We set off in good spirits. Up hill initially and keeping pace with the elephants, stepping aside to let them pass and then scrambling along at a safe distance. It;s not easy to walk along an elephants track, they churn up the ground and create broad footprints full of water that can be deceptively deep!!
We reached the top of the hill before the elephants and stopped for a drink (of water though at this point gin would have been preferable) and let the others file past. We were all smiling and waving, until a family from the other group went past on their (stolen) elephant.
They waved and said "we should try riding an elephant",
we bit back the retorts!
We laughed and said "we liked to walk",
they responded "that they had already been walking for 2 days",
we bit back the response that "so had we and we managed the jungle trek on day 1 where they only managed to walk down the dirt road and that maybe they should get of OUR elephants and try a real trek instead" but bitterness aside I'm sure that they were very pleasant people.
So we set off down hill. Following the path at times and nipping through the jungle when the elephants were nearby or when the path was impassable. We were doing pretty well, the odd slip or slide but reasonably steady, we couldn't see why the others had got so muddy. Then the path got harder, no longer were there solid bits to walk on, it was sheer slippy mud or large boulders and rocks, and then the slipping started. Tumble Shikha had a few fabulous slips where she managed to right herself, but then a squeal signified the firs full slip. Hayley soon followed suit and then the ever elegant Helen managed to fall. By this point cleanliness was a negative trait and we were all soon caked. Kate was the most steady, a fair few "wahey" moments but she took sliding to new levels, never actually falling.
Then we reached the top of a long slope, with not a rock, tree root or stable surface in sight. Just the thought of it caused me to fall, Shikha did another tumble and landed firmly on her coccyx (sp, and me a biology teacher!) and then Kate fell over, we realised we were all doomed!
As we slid down the slope the porters, bless their little non existent socks, tried to us themselves as bracing points for us. But a porter offering you his foot to place yours against when he probably only weighed 8 stone soaking wet does not feel right, and when we tried it the porter (Happy time I think) slipped more than I did and we both ended up in the mud.
We reached the top of the hill before the elephants and stopped for a drink (of water though at this point gin would have been preferable) and let the others file past. We were all smiling and waving, until a family from the other group went past on their (stolen) elephant.
They waved and said "we should try riding an elephant",
we bit back the retorts!
We laughed and said "we liked to walk",
they responded "that they had already been walking for 2 days",
we bit back the response that "so had we and we managed the jungle trek on day 1 where they only managed to walk down the dirt road and that maybe they should get of OUR elephants and try a real trek instead" but bitterness aside I'm sure that they were very pleasant people.
So we set off down hill. Following the path at times and nipping through the jungle when the elephants were nearby or when the path was impassable. We were doing pretty well, the odd slip or slide but reasonably steady, we couldn't see why the others had got so muddy. Then the path got harder, no longer were there solid bits to walk on, it was sheer slippy mud or large boulders and rocks, and then the slipping started. Tumble Shikha had a few fabulous slips where she managed to right herself, but then a squeal signified the firs full slip. Hayley soon followed suit and then the ever elegant Helen managed to fall. By this point cleanliness was a negative trait and we were all soon caked. Kate was the most steady, a fair few "wahey" moments but she took sliding to new levels, never actually falling.
Then we reached the top of a long slope, with not a rock, tree root or stable surface in sight. Just the thought of it caused me to fall, Shikha did another tumble and landed firmly on her coccyx (sp, and me a biology teacher!) and then Kate fell over, we realised we were all doomed!
As we slid down the slope the porters, bless their little non existent socks, tried to us themselves as bracing points for us. But a porter offering you his foot to place yours against when he probably only weighed 8 stone soaking wet does not feel right, and when we tried it the porter (Happy time I think) slipped more than I did and we both ended up in the mud.
Rachel decided the only way down was on her bottom. So sat and slid her way down that hill, it worked perfectly until she hit the wetter sloppier mud at the bottom, and suddenly she had a large amount of runny mud up her shorts. Rachel as ever was very vocal in her "joy" at this experience but in true Rachel style took it in her stride and just laughed, a lot!
At the base of the hill we were all shattered, and spirits hit rock bottom when Pok told us we had another hour to go. We had been struggling along for and hour and a half and had had enough. Luckily the rest was fairly flat but we walked on autopilot. This time resorting to the alphabet game of favourite foods to keep us going, though this soon became a list of foods we craved!
I must give credit to the porters and Pok who walked the whole way, kept our spirits up, kept us safe (the porters that is as Pok was as unsteady as we were) and to Pete, who gallantly walked the whole way, refusing the chance of an elephant so that all the girls had the opportunity to ride an elephant. If anyone ever wonders why a teacher's husband come on a trip like this, that's one of the reasons why, he'll do anything for those darn girls!
Eventually we arrived at a river, to see two of the porters attempting to paddle a dinky boat against the current to fetch us. We were well and truly exhausted. We piled in and took the short trip down stream to the other side, where the others were washing off the mud in the river. Steph said that it was the best wash she has ever had.
There were trucks waiting for us, with glasses of ice cold coke. I was not in the best of tempers and when I saw Pok berating the owner of the resort about the lack of elephants I had to walk away for fear of throttling him or crying. (we did not know the full story of the elephants so blamed the resort owner at this point)
When we returned to the resort he apologised profusely, and then explained what had actually happened, he was furious about the situation and felt terribly guilty, even though it wasn't his fault. As penance he had sent one of his chaps to get loads more Ovaltine for us (he had heard of our addiction) and promised to get us elephants to help us on the next days trek.
We then had the promise of quick showers before we moved onto our next camp, unfortunately one shower was running cold and the light exploded in the other, so we chose to stay dirty rather than risk dodgy electrics, though Irmina and a few others managed an ice cold bucket shower. We collected some clean clothes from our bags, popped to the "shop" to stock up on Oriios and jumped into the trucks to head to our next camp.
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