Day 25 (Friday 10th November 2006)

Well, good move not going on the night safari... At brekkie we got chatting to the dutch couple who had just arrived next door at Park Lodge. After a bit of small talk, they began telling us about their incredible first night inside the park. They saw several leopards, but most astonishingly, watched as a 20ft python took a leopard cub! We nearly choked on our toast as we flicked through their breathtaking photos...and of course where did they see all this...on the bloody night safari!!!!

Oh well, sure that we would witness some wonderous natural spectacles of our own, we met up with Pete and Jodie and began our gruelling 11km walk deep in to the rainforest. The trek took the best part of 7-hours, trapsing up and down hills and streams, following the Tembeling River. It was hard going, but very enjoyable and although you felt like you were completely lost in a land before time, the faint sound of the river and its busy riverboats to the right, brought with it a reassuring sign of human life.

When Pete and Jodie discovered the trail the day before, they saw three monitor lizards by the path. This excited us both, but unfortunately we didn't see a single one. The jungle contains all sorts of amazing wildlife, such as elephants, tigers, panthers and leopards. As it turns out we saw none, but we did probably stand more of a chance of stealing a quick peek at them, than we did of the illusive Pete and Jodie, racing off ahead of us in to the jungle.

Sarah did pretty well, despite one or two breaks when she felt sick bless her, but as we delved deeper inside the forest the humidity (90%) and the leeches got intense! If there's something out there that bites, sure enough it'll bite Sarah and she spent half the trip shaking off the blood-sucking critters!! Other than leeches and our old friend the mosquito, and of course termites and ants a plenty, the closest we came to something extraordinary was the close sound of gibbons overhead.

The hide appeared out of the jungle like some kind of holy grail, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It was pretty impressive and we were overjoyed to find it had a shower head, powered by a tank of rainfall above. That shower was the best of our lives and we set up our sleeping bags and mosquito nets, got out the munchies, picked our spot and watched as the sun disappeared behind the trees. The first to appear were bats, followed by fire flies and then...well, kinda' nothing! We thought it was best if we got a little sleep and then had another look out in a few hours.

We hadn't been asleep long when suddenly we heard noises, but these noises weren't coming from outside. Marc quickly turned on his torch and there it was, a stinking great rat making off with one of his bourbons! Cheeky b****** and as he shined the torch around the hide, more and more scurried off. One of them, so fat on our marble cake that he could barely move, just kind of sat there staring at us. If that wasn't enough to put the jitters up the girls, the cockroaches crawling inside their beds certainly did!!

That's life in the jungle for you, but with all that noise and commotion, we were scaring all the animals away. Sarah and Pete maintained hope and wearily kept lookout. At about 04:00 they were rewarded by a clumsy tapir as it stumbled its way past the hide. Sarah tried awaking Marc as quickly as she could and as he got there bleary-eyed, he was just in time to catch a glimpse of his big white arse before it vanished in to the dark. Marc compares the moment to that unfortunate incident when he accidentally saw 4P pulling his pants up in the changing room after a Spartans match...only this was far less spotty!!!!!

Day 26 (Saturday 11th November 2006)

Our alarm went off at 7:30 and after salvaging whatever hadn't been eaten by the jungle rats, we made the 2km walk to a jetty down by the river, where we had previously arranged to be met by a boat to take us back. We looked for any signs of bets on whether we'd make it back or not on the Malaysian faces as we arrived back at the camp, or perhaps more likely a camera crew with a blow-up tapir!! Instead, the wise old gap-toothed woman of the camp was more intreaged to know what wonders of nature we had encountered. We said look b****, we saw nothing and all we want is a dod damn shower...only joking of course, but after Marc did tell them he saw a tapir's arse, a heap of elephant s*** and a few mangy rats, we did all head back to Pete and Jodie's for a long overdue, proper shower! That shower ranked right up there with the other one in the best moment's of our lives!!

We got cleaned up, packed our bags and said our goodbyes to our new friends Pete and Jodie and the rest of the Kuala Tahan village. We hopped on a riverboat and made the journey back to Jerantut and as we gently sailed down the beautiful river, we finally got to see our monitor lizard - a metre long one meandering through the water alongside us!!!!  As well as a few bathing buffalo, we also spotted three Macaques strolling along the riverbank! We rest here in Jerantut for a while today before taking the 02:24 train to Singapore later this evening.

We found a little laundrette to make a couple of phone calls home and it was great to talk to you guys back home. Stevie mate, so sorry we didn't mention your Birthday...we both hope you had a really good time and so sorry we couldn't phone you on the day! Love you all loads!!

We arrive in Singapore tomorrow morning, have a couple of hours to mooch around, before boarding our plain to Bali in the evening!

Spk soon

PS Loving the match report Selby!! Keep up the good work boys!

And lovely to here from you Zo, glad you had a good holiday xxx