Orangutan hunting

I wake this morning so excited as today I'm off on a 3day 2 night trek in the jungle at Bukit Lawang in Sumatra Indonesia. It's something I've been looking forward to for months now and one of the only things I've pre-booked on my trip. I empty my big rucksack to get to my trekking gear and repack my little rucksack with the essentials for the next few days. We eat breakfast and I'm thankful there is just the 3 of us on the trek as sometimes less is more. You have to be quiet to see wild life in their natural habitat. We take a break a little bit further in and as we sit there a Thomas leaf monkey comes into view and perches himself in the tree next to us. I could just sit for hours watching him and his mannerisms. We trek for another 30 minutes and come to a clearing where we take a break for fruit. To my absolute delight they serve rambutan my favorite fruit in the whole world. I can't believe I have been trying to find this fruit here, but it has been out of season. It's delicious, we continue our trek and within 40 minutes I slide and twist my ankle. I know the trek is over for me, I'm absolutely devastated. I have to get myself prepared to get taken out. Yumi and Chris say they want to come out with me but I insist that they must continue. The boys call to camp and within 2 and a half hour the boys have arrived. Nanang Nawan Chichi and Dika meet us at a point where our guide has arranged. I'm amazed how they can actually find us but sure enough do. After chopping a few trees down to make the carrying arms for the stretcher, within minutes of us starting out it becomes apparent that the stretch isn't going to work. The pathway is only wide enough for one person and the ground is so treacherous that the 4 of them take turns to carry me on their back literally piggy backing me out of the jungle. Even this at times is treacherous but after three and a half hours and a solo sighting of an orangutan as well as the peacock like birds in a group I am relieved when we got back to the bungalows. The guys have been really efficient and cold the nearest there is to a doctor out here but he's more a jungle medicine man. I endure maybe an hour of torture as the medicine man relocates my dislocated ankle. While the girls from the kitchen hold my hans and fan me. He then covers it with some herbal concoction. I sit in the restaurant and the most wonderful storm is right over us. I sit and watch and a Dutch family arrive we sit and chat as they have an Airbnb in Amsterdam and we share a few beers before I'm helped to Bed. Wawan the owner tells me I can change my room tomorrow as inviting as the spiral cased power shower is it's simply not practical as I'd of wet myself in the middle of the night trying to hobble down the stairsWeiterlesen