Halfway... and not counting

Well well well. Here we are again.

I've officially passed the halfway point for my training and as usual I'm extremely happy and love the fact that this is my life edit now. As I mentioned at the end of my last missive, I could see myself doing this... For how long? Not sure but I think I picked the right company and the right course. Even if I don't end up with a proper job I will DEFINITELY love take you all out and about...

Since we spoke last, I've been to Long Lellang and lived like a jungle king. It was one of those weeks that will go down in my history as the cause for the MOST superlatives needed. I'll try and list a few but I'm sure I'll forget some. I ate: lizard (tasted like barbecue ribs), boar, python (which I helped gut and skin... Oh yeah it was 6 metres long and wider than my thigh), the snake fat, three types of deer, MANY fish, frogs and probably many flies and spiders in my sleep. I taught our housekeeper, yeah we had a house keeper, how to cook yakitori frog. She's going to teach me to cook deer rendang - a spicy fragrant Malaysian curry. CAN'T WAIT to cook it when I get back!! We hung out with a Penan fella. The Penan are the indigenous kings of the jungle. He gave us each a pisour which is a long handled knife. I spent the next day carving my parang handle with it. Looks AWESOME. We went frog hunting/wacking in the middle of the night. This basically involved looking for the reflection of the frogs' eyes and hitting them hard enough to knock them out... With a MASSIVE sword/knife. It was fun. I also reckon I've perfected the sumpit (blowpipe). I managed to shoot a small peach from 10metres away. Next up - using it for hunting. We taught in the school for the afternoon and basically spent a week laughing hard enough that I thought I COULD end up with a sixpack. I didn't.

Jim and I took care of business and paved the way for our fellow 'TELS' to trek there (only a 6 day walk) as well as securing a steady supply of pineapples and rice upon our arrival. We've hopefully organised a few projects for next year after meeting the headmen and village council so who knows, maybe I'll get to work on them?!?

We had to write it all up in 18 hours in Miri as well as risk assessments, casualty evacuation plans and a provisional logistics plan and budget which meant 16 hours in an Internet cafe... An hour was needed each day for KFC and Pizza Hut. Job done.

We have been in Pa'Umor for a week staying in a longhouse. It's like a Victorian terraced street but none of the houses have dividing walls. It's kinda nice with all the families together.

We've been learning river crossings and getting feedback from month one. It seems all is going well and I'm ticking all the right boxes which I'm properly chuffed to hear. ALTHOUGH I did fail my river crossing but, in the instructors words, 'you were making it look to easy so we fucked you over a little bit'. I lead a days work fixing a local bridge and got a high grade for that... I've passed everything else with high passes so having to re-take the river stuff isn't so bad.

I'm lying here listening to music writing this. We're packing for 8days in the jungle so I've no doubt that I'll have more to add as the days go by, assuming we've survived the trek in with 25-30kgs on our back. Oh. And belt kit night assessment which involves 2/3 nights out with nothing but out survival kit. I'll let you know (I hope).

So!! I've returned. Triumphantly. It's been an amazing few weeks. The march into what is now known as sun bear camp was dealt with. As usual, I sweated like a beast but enjoyed every step. It was wonderful to setup camp in maiden rainforrest. It's hard to put into words how elated I feel at the moment but basically having spend 5 nights in a gorgeous spot, setting it up for the next group, we wondered into a NEW part of the jungle with our belt kits to make our own homes. On. Our. Own. Most of you already know that I have been looking forward to this to MONTHS. It  lived up to my hopes. Pure bliss. I made a wonderful shelter that I think I will go back to at the end of the course. Set some traps (part of the assessment) and generally soaked in my surroundings. I had a wonderful spot next to a meander in the Pa Semarang river. It was cold at night especially as I didn't have a sleeping bag (they're pretty hard to make from leaves) so I kept a fire going each night next to my bed but all in all I slept really well. I'm back in Bario lying on a real live bed once again questioning how I've come to deserve such holistic joy and happiness in my life. I'm pretty sleepy now so I'm going to have a snooze before I cook boar for everyone later.

We're walking to Long LELLANG in two days and that should take around 6days/nights. I'm not sure when we'll have Internet again so until then...

You are seldom out of my thoughts. I wonder/ponder how you all are and love reading your words when they come.

I am sending lots of love, energy and happiness as always.

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PS my beard is getting very bushy!!!!

So far...

It's been roughly a month since I left and it's been pretty much non-stop but in a very good way - definitely appreciate the downtime a LOT!

It's hard to explain what we've been doing so I'll list what comes to mind and expand on the fun bits.

In Bario - an agglomeration of small villages set amongst the Kelabit highlands - we stayed in a beautiful (but basic) long house. This was our base. From there we would trek for 5hours with bags and kit and food to get to our jungle camps called Silverleaf and Hornbill.

Initially we learned basic jungle skills which mainly involved not being a twat. There was a fair amount of acclimatisation to do both physically and mentally. It's a strange place the jungle. I like it. A few of the others dont. You can't see the sky so you dont see sky it for a week at a time so some of the guys got a bit 'jungle feverish'. We played with our parangs (Malay machetes) learned to make fire, brushed up on navigation and got our heads round jungle chores. The hardest part is probably putting on soggy boxers each morning because you spend the day in your 'wet kit'. My wet kit started to smell like death no matter how often I washed it.  It didn't take long for conversation to revolve around shitting and eating but it's something we all enjoy!!

We had 2 solo nights where we wandered off with all our kit and some rations and were told to return the next day. The first night did not go very well. I spilt water over my fire so I ended up having a tin of cold sweetcorn for dinner. It's ok though. I like sweetcorn. The second attempt 10days later went much better but I ended up cooking my noodles in strawberry flavoured water because I'd added tang to it for the trek. Oh well. Sweet and savoury in one meal!

Since then we've been learned more and more detailed and intricate first aid. I properly loved it! We started to put the casualties into scenarios with one of us leading and the others acting as manpower for clearing evacuation paths, comms to the outside world, note taking, running around... Again. PROPERLY love this. Next we were assessed on this. Colin and Jade (our trainers and casualties) prepared us very well for this. The funny part was that ANY moment they would go missing. Day or night... We each had turns as the designated leader and had to use our resources to FIND the person, assess any danger, nominate a medic and generally manage the situation. I got a good pass which is the equivalent of a merit. Very happy with that.

Food in general is pretty shit. It's either rice/noodle based or porridge. The highlight was probably spaghetti with a creamy mushroom sauce. I say creamy mushroom. I mean tinned mushrooms with their juice with milk powder and condensed milk added. The trade-off is food is heavy but it tastes nice. Rationing is a tricky one to get right.

We're (Jim and I) are off to a place called Long Lellang now. To see if there are any projects that TrekForce could use for future groups. There is a fair amount of paper work to go with it so our downtime will be pretty busy... I'll let you know more when I know more!

All in all, I feel pretty lucky to be here. I get to utter/mumble/ponder my favourite phrase - LIFE IS GOOD - often. Some of the others are starting to use it too. I think I could see myself doing this for a year or two. Who knows.

I think of you all often. Miss you sometimes. Love you always.

Take it easy,

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