5/ Poor me : Jungle Fever
Water from the river is crashing. Animal sounds are blaring like alarms. Rustles inches from your face keep you awake.
Then hallucinations start. Heat and sweat pours from your body. Blood feels like it’s filling your head. Pain in the stomach. Reach for the head lamp, run to the jungle toilet. Which is, well, the jungle.
Squat, which in itself is difficult as your exhaustion has risen.
Fireflies flitting in the night are no longer fun fire shows, but dancing reminders you are in the depth of a jungle. Home is a million miles away,
Headlamp glows into the abyss of intertwining vines as far as the beam can reach.
You sip dregs of your water. Douse yourself. Trying to put out the inferno ripping through your body.
But you do. Deal with it. It doesn’t pass in the night. Nor the morning. You cut a 5 day trek down to 3, to head back to civilization.
Keep a brave face, remember the Buddhist teachings of pain, just smile.
Legs are heavy, wading through the river feels heavier today. You make moments to still appreciate the butterflies and the trees.
Realistically, I’ve been to the loo in a lot of places having IBS. But probably none as remote or picturesque as the Sumatran jungle.
Here, really is where the thought lies.
There are limited opportunities to be wild with nature, more and more these days. Even more rare is to see orangutans in the wild, on top of that add a 4 week old baby orangutan, great people and an incredibly unique experience.
You can say, oh poor me. That was a crap (literally) experience or enjoy it for what it was and add that to a growing number of stories that is the rich tapestry of your life.
Sure I could stay home on my sofa.
Sure I could choose the easier options.
Sure I could avoid the rivers, the sickness, the uncertainty.
But I want more stories read out at my funeral.
around a campfire wahyu my guide and I on that trek had some great conversations and a laugh. We talked about music and gigs, I shared what I had seen. Then he shared what gigs he’d been to… Coldplay, Robbie Williams, oasis… I was amazed. “Where did you see them” I asked.
“You ever been to YouTube” was his reply
