We left the hostel at 7:00 this morning and we've pretty much been on the coach ever since, bar a couple of stops along the way. We stopped at the same market we've been too several times now for snacks, and then we stopped at a little restaurant for lunch where I had some really tasty sweet and sour chicken and rice (still enjoyable, despite its familiarity by now).
We must be getting close to our destination by now though as we've been travelling for several hours and now all that can be seen on either side of us is rainforest as far as the eye can see. You can tell where a lot of it has been re-planted, as some of the trees still look really young and are in very obviously straight lines. It is obviously a huge shame that the re-planting has to take place at all, but it's also really good to see that something is being done. Borneo just wouldn't be Borneo without the jungle.
None of us really know quite what Camp Batu Puteh is going to be like, including how basic (or non-existent) the facilities will be, so once more it's a case of waiting to see what the rest of the day will bring...
10:27pm
About 3:30pm saw us arrive at base camp, which is basically just the village of Batu Puteh itself before we head into the jungle. The coach just about squeezed itself down the narrow, dusty roads!
We had little Malaysian sweets waiting for us as a quick break before we stored our main backpacks away, as they're being left here whilst we're in the jungle. Then it was onto the boats and we were off down the Kinabatangan River on our way to the jungle!
It was only a short way down the river before we were climbing out onto the muddy bank and entering camp. There's a central dining area (which consists of a few benches under a huge tarpaulin), a couple of other tarps to mark the toilet and 'shower' areas, and then several more dotted around which will be the bashers for our hammocks.
We were quickly briefed by Mia, the camp leader, and then shown how to put our hammocks up - and then we were left to it. It was a bit confusing putting the hammock up if I'm honest, but luckily some of the others were complete naturals, so they then gave me a hand with mine and eventually we were up! I tried getting in it, which didn't work out too well and sort of just ended up with me half in and half out in a very odd position... Guess I'll just have to try again later!
The funniest thing that happened today was the toilet saga... The toilet here is, as expected, just a hole in the ground surrounded by a charming smell and a bit of tarpaulin tied to some sticks for dignity. We do have toilet roll though - or should I say did have toilet roll - as I managed to drop the entire roll down said 'toilet', and even though we've only been here a couple of hours, there are 17 of us girls and there was already some stuff down though which meant that I wasn't too keen to try and fish the toilet roll out again... Luckily Mia saw the funny side of it and found us some spare!!
After dinner we set off on a night walk through the jungle to try and spot some wildlife. It was only a short walk as a lot of us were quite worn out, but we did spot several lizards, birds and a huge spider, as well as coming across some other Camps International groups who were staying in other jungle camps nearby. One of them recognised us and shouted 'It's the wheelbarrow guy from Bongkud!' at Joe as we walked past...
Once we came back from the night walk we all sat around together under the main tarp until slowly people started to drift off towards their hammocks. I stayed up a bit later than usual, so I'm one of the last in bed - and getting in here was certainly an adventure. Considering that I hadn't actually successfully got into my hammock at all yet, and it's now so dark that even my head torch isn't much help, I'm not quite sure how I managed it... but manage it I did. I got into my hammock, took off my boots and socks and tied them up so that no creepy crawlies could make their home there in the night, and then commenced a lot of wriggling around until I'd eventually got comfortable. Like many of the others, I chose not to get changed in the end just to avoid any more hassle!
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