Jungle trek

On our second day at the lake, after breakfast, our guide asked us who was coming on the trek.  It was going to be about 3 hours and would involve swimming through a cave and crossing creeks.

The girls immediately said “What!  Are you nuts?  Why would we want to walk up mountains for 3 hours?”  So it looked like it would be just me and Susi & Sven, until at the last minute Michael decided he wanted to come as well.

I thought I would probably end up having to carry him but I really wanted some member of the family to come with me and as I am ALWAYS up for a physical (Amanda:  crazy!!) challenge I decided to take him.

The long tail boat took us 15 minutes down an inlet and within a minute of getting out, we were already deep into the jungle. We walked inland and steadily upwards for about an hour & a half.  The jungle was incredibly thick and most of the time you couldn’t see the sun.  Some parts were steep with boulders we had to climb over.  Michael was pleasantly suprising me already, he hadn’t complained once, he was really enjoying the adventure.

After almost two hours of constant hiking, we arrived at the entrance to the cave.  This was where we had to make the decision, if we go into the cave, it would take about an hour of walking / climbing with torches & also the last part of the cave included having to swim (about 2 metres deep) for about 100 metres. We all discussed it, and Michael was keen (surprise, surprise!) –  the Thai guide thought it would be ok – so we headed on in.

Within seconds it was just the five of us in pitch black except for our torches. We came across numerous spiders, some were as big as Michael’s hand (and were yellow he says to remind me) and when we were about a half hour into the cave the guide pointed his torch to the cave ceiling, and there were literally hundreds of bats sleeping there.  Michael was just loving it!

After almost an hour in the cave, the stream of water we had been trudging through started to get deeper and harder to traverse, (I must admit, at this stage I was starting to think to myself, perhaps this wasn’t my smartest decsion), yet when I asked Michael, you ok?, he said “I’m fine”, and kept ploughing on in front of me.

Last hurdle was coming. You could hear the water was getting louder in the distance, now it was getting alot harder to go forwards, then all of a sudden Michael was faced with hanging onto a rope, and lowering himself downwards, to the cave stream below (my heart was starting to race now!), The Thai guide was great, he went in front and helped lower Michael down. I quickly followed behind.

Next we were dragging ourselves hand over hand along a rope that was fixed to the ceiling of the cave.  The water was up to our necks and there was no floor.  I was running on adrenaline more worrying about Michael and just thinking about getting to the end (and no my claustrophobia was fine) but then my torch went out.  Luckily I could see the other headlamps in front of me and tried to keep up. Finally after over an hour in the cave, we made it to the other side.

After a quick drink stop,  we continued on trekking out of the jungle and after almost three an a half hours we made it back to the boat.  It was an amazing experience, and all the more special to share it with my five year old son, (who normally back in Perth, can’t walk five minutes without either saying “I’m tired, can you carry me” or “I’m hungry”) who didnt complain once or even mention the words….I’m hungry!