Wednesday 2nd April - Day 59

I hope I caught somebody out with yesterday's blog. It didn't happen. It was just a quiet day taking in the sights.

Today it's off to the jungle for a trek. I'm not expecting too much from it. We're not expected to encounter Puma and Leopards or the like.

We travel in a large 4x4, carrying twelve of us, for an hour to a national park. We stop off at a local market on the way to stock up on essentials like water.

Our first point of call is to see a waterfall. I would say it's just over a hundred foot high and the water falls into a pool which is about the size of a swimming pool. It's quite impressive and peaceful to look at. There are eight girls and four guys in our group, plus two local guides who are guys. There are three German girls, who are university students, on their midyear holiday. There's a German couple, a French couple, an English couple and two Irish girls. We stare at the waterfall for a while before the three German girls and a chief guide strip off and jump into the water. It's not often you get a chance to stand under a waterfall and swim under it, so I do the same. I was a little apprehensive at first, but I'm really glad I did it ! It's better than watching others do it from the bank. The water wasn't particularly cold and it's quite invigorating.

The jungle trek begins at a gentle pace. After about half an hour it becomes apparent that this is not a stroll in the park. At times walking up and down steep hillsides, winding tracks and rickety bridges makes it testing. Another three hours of trek was to follow. We finally get to a small village inhabited by only thirty families. There's a collective sigh of reilef. However, another group has beaten us to the accommodation so we have to go on. It's forty-five minutes later; another small village; it's getting dark and we're all a little tired. A river flows past the village and we all strip off to bathe in it.

We're given a Thai cooked meal. They're well geared up for groups like us at the village. The food tastes extra nice; we had built up an appetite. After the meal we play a few party games and get to know each other. At about midnight we're all in our beds. It's just a big wooden hut accomodating all of us, with thin matresses on a wooden floor. We have mosquito nets to keep the bugs out. Earlier I had been asked by the three German girls to help save them from a jungle creature (it was a big beatle of somekind) which had some how managed to sneak into one of their beds before the mosquito nets had been pulled down. I wasn't scared at all, your honour. Well, not as much as the girls anyway.

I'm looking forward to sleep as much as Homer Simpson looks forward to food.