There are mountains we must climb

And there are those that we tackle another day...

So I think I mentioned in the last spam e-mail that I had booked myself onto a tailored 5 day hike in the Rainforest areas around and including Mulu, well this is it.

I had met the guide in Miri as he was linked to the hostel that I stayed in and allowed me to get to know him a little.

Plus, the upside of the trip was because I had arranged it from Miri, I didn't have to carry my full 19 kilo back with me, I had it sent, as cargo straight to the final point of Limbang, carrying only the things I needed for the 5 days, and that didn't include my food (guide deals with that - yipee).

Anyway, at the end of Day 1, (its been an easy day so far, except the guide keeps telling me what photo's I should take) we are waiting for an exodus of bats from a cave we have hiked in and its been a good day.

The limestone cave formations that I have seen were fantastic, the bat caves were... well smelly is the best word, oh yes, I've been walking though more of that lovely smelly guano, or bat droppings to you and I but its raining and the bats don't want to come out and play...

The guide says we will wait some more, but no matter how long we wait, the batcave is silent and finally we start to make our way back to the camp and the walk back turns more into a night walk, which is great, as I get to see a number of night animals, it also ended in the guide making a pass at me.... err no thanks!

I was joking with someone about this afterwards in the hostel, explaining that the guide's head came up to my shoulders (well just under), is 11 years older than me and has the largest chip on his shoulder imaginable so not my type and I was suprised I was his.... their theory was, maybe for some men, having their head at that height would be a good thing!

But enough of the guide, onto the rest of the trek...

Anyway, next day was a leisurely day of more cave viewing and then an 8 km trek to the camp, I have to say, lunch was taken beside a stream and there were hundreds of butterflies dancing around us as we ate (luckily its a popular lunch area so we weren't alone!).

The end of the day, well the last 2km were done in rain, what else would you expect from a rainforest, which allowed me included my first introduction to leeches....

So let me brief you on what I have learnt about these little guys.. there are 2 types, ones you feel and ones you dont:

• The brown leeches, grab you as you pass them on the floor and you don't tend to feel them.
• The tiger leeches latch onto your clothes as you pass the nearest plant they have climbed and you do feel those!

Either way, they are the thinnest things you could imagine, until they have fed on you a while, if you leave them, they grow to be as fat as slugs before they fall off sated!

Well, I had a lesson in how to remove them, what I didn't know, was that I acquired one after I had showered, and this led me to my other lesson, if you kill one that is still attached to you, it is likely that the site of the bite will bleed for 2-3 hours.... what joy.

The next day was a hike up a mountain (and I am doing this of my own free will? with a 12km trek the following day..... I must be mad!)

I would love to say that I made it, but with 175 metres left to go up a vertical ascent (no-one mentioned rock climbing...) I felt all my energy just go on me, I can honestly say I have never felt that way before, so I called it quits and decided that with the descent to go and a trek tomorrow it was the most sensible thing.

What I found out later (darn the guide for not telling me) is that after that final ropped section where I decided to pass (basically a rope hangs down so that you can pull yourself up the rockface) its 12 ladders as there is no hand/footholds available in the rocks, and I believe I could have done ladders...

Ahh well, the mountain isn't going anywhere, so I will be back to conquer it, but I have to say, the descent was slower than the ascent as you are picking your way through slippery roots, loose footing and razor sharp rocks, which is fun when you seriously feel that your legs don't actually belong to you anymore... I can't explain it any better than that.

It made the Tongarriro crossing, at 17km distance and a maximum height of 1970 m look like a walk in the park, in fact, I complete that in a faster time than I managed this (maximum height of 1175 metres) 2.4km distance, as this was definately Mountain climbing!

Anyway another trek through the jungle and more leeches awaited me the next day, managed to spot (even if I didn't take photos) a few snakes and Maroon Monkey's (can't remember the official name but they are rare!) and then finally a boat ride to the overight spot.

Here I spent the night in a longhouse, with a local family from the Iban tribe, it has to have been one of the most memorable parts of the trip (even surpassed the guide....).

Hard to explain without writing alot more, but the best part was coming in from the boat in the rain, I get close to a number of the children, when one of them plucks up the courage to try their English out (compulsary for them to learn it from primary age).

Girl 1:"Hello"
Me: "Hi"
Girl 1:"What's your name?"
Me:"I'm Lindsay, what's your name?"
Girl 1:"I'm Fiona, nice to meet you Lindsay"

At this point she holds out her hand for me to shake; she is only 8 years old as I found out later but is taking this very seriously, so I shake her hand solemnly and say:

Me: "Nice to meet you too Fiona" with a smile on my face

At which point, regardless of the rain, each of the other 5 kids with her start to do the same routine with me, it was a totally memorable moment, maybe you had to be there....

The evening, well that was a fun time, as I let the kids loose with my Digital camera and some basic rules, they were fascinated by it.

They would take a picture, then run back with it for me to show them the photo they had just taken, before it was passed to the next child to go and do the same again, its not that they hadn't seen one before, just no one had ever let them try it.

Anyway, at the end of the 5 days, I swear the guide was harder to get rid of than the leeches, but eventually I was left to enjoy the peace of my memories, to work out which part of me wasn't  damaged, oh yes and unknown to me at the time, a spreading fungal infection across my arms!

So I can safely say, after being bitten, bloodied (leeches), battered, bruised, drained of all energy and left with a fungal infection that wasn't pretty (and has taken 7 days to start to go down) I would do it all again, just for the memories.

So for the few pictures I have put up, well you can find them here as normal, if you made it through that massive entry - well done, I'm impressed!

P.S. my guide was called Willie and I thought about calling him Jungle Willie, but that sounded like a nasty infection someone may catch... actually maybe that was a good name.....