Day 4: Our little group

The others were up at 5am for a long walk back to the starting point while we rose at 7:30 for a more civilized 9am departure. We had a relaxed breakfast which began with the usual coffees and hot chocolates. The most interesting part of our conversation was about WW1 and WW2, due to the war book Sarah was reading. It was about the origins of the wars and how they are taught to us in schools. Particularly interesting since we had a Germany, England, USA and Australia.

After breakfast we set out to start day 4, a short 3 hour day, the first half straight up, and the second half straight down. It was a repeat across country we had seen before but that didn't make the views any less stunning. We joked around for the first part seeing spiders and butterflies while the heat started to drown us in sweat again. It really is incredible how much we have sweated in the last four days.

Amanda took her first fall, with a quota of five she had only 2.5 hours to fall four more times. We powered up the uphill section and got ready for what we were told was undulating for the next twenty minutes. This was actually undulating between uphill and steep uphill, Owell, can't win them all. It was a difficult morning but out little group got along really well and I think the knowledge we only had a few hours made us appreciate where we were.
We arrived into camp early, just before lunch, all desperate for water and a piss. Really body, can't you sort this out? Juice, watermelon, cake, and soup and crackers later; we were all ready to roll out.

After a rest we got ready and walked the two minutes to the natural pools. We jumped off the rocks, used the waterfall as a shower, even skimmed rocks for a while. In the water were some small fish which kept biting us, removing the dead skin cells. After all this walking we were now a feast. After a small amount of time, a young local boy came down to join in. He had a new watch and tried to workout if ours were better and if he should swap it with us. His was much better which he soon realized and he started asking if it was a present for him, fat chance kid. He was good fun and showed us a few things like the heart shaped seeds which floated by us occasionally. We skimmed rocks across the pools before heading out.

We had quite a lot of time to kill, something we were not use to.
We started by talking and changed to a few games of s***head (cards) with the four of us, followed by just the three as Amanda went to read.

Eric had a disadvantage although he still had great luck, he played while a dog thought it would be a great time to play a game of its own. "No, no, no go away, stop biting me" as it tried to play bite his whole arm. "No, no" and the dog tries again, in slow motion. It never really got the idea of no, and it translates perfectly. Sarah left and we had to change game, so I taught a German the game 'German whist.'

We stopped for dinner of meat, rice and chips. The meat tasted great, but you did have to eat it with your hands as it was extremely tough in one part.

As we played cards and ate dinner, the heavens had opened up and it wasn't just intense rain but lightening and thunder. The lightening lit up the whole jungle and some of the thunder was loud enough to be felt in lose clothing! It was an amazing show of power as the lightening lit up the jungle to day time, the rain was deafening on the tin roof and the thunder grumbled and rumbled almost constantly.

We finished dinner and we began to try and find the best seats to watch the show put on by the heavens. We got other surprises, like lots of frogs and toads, birds and even fireflys. The level of the river right infront of us was now 5 meters across instead of the usual 1 meter. Sarah went back to reading while the rest of us watched the show and the animals. Every so often Sarah would tell us alittle about the first Christmas of World War One as it was written by the troops in the book she was reading.

All this action was too much for the electricity in the camp and we were put into darkness. It was a weird one as it really took some time. First we started loosing some power and the lights got dimmer and then back to normal, the it fluctuated at a lower intensity with many split second dark patches and finally we lost power.

The question we had overlooked the whole time, how did we get power? Our Spanish is not great but the explanation we received sounded very simple. Spoons were pushed around on a wheel by water from up the hill and this powered a dynamo. Sounds right but spoons? We will have to have a look tomorrow as he pointed to a very small pipe.

After we got the power back we all played s***head, all five of us including Jose our apprentice guide, therefore we played in Spanish. It was great fun, joking around. The lights played a funny roll, working as emphasis, drum-rolls and also sometime to help you lay an extra card in front of someone else in the dark.

We had to purify some water for the first time the whole trip which ment Eric could test his drops. Half an hour for the chlorine to work, and three minutes to remove the chlorine. It was a good job for normal tasting, hopefully clean water.

Bedtime came around and the lightening, thunder and rain on the tin roof made an amazing sound, perfect for sleep. Sarah made her bed only to findout it was more a W shape and a more advanced level of hammock. After a few hiccups were ironed out and we moved sarah over one, we all headed off to sleep.