Ahhhheeeahhhheeeahhhhh

Today it is time to adopt the persona of Tarzan!

We started out by finishing off our survival training. We learned how to tie someone to your back to carry them and still have your hands free and we learned how to build stretchers. The the challenge began. In two teams we had to build both and race down to the bridge 100m away. Yippee for me I was on the winning team :) It was such a great laugh watching the victims bounce about in the various contraptions.

From the bridge we began our hike. There were fabulous waterfalls, small snakes, leeches, little huts all along the track and loads of little fragile bridges. Our second points challenge for the day was to make a fire and pots from bamboo. We boiled the water to make tea. Webber pitched in and was rewarded with his own bowl to drink from. It was a great laugh.

We stopped for sometime at a large waterfall (which gave us a good chance to look at it) while our guides re-cut the path for us to scramble up. It was a wealth of fun clambering up this steep slope with a freshly cut path. The guides were funny playing games with us along the way but it should be noted not to mess with them, they can wield a machette with such grace, ease and force.

We reached the ridge and sat for lunch. In two banana leaf packages we had fried rice and then fried/crumbed chicken. It was the best lunch we've had. We carried on up for a while and then began the decent....wow our knees were killing! At the bottom we waited about an hour and then it was off to Fly with the Gibbons! Google Flight of the Gibbon and Thailand and you should be able to find what we did. 18 zip wires a few bridges and a few rappels later and we were down. None of us really knew what we were getting into - everyone had thought it was one zip wire and that is all we mentally prepared for. For those afraid of heights this quickly became a BIG problem as once you started there was no turning back. The courage some of our group showed was outstanding.

Each time you set off on a wire the rush of air and adrenalin was fantastic. It really did feel like you were flying. Jenn was counting the length of each wire (part of her way of getting through it) so I can tell you the longest one was 17 seconds. 17 seconds of flying and spinning and flapping arms and yelling "Woohoo". Although it raised the heart rate substantially each time, it was awesome.

Once we were down we got back in our vans and headed back to the Lodge. While we had been waiting to go on the flight, I had asked the lodge manager if he could organise for some people to come from the village to the lodge to massage us. He didn't let us down and when we arrived back there were 6 thai masseuse waiting for us. We showered quickly going in two groups and were massaged to our hearts content. For a one hour massage it was going to cost $6. Most of us paid $8-$10 for the divine experience.

We will sleep like babies! I think the hike was something like 6-10km but it took about 4-5hours. We were so tired from using the last of our adrenalin on the zip wires but also from the lack of sleep on the wood beds. Tonight I think no one would notice the hardness of the beds.