Steve wasn’t feeling well this morning so he and Sue stayed behind as Lorna and myself set off with Charlotte, and our brilliantly named guide, Wizit. We drove to a small village, and started walking into the jungle with a couple of Wizit’s younger cousins leading the way. The 11 year old was a walking machine – and he didn’t appear to require any rest. I suppose everyone’s like that when they’re eleven, especially if they have a tropical jungle on their doorstep. I gradually got used to the pace and managed to admire the scenery as we we trekked through streams and clamboured over rocks. The noise was deafening as insects making a chainsaw type sound screeched around us.
At lunchtime we sat down on a rocky area next to the river. It was the best packed lunch so far, courtesy of Wizit’s mother, apparently.
More trekking. Suddenly the jungle vanished and we were in amoungst regimented lines of rubber trees, each with its half coconut attached to the trunk to collect the liquid rubber. Wizit asked if we would like to go swimming in a waterfall. We agreed, and got back in the truck.
30 minutes and eight or nine Simon and Garfunkel songs later we pulled into the car park for the waterfall, and walked towards the falls. It reminded me of the waterfalls I’d seen in Australia, where each one had it’s own car park, changing facilities and toilets. There were a lot of people there, bathing, swimming, washing and relaxing in the various pools created by boulders that littered the river.
I flopped into the water in my usual elegant style. It was great – the water was cold initally but easy to adjust to, and very refreshing. I realised that I still had stuff in all my pockets, which soaked all my cash, had pretty much no effect on my suncream bottle, but rendered a packet of polos inedible.
Next, and last, stop for the day was a vast cave, where it is said that a baby elephant remains lost to this day, after its mother starved while waiting for it outside. Wizit told us the story, in a massive eery cavern filled with stalagtites.
In several places I was forced to bend over to avoid hitting the roof, and at one point I was on all fours for maybe 50 metres as the roof really closed in. These tight passages would always lead to another spectaular cavern.
We got back tired and hungry to find Steve feeling much improved. When I finally got back to the hotel at 1:30am my last task before bed was to set a wake up call, something that had been easy enough up to now.
“Can I have a wake up call please?”
“Room number please?”
So far so good
“403”
“Sorry key not here sir”
Ah. I tried putting both hands to the side of my head, closing my eyes then opening them while shaking my head violently and making a ‘rrrring’ sound. I thought it was quite a good performace.
“What time?”
Right. Now we were getting somewhere.