We arrived. After a
long ride, from sunrise to sunset we were on the move. Slowly and tiredly we
walked to eat some dinner in the wooden restaurant. The roof was made from
leaves and the chairs from car tires. After dinner we got shown to our small
house. I was really looking forwards to a good night’s sleep.
06:00. Yes, that is
the time we had to wake up! But it was worth it as we watched the sun rise from
across the mountains. We ordered breakfast: I ate a bowl of cornflakes; an
omelet; a boiled egg and a fried egg. Afterwards we prepared for a long trek through
the local villages and trails. We hadn’t a clue what was in store for us as we
were to follow the hand drawn map provided. We went back to our house to
prepare.
The first challenge
that faced us was getting across the fast flowing river minutes into our trek.
There was as thin unstable piece of bamboo stretching the length of the river,
now none of my family can walk a tightrope this could prove difficult! The
water was too deep to cross so we hatched a plan; as the water level was in the
low season, we decided to grab onto the bamboo stick with our feet and hands
and cross upside down! I went first; I gently placed a foot on the plank.
CRACK! The bamboo snapped and in I went into the freezing water. The current
was dragging me downstream faster than my dad could run! I tried swimming to
the edge, when I saw a vine attached to a tree on the riverside dangling over
the river. I reached as high as I could and managed to reach the vine. I
started pulling myself towards dry land. CREEK… the tree said to me, about to
snap my dad grabbed onto the incapacitated tree and I reached safety. Or what I
thought was safe anyway.
Drenched, we carried
on our walk up the hillside.
When we reached the
top of the large hill, we realized the map wasn’t so reliable. Hesitantly we
turned down the map and followed the most accessible route. Walking for 2 hours
on the route we chose to take didn’t turn out well.
It was a dead end.
We split up into 3 to
find a close by path for a way out, after about 20 minutes I saw a house in the
distance! I approached it. It looked
abandoned and collapsing. There was only one thing standing in our way: a large
fence with barbed wire. I went back to join up with the others and tell them
what I had found. We headed back with me leading the way. Once we reached
there, we started building a ladder with some rope we found attached to the
fence.
Once over, we went to
investigate the house, I brought in a large pointy stick just in case. I heard
footsteps…
Earlier at breakfast,
the owner warned us about the locals. He explained how some are welcoming and
will offer you some water and food, here comes the warning: some are protective
of their land and valuables, and we should be cautious when approaching them.
In our situation we were convinced we were off the map by now and completely
lost. We needed some help on how to get back to the house before dark came. I
also read that wolves came out at night and patrol their land looking for prey.
This just got serious.
POUNCE! A dog jumped around the corner. He
halted, my stick raised we slowly backed away as did he. That was too close for
comfort. We followed car tracks from the house. They led us to a field, a field
full of cows; big cows. We knew the only way to go was through the field. (Slowly
we creped along the side of the field.) I noticed one cow staring at me: he
stamped his foot and the others looked up; they all started charging for our
position! We ran as fast as we could until we reached a river, luckily for us
it wasn’t so deep. We ran across it hoping we would lose the cows. We lost
them.
We then reached the
town where a man said that two dogs could lead us back to the house. About 3
hours later at around 19:30 the dogs left us and stayed the night with some of
their dog friends. In the morning we got in the back of a pickup truck that was
very uncomfortable for 2 hours until we reached our next destination.
Bailey
Nice pictures! Love those collages! :)
ReplyDeleteJayden
muy coolio
ReplyDelete