The Trek Begins...

Day 6. Bag unpacking, repacking and sorting every day is becoming an arse! As is the once-a-day anti-malaria pill-taking. I have to chew the little bastard as I can't ever swallow pills whole. It tastes of "not nice". Mid-morning, we left Planet Kinabalu hostel and mini-bussed from Kota Kinabalu to the nearby Crocker Range to start the first of much walking! Out of the minibusses and plastered with DEET, we sorted our backpacks out for ten or so minutes. My ancient backpack was particularly dud, and in need of some attention!
Past plants that curled up in fear if you touched them, we began to hike. And hike we did! Soon enough, just up the road, we had our first encounter with the very unstable and wobbly rope bridges that Borneo is particularly famed for! Don't look down! It was ok crossing it, despite all the wobbling and jumping up and down to make it wobble more!
We were entering the rainforest - something so amazing. However, I had no time to think about that as all my energy was focused on me keeping walking! Alot of the walk was uphill, and very much so over dodgy terrain. Add to that the HEAT!... think of hiking on the hottest day in England ever. Not nice... and that's not including the HUMIDITY! Up to 90% for god's sake! This was going to get seriously sweaty... and because of the humidity, very little sweat evaporates off you. It just stays on your body, smearing your clothes until it looks like you've just jumped into the sea still wearing them! It was FAR from pleasant!
During one particularly steep uphill section, Kyle was attacked by razor sharp leaves, cutting him up a fair bit! We all got scratched, but somehow it was Kyle who managed to come off worse! This walking in the sheer heat and humidity is deadly enough without the plant life attacking us!
My platypus (squishy water bottle) was running dry, as were my back-up water supplies in my bag. You drink far too much... but instead off pissing it out, it's instantly released as non-stop sweat... but if we all smell, no-one smells, yah?! It was even too sweaty to wear my dear wide-brim hat that was vital for blocking out the nauseatingly powerful sunlight! Well that's my excuse for not keeping it on - the real reason is that it just looked silly!
Mmm... sweaty! Mmm... wet feet! The two thoughts that frequently occured in my head as we walked on... and on... and on... and on... and... then, eventually...
Walking down a particularly steep downhill section, we reached our campsite - a roughly cleared area in the rainforest. Trees were everywhere, looking all beautiful. We soon accessorised them all with hammox, put up shoddily! The only other time we'd practised putting them up was back in Hounslow - slightly different to the depths of the jungle! Understandibly, we took ages sorting everything out! In the end, they were put up alright (before the semi-heavy rain thank god!), if not a bit close to other people. Well, I say they were put up alright, but Soos' hammock quickly collapsed after she tested it by lying in it. The ropes came undone, and Soos and hammock fell with a thump, almost onto some candles! Me being lovely just stood and couldn't stop laughing... not helping her! She was less amused...
Our campsite is at the top of another steep slippery slope, with a Disney-looking river at the bottom of the valley.
Back up at the top of the hill, we dug a shit-hole... literally. Little did we know (until the smell) that we picked to dig in an area that was previously used for very similar actions!
Back down the slope, and as night drew in, we cooked some moderately tasty grub before being shown by our guides how everything could be made of dear bamboo. Yes, EVERYTHING! An evening with the guides was an evening well spent! We did some tribal dances, with each of us doing our own specialised dance, some of us dressing up in leaves! To everyone's surprise we weren't as tired as we'd thought, and got some good moves in! We even learnt some local chant... "Ilun Busak Bah Kui!" I only hope that the guides weren't taking the piss and making us chant "We love big willies!"...

Tonight is our first night in the jungle, the first night in hammox! With candles dotted around our campsite to ward off monsters, it was off to sleep in the over-sized trees... a new experience, and one that is completely unforgettable!