Taman Negara *where the GYC thought they would be one short after 1 day*

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After a fairly long bus & train journey from the Cameron Highlands, we arrived at Taman Negara Rain Forest! Our main objective was to find a hostle and fast. the rain was BUCKETING it down and we werent really up for trecking about the town with our bags on in the rain...
We all checked out a hostle that was 1.30GBP A NIGHT. this suited us just fine being on a budget and all. but Lisa and Diana were put of very much so by the bathrooms! which we thought were quite nice lol. So they ventured out in the rain and found a hostle for the same price as ours but it had internet, nicer bed, hot water and air con. all of which our hostle didnt have!!!

That evening we set out with a coat at the ready and decided to see what our surrounding were like. we were staying just across the river from the Forrest in a small town called Kuala Tahan which is actually the busyest section of the resort. We found out the town consists of a school, a couple bars and restaraunts, 1 or 2 internet shops and a rental equipment store where the owners were stones out of there tree almost all of the time.
There were only about 5 police men in Taman Nagar which means the locals all had there secret Weed fields in the forrest and got high most nights with out worry that they would get cought!

That night all 5 of us went and got some dinner at a floating restaraunt which was very cheap. food was nice but the mozzies at night were not. we got bitten to shit! so we called it a night, applied some insect repelent and a fair amount of bite cream and we were tucked away in bed!

Day 2 arrived and beams of sunlight were blazing through our windows. This was to be the day of the 40m high jungle canopy walk way and not to forget our big jungle treck to our hide (tree house) 12km deep in the forrest! the reception said its the hardest treck out off all the hides lasting about 6hours but as long as we make it there b4 sunset we'll be fine. Dont want to be lost in the jungle now!
First on the agenda though was the 400m long 40m high Jungle Canopy Walk way which is a great way to view the surroundings. didnt last to long but it was worth it. i mean the ticket was only like 20p, so its not really breaking our budget!
Once we had finished the walk way, we said our good bye's to lisa and diana as they were doing a seperate trail and set of on our own treck.

About 2hours in (5km), we took a well deserved rest at lil stream and soaked our heads in the cool water, seeingbas it was about 30degrees and we were trecking with heavy night bags on our backs! thats when it happnd.....! disaster......
Caz and I couldnt remember if we had locked the door to our hostle room where our travel bags were and essentials such as mine and caz's iPods *Shock shock horror*
So seeing as i was the one with the key and felt rather energetic, i opted to run back, lock the door and meet the guys at the hide! sounds simple enough......
So i left the Rick and Caz at 1.00pm at the 5km mark and ran back to our hostle. wanted to get some exercise and also see how fast i could get to hide. I arrived at the hostle at 1.54pm which meant i ran back in half the time, but found out the door was locked. so a quick breather, and i started jogging back. Was essential that i made it back b4 dark seeing as its just to scary at night in the jungle + i prob hurt my self!

Arrived at the 7km mark and realised i still had fairly far to go, so i put a skip in my step and sped up. The terrain was getting pretty bad tho and the sudden down poor of terrential rain didnt do much for my grip on the wet mud. Top Man trainers and wet jungle dont mix! anyway, i arrived at the 13km mark some time later, and was pleased to see that the hide ( BumBun KunBang ) was only 1 1/2 km away!!! i eventually arrived at the hide about 5.30 and wa eager to see rick and caz up in the hide. But once i entered, i was greated by two other travellers and no rick or caz! turns out the couple havnt seen them atall. Which got me very worried seing as there was only over an hours worth of light left. I was thinking they took a wrong turn and were trecking deper into the forest and would do so untill it was dark!

The couple tried to reasure me that they probably turned back as it was to far. So all i could do was wait till morning and make my way back to the hostle and hope they were there.
That evening was awsum tho. the noises that come from the jungle at night are incredeble! The forrest really doesnt sleep. Fire flies were flyeing all over the place making a right old spectical of them selves. we were hoping to spot a tiger or a lepard, but no luck this time



