy with mosquito nets over the top, but once all the torches are off I have to admit I don't think one of my muscles in my body relaxed for at least the first couple of hours. Your mind works in unusual ways, especially when hearing strange and interseting noises coming from around us In the jungle, you can never think of anything reassuring, why is that?!! Eventually I manage to settle and drift off only to be woken by Richard turning on his head torch next to me and saying 'lucy' in a hushed but stern voice..... He then told me that something had just landed on the top of his hammock and that he could hear things walking around the side off him...oh great he's telling me why? I'm sorry to say by this point I've had to shut my ears and think of a happy place, freaking out at that point would not have helped either of us!
The sun rising was the best
part of the night, I'm giggling about it now...
So morning finally here I jump out of the hammock rather churpy (just thankfull its over with) much to Richards annoyance, his hammock is almost touching the ffloor, don't think they were designed for men of his height!
Noodles for breakfast.. Makes a welcome change to rice. We all get head off to the wildlife pond, all more prepared for the 'leeks' with sticks in hand.
The pond or what was a pound was about of a let down with it being 3 weeks into the dry season there wasn't a whole lot of pond there and as for the wildlife well we saw elephant droppings... And that we about it!
16 km hike back to Chi Phat a lot of it not in the jungle so extremely hot, we arrive back about 2ish. On the final leg one of the guides stood us and points to a tree, there's a bee hive hanging from one oif the branches. He ushers us all on and we wait down the path, he shortly comes trotting down the path, part of the hive in hand, fresh honey, wow can't
get better than that...
Back in Chi Phat the refreshing bucket shower did its job.
We'd heard that the local school's children were putting on a sing song for the tourists so we thought we'd head there before dinner, we went prepared for what greeted us....the locals were having a full on banquet, we arrived the only westerners there. Instantly we were sat down at a table and welcomed into their celebrations, given food and drink and everyone smiling at us as if we'd know each other for years... It was an amazing experience Richard and I almost dumbstruck at the welcome we'd received, every two minutes a local would come to our table and chink our glass of beer. The food, still not quite sure what it was but nice to try.
Shortly after the food had been eaten people started getting up to dance in a big circle and we were also pulled up being shown the moves as we went...
Unfortunately we had to make our excuses as we'd booked to have our dinner at the eco center. That night we heard 'gandam style' playing out a fair few times....
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Keith
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Your blog
Well done for a great blog. You are in countries I may never see, who knows, so thanks for a peek into the Far East. Love, Keith