Firstly I must aplogise for the elapsed time of posting this and the event itself.
BCUK in Borneo 2007 – Week 1 - A trek in the jungle
About a year ago a group of BCUK members were talking around a fire (as you do) and it was decided that a trip to Borneo, on a shoestring budget, would be fun so that we could get acquainted with Jungle bushcraft. Well after a lot of planning and a day of acclimatising we had arrived at the longhouse at the end of the Labie Road in Brunei. The group from left to right consisted of Robin (a friend of mine), Mark (Buckshot), Mark’s family; Michael and Lorraine Stuart, Myself in the front (being short it was the best place for me to stand) and Ashley (Bod) who took the picture.
Now before you go walking in someone back garden it’s polite to say hello so we stopped for a chat and refreshments with Jamet the headman of the longhouse. As soon as we reached the longhouse there was a dramatic change in the pace of life. Jamet is man not to be rushed and his hospitality was warm and friendly.
Expecting a walk through forest trails to our first night’s stop at Taragia fall’s we were dismayed to discover that the local council have decided that Taragia Fall’s is a tourist attraction (it was recently added to the Lonley Planet guide for Borneo) and the week before had started clearing the trail ready to become a visitor friendly path some 6 to 8 feet wide with boardwalks and bridges. True it made the walk in easier and opened the views up but was still not quite the jungle experience expected.
After a pleasant walk we arrived at Taragia Fall’s and all thoughts of sanitised jungle disappeared. We were hot and sweaty and the water was cool and refreshing so a swim was a must and the scene was spectacular. It was at this point my camera decided to die. Stuart bless him, loaned me his spare.
Taragia Fall’s is commonly used for running courses and as such there was still that sanitised feel to the place, a table and benches plus curtained off latrines. We proceeded to set up for the night and whilst it was still light set out a soda bottle fish trap, which yielded a good catch of freshwater prawns.
After our evening meal it was time to stripped off our damp clothes, ensured our feet etc were dried and powdered (a routine that become second nature very quickly) and hunkered down. Now this might be no surprise to you all but the jungle is a hot place and as I crawled into my hammock and squirmed around to get comfortable I was again hot and sweaty and feeling a tad uncomfortable. Now the advice from Stuart was just settle down and after about 10 minutes I would cool off. Well I couldn’t relax so like the fidget I am I ended up getting up and wandering about, after all it was only about 8pm and I wasn’t even tired. Eventually I got to bed but this was a problem that took a couple of nights to get adjusted too.
Next morning sees us getting into our damp clothes and boots, not as nasty an experience as I expected, a spot of breakfast, break camp and off we go for a good day’s hike to a location where we will clear and build our own base camp.
Morning also brings Salan to camp. Salan is our Iban guide and Ashley has arranged for him to help us learn something about foraging in the jungle and just watching him go about his usual tasks is like a course in bushcraft.
The terrain here is steep sided slopes with streams and rivers running in the gullies. One option for travel is to cross grain these slopes and take the most direct path; the other is to follow the water courses. Now we were not fully acclimatised and the heat and humidity would have us crawling within the hour so the water ways became our main roads with a little cross graining.
Most of the time this was ankle or knee deep but there were occasions when it became waist deep, although being short this usually meant chest deep on me.
However it did mean staying cool and again the views were wonderful with exotic plants, little water falls and the constant sounds from the cicadas and occasional bird.
It was mid afternoon after a reasonably hard walk, in what was now proper jungle that we reached the site of our camp to be. Well above the river, as it can rise 2 metres plus in flood and this is now officially the rainy season, was an area that offered some flattish areas for use by the whole group.
We set up our hammocks and then proceeded to clear the floor litter, home to all sort of biting and stinging insects, between pitches and the communal fire. An hour later and a decent camp was in situ and most importantly a fire lit and water on for a cup of tea – so very British.
The remainder of the day was relaxed.
Day two in camp and one essential item needs addressing – the latrine. Mark and Ashley sorted that out whilst Stuart starts building his sofa, well bench really. This was placed under a decent sized tarp for communal living.
From this camp we explored and experimented with different ways to fish. Learnt to identify edible plants, including the felling of a neebong tree for its palm heart – delicious.
Because some of the hammocks were placed on a reasonable slope we built platforms under them to provide a safe exit in the mornings. The most successful fishing technique involved the use of the soda bottled traps mentioned earlier. I had brought along a gill net to try in the river and the catch the following morning was astounding – if you don’t mind eating old leaves!
On one of our little walks, Stuart, Robin and I decided to follow a ridge line that went up and up. It is worth stressing that the need to mark your trail with flashes on the trees was essential, on a couple of occasions we had to back track when the path being followed – usually old animal trails – sidetracked us. On this trip we discovered a lovely little waterfall that allowed us to cool down on the return journey as well as replenish our water bottles.
Here we were in jungle proper and had the opportunity to examine some of the marvels of the jungle, like this strangler vine
and sample the delights of drinking from a watervine – now how jungle bushcrafty is that?
IMG]http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc173/a100user/DSCF0391.jpg[/IMG]
We felt that the ridge line was insight so agreed to push on for an additional 30 minutes beyond our agreed turn around time. when we reached the top of the ridge we found a clear path that followed the ridgeline. This was the country boarder between Brunei and Sarawak.
Life in camp was great. A relaxed atmosphere centred around food and bushcraft. Salan taught Lorrain how to weave with palm leaves, showed us how to set pig and bird traps and Stuart, the intrepid hunter,
brought us a supper of frogs which were not only delicious but determined to hop away even after being dressed for the pot – amazing.
Eventually our time was up and as we were all now fitter and better acclimatised our trip back to the Longhouse was done that same day with time to spare. The next section of our trip involved a 12 hour drive into Sarawak to spend a week living with an Iban community at their long house. But that is another story.............................
