This blog will probably be a bit dull since I am well hung over today and have are so far behind in my blog updates.
We headed off with a group of 6 others about 30km outside of Hauy xai. We reached a small village off the main road and waited to meet our guides for the experience. I was so nervous about the zip lines. Once we swapped a couple of people with the other group heading out we started the first of many treks.
This first trek we knew would be around 2 hours, what I didn't figure but should have since the cables are very high, is that it was 2 hours mostly up very steep hills. Our first night we were to stay at the treehouse right near the waterfall so that was where our journey was headed.
After around 3 hours we made it to the waterfall and rewarded ourselves with a swim and a rest. Not too much later we got a taste of our first cable. I was so so scared I kept checking that I remembered what to do and that all my cables were attached etc. Then it was time. The first cable was about 500m long and over a valley. It was just awesome, the view and the experience of flying through the sky.
It really was a blast and although every morning when we got up I had the fear all over again, as soon as the first cable was done I couldn't wait for more.
We set ourselves up in our tree house at about 4pm and then had time for ourselves. We ended up playing cards for a few hours with the 2 Canadian girls. That night it ended up thunderstorming, and what they didn't tell us but we found in the book in the treehouse that if the lighting and thunder were 7 seconds apart we would have to evacuate. On the zip lines, in the dark. We were not keen. Thankfully we didn't have to do that.
The next morning we hiked to our new treehouse. Because of the rain the night before, it was a lot more slippery. And there were leeches, hundreds and hundreds of them. The second day hike was more hard core than the first. We got to the treehouse about lunch time after many more cables. Some really good, some not so good.
The problem with the second treehouse was that there appeared to be a bee infestation. In the toilet. When I say toilet, I mean an area with a hole underneath. Until it became dark, it was a real mission to try and use the bathroom. Suprisingly enough, noone got stung. We had a decision to make that day about our last day. Did we a)want to have a short 2 hour hike on the way back to leave with no cables or b)have a 7 hour trek but have the use of about 10 cables. We were addicted. We opted for b. Many of us would later wonder if we were crazy.
More cards were in store for the nights activities but most of us were buggered and headed for bed reasonably early.
We had an 8 am start the next day and headed off on our journey. The first 4 hours went by with out to much hassle. At least most of it this time wasn't vertical but horizontal. We stopped off for lunch after the first 4 hours. Some swam, others rested underneath trees.
The next 2 or so hours were pretty much hell. We all ran out of water and we also ran out of shade. So the next two hours were in full sun. But we made it and had a great sense of accomplishment when it was complete. When we reached our final destination we swam while waiting for the truck to pick us up.
The ride back into town was an adventure in itself. The roads were barely that and there was alot of bumping into one another and being thrown around.
The whole experience was probably my favourite thing so far. It was a great experience.
Oh, your probably wondering if we saw any gibbons. Not one, in fact the only wild life we saw was a monster rat in our tree house. And a squirell about 100m away!
