5 days bush bashing

We are back in Santa Cruz, as of midday today. The last five days have been pretty full on.. bush bashing. So our nice city beds and city food are being thoroughly enjoyed!

Last post I was feeling pretty grotty, but I came right by Tues morning when we took off for the jungle. Thank God..

Our guides were Julian, and his 20 year old son Limbiz. With in the Amboro national Park we saw quite a few animals, covered loads of ground, ate some pretty crap food, and scaled some pretty cool cliffs. The bush was actualy very similar to the West coast of NZ, but the insect and animal life present was much more intense.

day 1. Taxi´d to the park. Got the taxi stuck in deep mud, pushed it thru, then left the driver to return to town. God only knows how he got back thru again on his own. Walked for most of the day, passing the rough village where Julian and sons live. Camped under a cliff by the river.

We saw a couple of fox like creature on the way, but swimming/washing I met another creature a bit too close and personal... Thinking it would be clever to keep my clothes dry i jumped in naked... only to have a local fish get excited about a rather large worm presented... and bite my cock!! It gave me such an unexpected shock i screaned like it had been bitten right off! Funny now, but not then..

Day 2. Did some serious climbing today. Our guidebook had mentioned something about hikes into the park past a certain point being appropriate for ´hardcore´trekkers only. We hadnt paid much attention, but should have questioned why Julian was carrying a rope. The track was often damn near vertical. And in some places it was literaly vertical. THe most challenging pitch was approx 25m, in 3 pitches. Nothing overly technical you see, but a slip would have been a ´very bad thing.´ It was very exposed. Good fun!

We saw a couple more foxes, that ran right past us. Also some monkeys, and loads of bright green parrots.

Our campsite was near the park´s high point. It had been a bloody mission to get there, so it seemed a bit rediculous that we could see Santa Cruz lights in the distance that night!

Day 3. Went further up for the morning. We could see more of the park in the distance now. The park is huge - 322,000 HA. Only 5% of it has been explored. Having seen how many vertical cliff criss cross the land it was easy to see why. Julian postulated that there might be tribes in there which are literaly ´undiscoved´which i thought was pretty cool. That afternoon on the way down we were given a right show by a couple of monkeys beating their chests at us. We returned to our 1st nights camp. A well earned wash in the river.. shorts on ths time!

In the eve some animals visted us to feed on veges we left on the perimiter.

Day 4. Went bashing up the river for the morning. Saw a viper and loads of huge and colorful butterflys. In the arvo we ended up going down to Julians village, hoping to see some animals which had been coming in for sneaky feasts on their crops in the eve. The plan was good, but they didnt show up that night.

day 5. Serious bush bashing. Machete weilding stuff, and bloody red ants crawling onto us. Their bites seriously sting! We both got bitten by ticks too, which was a first for us both, and not nice. (Sara 4, me 2).. It was bloody hot today, and a swim was well earned. We finished the day walking back out to the pick up point, and into town for a well earned shower. A pretty sweet 5 days in the bush.