We were woken up at six o clock by one of the staff, shouting "Wake Up, Morning Safari" everyone drowsily headed to the Center Hut for a coffe or tea. then we had to find the rubber boots we wore yesterday, John had to wear his Trecker Boots because they didnt have any boots bigger that size 9 (I was quite glad of that because the rubber boots were full of holes and mud!) then we made the now familliar 15 minute treck through the mud to the jetty (They are not called rain forests for nothing. The floor is constantly wet and if more than three or four people walk the same way it turns into a swamp), we went way up river and saw lots of wildlife, we saw a three legged pig which had been bitten by a crocodile, it was lying in the mud on the edge of the river aparantly out of reach of the crocodiles, basically waiting to die amazingly for the time being it was still alive. We also saw a baby crocodile. We were out for nearly two hours then the boatman Tony turned the boat round and opened up the throttle for a thrilling ride back to camp. After yet another treck through the mud and a quick clean up we found breakfast already ready for us. Rice, noodles, eggy bread, fried banana's and tea/coffee, It may sound a bit wierd to the untravelled European but believe me it absolutely hit the spot. Not a scrap was left, and not due to small quantities either, the three Swedish girls with names I couldnt pronounce had three or four helpings each (Mandy and I called them Abba 1, 2, and 3!) and our other two companions, an aussie girl with a name I cant remember (If you read this cobber please leave a message on me message board!) and a really sweet solo girl traveller from China called Rinda (You know rike Aran Warrington's wife Rinda!) Also tucked in with gay abandon.

Afterwards there was time for a 'shower'. All washing in camp is done with brown, slightly gritty water pumped up to the camp from the river. A shower is a bucket of river water tipped over the head, Getting dry with a damp towel in high humidity is quite a laugh. Then we had time for a bit of a relax watching the lads play football, or rather their version of football they call Chaoulin football. The heat and humidity was unbelievable we don't know where they got the energy. At ten o'clock, two girls from Finland who were also in our group decided the experience was far too hot and dirty for them, and they and the six or seven members of the group before us got into one of the boats and were taken back to HQ. leaving me alone with six women. YEA! We donned our boots again and headed off on a jungle walk. This time of day is not the best to see wildlife but the guides were absolutely brillian and dug out all sorts of interesting things and told us how the local natives used to use the various plants, and showed us what you could and could not touch. I couldn't believe that there is one plant which if you touch the sap from a damaged leaf your whole body gets itchy and then if you touch someone else they get all itchy too! We were shown some big wood lice the size of mice, and a couple of small trantula's in their nests in the tree's, we walked through swamps and at least four of us got leech's on us, not nice, but you just pull them off, the one thing we didn't see was an Orang Utan although we did see where they had been recently. We also saw some elephant poo! Actually it was quite exciting!

When we got back it was time for lunch, again rice and noodles with beef, chicken and vegetables, Absolutely lovely and once again the Abba Girls had multiple portions (Incidentally for those of you thinking " I bet John stuffed himself" I was actually very restrained. Something to do with not wanting to make an excessive number of trips to the loo which had the most unbelievable odor and was physically very challenging to use when you have not been brought up sitting on your haunches since you were 2 years old. 'Nuff said on that one!) While we sat eating our lunch, a Long Tailed Macac was on the roof watching and then all of a sudden it came down and stole a banana, and quickly ran off again. This was the first such raid we witnessed but we became familliar with their frequent invasions, always incredibly well planned and I would say 99% succesfull. We have to keep the door's to our hut's shut and bolted because the Macac's will steal anything they can find. Everyone relaxed for a couple of hours, as much as it is possible to relax with temperatures in the high 30s and 99% humidity.

At five we were taken on another river trip, originally scheduled as a one hour trip but turned into two as we were so enthralled. It was dark when we turned round to speed back to the camp, I don't know how the driver saw where he was going, but he got us back to the jetty in one piece, although Mandy was a bit concerned about crocodiles and hitting logs in the dark, snakes and generally getting lost in the jungle but bless her she bravely kept most of her concerns to herself apart from a little mutter that if Tony had stuck to the f#*$ing schedule we would have been back in the light! We then had to find our way back to camp, seven of us with two head lights, They must have been Girl Guides in Sweden. We made it, anyway, and when we got back to the camp the day's new arrivals where having their briefing session. Therte were twenty four of them, and to us seven "old hands" who had had the camp to ourselves since 10:00 o'clock it seemed like an invasion, we felt it was our camp, and all sat together feeling quite grumpy about the strange foreigners!- very strange, especially me as I had now lost my alpha male status! The guides, who must feel like that so much more than we did (Some of them had not left the camp for over a year) were incredibly professional and showed exactly the same hospitality to each and every one.

We all had dinner at eight then our group went on a night walk, Mandy opted out of that one! Possibly a step too far, as we were told it was all millipedes, scorpions, snakes in the dark, on foot so I got to go all on my own with our three Swedish friends , our Aussie fruitcake and Rinda. Meanwhile the new group went on their first night river safari. The night Safari was amazing. we spent nearly two hours walking about 200 meters through thick forest and swamp. Every few steps there was something fascinating to see. By far the best was when our guide poked a huge scorpion out of it's crack and then tamed it by blowing on it in a rythmical way. He then let us all hold it. Please note on the picture my collar and cuffs are tightly fastened.

We had loads to talk about when we got back to the camp and we all chilled for the rest of the evening before bedtime when we went back to our huts and let the Cicadas and frogs and other unknown creatures of the night lull us into a fitfull hot sweaty sleep. Oh yes I forgot to mention the Mosquitos.....The 50% Deet we bought really works well, for about 3.5 minutes!