tues day 46

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Day 1 of a 2 day trek started on time - 9am, meeting the guide ( he is brother of the man that owns the guesthouse ) and the rest of the group - 3 people from Denmark, a couple and their son who is only 11, a man from the UK called bob, and a man from Luxembourg. So with most of us carrying a small rucksack - just with enough bits for the trek off we went towards the start of the jungle - only about 10 minutes away. It started steep but we made it to the top after about 20 minutes and soon after seeing our first orangutan playing in the trees - it was a 30 yr old female who was great fun, so we stayed to watch her for a while. She came quite close to us and didn't seem frightened at all, but quite comfortable to show off her skills. We headed on and were shown some rubber trees - in the plantations the locals collect and sell the rubber at the local market, huge ants, plants that they strip for the rattan, waterfalls as well as many others before settling down for some well needed lunch. Lunch was rice with vegetables cooked in banana leaves with watermelon, passion fruit, nectarines, pineapples and bananas for after - a fab spread watched the whole time by a group of monkeys eagerly awaiting any scraps. Heading off again we saw a further 4-5 orangutans - one came close enough that we were able to feed it bananas, where as some of the mothers with small babies would come about 5 metres away - so we could still get some great pictures - and the babies were so sweet to see playing - all being completely nonplussed by our presence. Walking on we saw some big spiders with thankfully them being high up with their webs in the trees. It was some quite precarious walking down to the river - and camp - getting steep and slippery in places. Down by the river was a further orangutan who we fed bananas, carrying on by the side of it we made it to camp. Camp consisted of 4 large wooden structures with only one ( our sleeping quarters ) having sides - all had tarpaulin as roofs. One was the kitchen with another chap in preparing tea and biscuits as we arrived and dinner for us later. We all relaxed after a tough days walking, but fantastic to see all the orangutans. After a quick paddle in the river and getting out of my sweaty clothes it was time for dinner. We had our meals sitting on a large plastic sheet on the ground. Dinner was a buffet of chicken curry, rice, spicy potato, vegetables and prawn crackers - all tasted very nice. After dinner our guide and the cook wowed us with matchstick and card tricks - we didn't get many of them! But was a great evenings entertainment. The sleeping quarters were 6 worn out thermo rests with sleeping bags all in a line with a few mosquito nets - we chose our beds and after weeing in the bush - literally! We tryed to settle down for the night. Lying on the hard ground baking in the sleeping bags, with bob next to me snoring - it wasn't an easy nights sleep.

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