To the jungle...

My first experience of 'real' Cambodia begins when we enter the jungle...near to the South Cardamom Mountains. We met Hilary and Pollyanna who were doing BUNAC'S volunteer Cambodia already for their weekend break from teaching.

5 hours bus from Phnom Penh, then off the bus after counting 4 bridges (our instructions) over and over again to be stranded in the middle of nowhere in pouring rain! Polly found Mr Lei - the boat man who took us to Rainbow Lodge (google it). The most amazing bungalows in the middle of the jungle!

We went on the 'little walks' around the lodge with a map that had been drawn on Microsoft paint!! We made it to 'butterfly bench', 'big rock' and 'big rock 2' (Pollys fave) I desperately wanted to find 'log' but we think we missed it which was obviously disappointing!! Constant leech checks were needed and between us we mad about 8/9 sucking our skin at various points of the walk!

We made it back to civilisation, well, rainbow lodge and decided upon doing the 'overnight camp' that was advertised in the lodge book. Looked great, you stay on a beach and set up camp, sleep in hammocks and eat a BBQ...we decided to read through the guest book for recommendations, we flicked through and to our surprise didn't find any. We then read comment after comment thoroughly worrying that those who took part in this adventurous expedition did not return!! Eventually we found one so that was it...we were going! Thinking it was going to be only a 10min boat ride, off we went. 40minutes down the river, we came to some rapids that the little wooden half sunken boat would not make it past. So we moored on a big rock (big rock 3!) and clambered over many a rock to set up camp in a sodden edge of the jungle... Mr Lei and his son were fab and set up the camp- a tarpaulin, over head, 4 hammocks and a bbq in a clay pot along with extra coal and firelights on sticks.

The moment when Mr Lei and son left, really sunk in the fact that we were going to be stranded in the middle of the jungle (one with 'bears, tigers and crocs' as Polly had informed us our of the lonely planer earlier in the day). This camping excursion became a JUNGLE WILDERNESS SURVIVAL EXPEDITION! Polly manned the gourmet BBQ with fish, pork and prawns that were bought along with us (maybe I should say 'hunted' - sounds more expeditionary!). Food was great, we even managed to make a cup of tea. Night fell earlier than I had hoped and there we were, pretty terrified, pretending we were all very brave and loving it! We made a pact that none of us would scare each other. During dinner Lou went mute and lost her appetite! She then asked if we could all go to bed. Polly and Hilary told her not to be so silly. It was 7pm!!! Luckily the girls had done BUNAC'S summer camp USA and knew far too many campfire songs. This was great and drowned out the night time noises that surrounded us in the jungle. Camp songs turned to musicals, musicals turned to Disney. 'I like the flowers; was the round for toilet breaks to scare away snakes. Let me just make this clear - the toilet was about a foot from Hilary's hammock, on the floor. She was not very impressed with her 'sess pit bed!' for the night. When we finally got into our hammocks it felt quite safe and cosy. Mine was a little wet but I felt safe from tigers! I'm sure I felt something brushing past my hammock throughout the night, it may have been the wind that got up. Lou and I were worried that the tarpaulin would blow away! The girls sang themselves to sleep, I especially enjoyed their Les Mis rendition of 'on my own' before putting the ipod on. I woke up during the night because the rain had actually stopped!! well, for all of 4 minutes and then it started again.

The excitement of seeing Mr Lei and his sons in a bigger boat this time was all very exciting as the rapids had got so much bigger during the night we thought they wouldn't make it up the river to fetch us and we'd have to stay there another night!!!

High of the day - waking up still alive and not being eaten by bears or tigers
Low of the day - The rain had soaked everythingggg!

Fantastic experience with the 3 girls!!!