back and see if it was locked, however Rick decided to go to the hide. Thinking that Muc would go back, stay there as he would not have enough time to get to the hide, I changed my mind and tried to catch up which Rick as he would be going into the jungle as his own. This was all a bad situation to be in. I should've known better and tried to keep us all together, but Rick insisted on pushing on and Muc did not want to be responsible for our bags being stolen. Instead I quickly caught Rick up after running through the jungle for about 20 mins. I have never sweated so much in my life. Turned out Rick had taken a bit of a tumble down a wet clay bank and injured his shoulder, his mobilty was limited and the terrain was getting worse. Still we pushed on for maybe another 90 mins through the jungle terrain, but the path was not getting any better and it would be easy for one of us to hurt ourselves, and still the leeches were crawling up us. Then it started raining. Really raining. Me and Rick toyed
The View From Our Hostel and The Floating Restaurants
with solutions, as we felt out of our depth and Rick's shoulder was starting to give him pain, to either push on to the hide, although we were running short on time and didn't know how far it was. We cut our losses and made the sensible decision, which we felt was to hitch a ride on a boat back to the town and meet Muc there as we hoped he had returned, figured he had not enough time to make the hide and stayed put, especially in the weather conditions.

Me and Rick found a rocky outcrop on the river and flagged a boat down, and were surprised when it took us about 15 mins on the boat to return, which meant we had covered more ground than we thought. We arrived back at the hostel it the pouring rain sat down, but there was no sign of Ross. We asked around, no-one had seen him. We started to get a bit anxious. We decided to wait at the hostel for half an hour sort ourselves out and then see if he showed up. It was at this point where we took our shoes off. Leeches were everywhere
Didn't buy it though.
inside my shoe, my white sock was red from all the blood they sucked, apparently these leeches can suck through sports socks. It was pretty gruesome and annoying. I even had one on my stomach a little too close to home for my liking. This was nothing to Rick's though. His shoes were more like sandals as they had breathing holes down each side. The leeches simply crawled through these holes and started sucking. Whereas I have about 6 wounds, Rick has over 15, on his toes, ankles, feet, inside of his leg the blood was bad. Our hostel resembled the Bates Motel. They were impossible to get off and right little buggers. We also were wet and stunk really gross. It was not pleasant. While Rick got all the leeches off him and his blood tried to clot I set off back into the main area of the jungle up to the canopy and the reception, to find or see if anyone had seen Ross. After an hour I returned without him, and no-one had seen him come back through the park entrance. We were getting a bit edgy, so hired a boat to take us up to the
Looking for Ross
Jetty nearest the hide. The driver was a tour guide and extremely helpful and he alerted all the rangers up near the hide but due to fading light we nor them could get up to the hide still a 45 minute walk away. Still we shouted down the river, but there was no sign. The guide though he had probably made it too the hide in time, but the time scales were not that positive and this did nothing for my mind thinking of Ross stranded in the jungle, or injured after taking a fall. The terrain was bad, and we knew it. The rain had stopped but the surface was still wet. We returned to the entrance of the park and found that two other people were staying up at the hide, so if Ross had made it he would not be alone.

Last night was long, and neither me or Rick got much sleep. As Ross also had the key too our room we also had to break off the lock just to get in. Tomorrow the guide advised we stick it out until about 3pm which would have given him enough time to walk back, after
We didn't find him
that we could report a missing person. I was up at first light this morning, and Rick not long after we waited around until 9am, when we decided we had to eat. Neither of us in a great mood, we were just playing the waiting game and keeping our eyes peeled in case he had got a boat at early light. Then we saw him. We lept up from our table and called his name and embraced him and quickly pulled away from him, as he smelled so bad with a puzzled expression on his face. "What?" he said, always one to put a downer on the situation. He was ok, aside from a few falls of own and the attack of the leeches all down his ankles as well, and after a round of questions each we had worked out that Ross had legged it back to the hostel in marathon-esqe time Rambo style and walked back to the hide. He had made it with just enough light, yet was worried by our absence. Respectably he was worried for our safety just as much as we were for his, despite him being on his own. He confessed he too
Pro Evo Temple
had visions of us in a cave with no water or light. We all agreed it was a stupid decision to split and vowed never to do it again, we all shared responsibly for what happened, and at one point yesterday we were all on our own. This was daft and goes against everything I have been taught when walking, although at least me and Rick did turn back when we felt out of our depth, Ross should've been there with us though. At least no-one was seriously injured and we all live to tell the tale. We all have a new found respect for nature and it shows the power of the elements. Scarred and tired, Ross didn't get any sleep for worrying either, we have chilled out today doing our own thing in the town, each of us has learnt something over the last 24 hours though, and it is this kind of experience which really makes you think about the bigger picture. All three of us had horrible thoughts going through our minds at some point yesterday and I have never been so relived to see someone in my life.

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