BCUK in Borneo 2007 – Week 1 - A trek in the jungle
About a year ago a group of BCUK members were talking around a fire (as you do) and it was decided that a trip to Borneo, on a shoestring budget, would be fun so that we could get acquainted with Jungle bushcraft. Well after a lot of planning and a day of acclimatising we had arrived at the longhouse at the end of the Labie Road in Brunei. The group from left to right consisted of Robin (a friend of mine), Mark (Buckshot), Mark’s family; Michael and Lorraine Stuart, Myself in the front (being short it was the best place for me to stand) and Ashley (Bod) who took the picture.
Now before you go walking in someone back garden it’s polite to say hello so we stopped for a chat and refreshments with Jamet the headman of the longhouse. As soon as we reached the longhouse there was a dramatic change in the pace of life. Jamet is man not to be rushed and his hospitality was warm and friendly.
Expecting a walk through forest trails to our first night’s stop at Taragia fall’s we were dismayed to discover that the local council have decided that Taragia Fall’s is a tourist attraction (it was recently added to the Lonley Planet guide for Borneo) and the week before had started clearing the trail ready to become a visitor friendly path some 6 to 8 feet wide with boardwalks and bridges. True it made the walk in easier and opened the views up but was still not quite the jungle experience expected.
After a pleasant walk we arrived at Taragia Fall’s and all thoughts of sanitised jungle disappeared. We were hot and sweaty and the water was cool and refreshing so a swim was a must and the scene was spectacular. It was at this point my camera decided to die. Stuart bless him, loaned me his spare.
Taragia Fall’s is commonly used for running courses and as such there was still that sanitised feel to the place, a table and benches plus curtained off latrines. We proceeded to set up for the night and whilst it was still light set out a soda bottle fish trap, which yielded a good catch of freshwater prawns.
After our evening meal it was time to stripped off our damp clothes, ensured our feet etc were dried and powdered (a routine that become second nature very quickly) and hunkered down. Now this might be no surprise to you all but the jungle is a hot place and as I crawled into my hammock and squirmed around to get comfortable I was again hot and sweaty and feeling a tad uncomfortable. Now the advice from Stuart was just settle down and after about 10 minutes I would cool off. Well I couldn’t relax so like the fidget I am I ended up getting up and wandering about, after all it was only about 8pm and I wasn’t even tired. Eventually I got to bed but this was a problem that took a couple of nights to get adjusted too.
Next morning sees us getting into our damp clothes and boots, not as nasty an experience as I expected, a spot of breakfast, break camp and off we go for a good day’s hike to a location where we will clear and build our own base camp.
Morning also brings Salan to camp. Salan is our Iban guide and Ashley has arranged for him to help us learn something about foraging in the jungle and just watching him go about his usual tasks is like a course in bushcraft.
The terrain here is steep sided slopes with streams and rivers running in the gullies. One option for travel is to cross grain these slopes and take the most direct path; the other is to follow the water courses. Now we were not fully acclimatised and the heat and humidity would have us crawling within the hour so the water ways became our main roads with a little cross graining.
Most of the time this was ankle or knee deep but there were occasions when it became waist deep, although being short this usually meant chest deep on me.
However it did mean staying cool and again the views were wonderful with exotic plants, little water falls and the constant sounds from the cicadas and occasional bird.
It was mid afternoon after a reasonably hard walk, in what was now proper jungle that we reached the site of our camp to be. Well above the river, as it can rise 2 metres plus in flood and this is now officially the rainy season, was an area that offered some flattish areas for use by the whole group.
We set up our hammocks and then proceeded to clear the floor litter, home to all sort of biting and stinging insects, between pitches and the communal fire. An hour later and a decent camp was in situ and most importantly a fire lit and water on for a cup of tea – so very British.
The remainder of the day was relaxed.
Day two in camp and one essential item needs addressing – the latrine. Mark and Ashley sorted that out whilst Stuart starts building his sofa, well bench really. This was placed under a decent sized tarp for communal living.
From this camp we explored and experimented with different ways to fish. Learnt to identify edible plants, including the felling of a neebong tree for its palm heart – delicious.
Because some of the hammocks were placed on a reasonable slope we built platforms under them to provide a safe exit in the mornings. The most successful fishing technique involved the use of the soda bottled traps mentioned earlier. I had brought along a gill net to try in the river and the catch the following morning was astounding – if you don’t mind eating old leaves!
On one of our little walks, Stuart, Robin and I decided to follow a ridge line that went up and up. It is worth stressing that the need to mark your trail with flashes on the trees was essential, on a couple of occasions we had to back track when the path being followed – usually old animal trails – sidetracked us. On this trip we discovered a lovely little waterfall that allowed us to cool down on the return journey as well as replenish our water bottles.
Here we were in jungle proper and had the opportunity to examine some of the marvels of the jungle, like this strangler vine
and sample the delights of drinking from a watervine – now how jungle bushcrafty is that?
IMG]http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc173/a100user/DSCF0391.jpg[/IMG]
We felt that the ridge line was insight so agreed to push on for an additional 30 minutes beyond our agreed turn around time. when we reached the top of the ridge we found a clear path that followed the ridgeline. This was the country boarder between Brunei and Sarawak.
Life in camp was great. A relaxed atmosphere centred around food and bushcraft. Salan taught Lorrain how to weave with palm leaves, showed us how to set pig and bird traps and Stuart, the intrepid hunter,
brought us a supper of frogs which were not only delicious but determined to hop away even after being dressed for the pot – amazing.
Eventually our time was up and as we were all now fitter and better acclimatised our trip back to the Longhouse was done that same day with time to spare. The next section of our trip involved a 12 hour drive into Sarawak to spend a week living with an Iban community at their long house. But that is another story.............................
