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During my trekking week, I not only saw some beautiful views (some of my favourite pictures are already on the blog), but also gained some new experiences.......
Monday 28 Dec 2009 - Shirley-Ann, Oliver and I left Lemon House at 10.00am in our fully air conditioned pick up truck (haha)!! On route, we stopped off to collect some supplies for our 3 days of trekking, I did ask the driver to take us to Waitrose, as I so wanted to use my 15% discount, but he said he`d not heard of them, so had to settle for Tesco Lotus (yep, they're here in abundance !).
We finally arrived at our first camp base in Phutoei National Park (Supan Buri Province) at 3pm and we had a well deserved cup of tea !. Wish I could say, we had a 'nice' cup of tea, but as nice cup of tea doesn`t taste the same with powder milk, I've had to resort to black tea, never ever thought I would drink that stuff, but that's what I've been drinking ever since I left the UK and actually its not that bad !!
Anyway, after our tea break, we got down to the task of putting up our tents. For your information, this was one of my first new experiences (I've never put up a tent before - and won't be rushing to do it again. Don`t know how I managed to avoid it for so many years? Guess its good planning my behalf) ! After a quick training session from Shirley-Ann & Oliver, we put up three tents - its easy once you know how (oooh, listen to me, talking like an expert). Shirely-Ann and I decided to share one tent for sleeping in and use the other one as our "dressing room / wardrobe" - well we needed some creature comforts ! Once the tents were furnished with sleeping bags / pillows / torches etc., we decided to move them onto a music stand, which was closeby. The floor of the stand was made of bamboo and was slightly softer than the rock hard ground and with a lot less insects ! I`ve never been a girl guide, but presume that`s what they would have done too (haha) !
After supper we sat around and chatted to the Park Rangers and their families and then retired to our tents at 20:30 - this was another new experience for me (no not the going to bed early, the new experience was sleeping in a tent)!
Tuesday 29 Dec 2009 - At 9.30 Shirley-Ann, Oliver, a Park Ranger & I left the camp base for our first trekking expedition !
The start of this was at the base of a waterfall and we climbed alongside this to get to the top ! At first we had some large pebbles to step on as we zig-zaged our way from one side of the fall to the other. This method of climbing became more difficult as we got higher up the fall, as the pebbles became smaller and the stream became wider. As we neared the top, we were climbing boulders and we had no option, but to walk through the water - there was no point in trying to avoid it, as by this time our trainers were completely soaked.
In hindsight, what we did was dangerous and frightening (I fell on my right knee and have been in discomfort ever since - hopefully it will heal before I get to Darwin). Once we reached the top, the view from of the waterfall was fantastic and well worth the climb. Oliver & the Park Ranger left Shirley-Ann and I at the falls so that we could have a shower. Wow - it was great standing under the fall with cold water gushing down on us, so refreshing & cool and much needed as we were both very hot & sticky.
The second camp base was 5 minutes away from the falls and on arrival we put up the tents for our next two nights stay and then chilled for the rest of the evening. After supper (which was cooked by the Park Rangers wife), we sat around a campfire, just chatting and enjoying the moment!
The lifestyle of the Rangers / local village people is very basic, they do not have any electricity and after sunset resort to candlelight. They even have to bring water to the campsite on a truck, then fill up the tanks - and we think we have it bad !
Wed 30 Dec 2009 - After breakfast we made our way to Angle Mountain (very close to our camp base), which is 1165metres above sea level to start our climb. However, after just climbing a couple of steep hills, we gave up...... I'm not a wimp (honest), but I was worried about my knee. Going up would have been fine, but I know I would have further damaged my dodgy knee on decent - so I think I made the right call !
After lunch, we went and explored three caves, which was interesting and gave us something to do (it was a bit boring just sitting around). Guess what, yep, we had another early night (21:00) !
Thursday 31 Dec - New Years Eve 2009! We left the camp base at 12:30, once again in a pickup truck, and made our way to our homestay near a lake (still in Supan Buri Province). I hate to admit this, but since Monday 28th, we'd not had a shower as the facilities at the campsite were not to our standards, so it was really lovely to stand under a shower at the homestay. Shirley-Ann and I had to laugh as we remembered that on the first day we were having breakfast at our hotel in Bangkok, a group of travellers had walked in and we thought how awful they smelt - guess we now know why !
Feeling fresh & clean, we made our way to the lake, just a few yards away and a picnic supper next to the lake. The view was amazing, it was overlooking the lake and mountains beyond !! We then just chilled and waited for the new year to roll in. Throughtout the evening, the moon was shining on the lake - can't find the words to describe the moment - except wow !
Friday 1 Jan 2010 - woke up at dawn and read my prayers by the lake, then waited for the sun to rise, and boy was it beautiful (photographs on the blog). After breakfast, we were taken to a hotel for an overnight stay and the following day (Saturday 2nd Jan), we returned to Lemon House to pack our bags for our beach week..... more to come ........Dee x
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