After rushing around mad for 3 days, packing at 3am the night before, etc, I arrived at Edinburgh airport one hour too early! After a sad departure from Scotland - stunning views of the snow-capped Highlands - it was off to Paris.
Paris wasn't any warmer than Scotland. Got a hotel in the centre and went exploring. Wandered into a museum place which turned out to have the Mona Lisa. I was pretty knackered so after a quick pint of French Guinness it was back to the hotel.
Flight to Cancun next day was pretty boring. I arrived 45mins before the main group but bumped into the chief medic, Caroline, who had come straight from Cancun beach - tan, sand in shorts and all that. The rest of the group eventually showed and we piled on the bus for the 8+ hour trip to Raleigh Belize Field Base (FB). Belize customs gave us a bit of hassle but we eventually got there at 3:30am (9:30am UK). After a quick intro from the Expedition Leader, Jason, it was off to our luxurious 4 star cellar. No problem getting to sleep.
Today the main events were the overall expediton brief - 8 projects 2 diving/6 land - and also a session on staff roles and responsibilitiies.
The remainder of the day was getting to know the other staff which had all now arrived. About 45 in total, from plumbers and joiners to doctors, scientists, civil servants, firemen, you name it! And there was no escape for me. Raleigh these days has a lot of computer stuff which tends not to work!
The lost sleep from the day before had caught up with everybody so it was an early night.
At night it was time to wind down a bit and we had a BBQ and some beers. Quite a late night.
Then, after much anticipation, the allocations. Hillbank for me, working in conjunction with Programme for Belize (PFB). Probably the most remotest project although there was still road access. Belize is only the size of Wales so you'll never be too far away from other people.
We had lunch at the local British army pool which was good because I was on cooking duty and so didn't have to cook anything. After that we had a lecture from an army expert which went into all the different types of diseases, snakes, spiders, etc. Most snakes I've came across run away if they hear you coming and tend not to inject poison if they do actually bite. However, Belize has a beastie called the the Fer-de Lance. This thing is territorial and if you happen to walk into it's patch, it goes for you! Not that it's deadly poisonous or anything!
There are various other unpleasantries, e.g., bot flies which lay eggs in your skin, leishnmaniasis - an ulcer which eventually disappears but is actually doing some serious internal damage, and good old malaria. After hearing all that, everybody decided to dip all their clothes in DEET because it reduces mossie bites by 75%. This is the stuff that melts watches!
The rest of the day was busy, busy. I was cooking and we also had to get kit sorted for tomorrow's jungle camp.
Water bottles filled, parang (machette) out, rucksack on and back into the jungle. Also the return of my Edinburgh Eagles American football top, #33, which I have worn on every previous expedition. It's a bit smelly and worn but it has sentimental value.
It's been a while, 3 1/2 years, but it all comes back quick. The trek in and the jungle camp location was in mild jungle compared to previous experiences, e.g., you could see the sky through the canopy. Anyway, it was good enough for the purpose of basic jungle training for staff and the venturers the week after.
We went through basher building and some of the basics then knocked up our own bashers. Chance to use my brand new poncho. My previous one leaked in Malaysia so it got the chop. Quite chuffed with the result. Great to be in the jungle and away from Field Base. Apart from the mossies though.
At night it was Jules's birthday so she got a birthday card in the form of a leaf. It was also an excuse to get my hip flask filled with Glenlivet out.
Once back at FB it was a major cleaning session. Jason went through the Hillbank project and I also had a chat with John Masson, PFB contact, and next door neighbour to Raleigh FB. The project seems to have more construction and less jungle/trekking than I would like but it's early days yet.
Rest of the day we had briefs from the Public Relations Officer, Photographer and Video Crew. Turns out thr PR Officer is one Stephen Hendry of Carrick Knowe, Edinburgh, and lives about two mins from my Mum & Dad's place! Unbelievable or what?
The video crew are making a film for Raleigh to be shown to potential staff. They have decided to follow certain projects and Hillbank isn't one of them. Quite glad not to have a camera poking into my face all the time.
At night we had a treat. For the very first time we got to go to Belize City. It was dark but at least we saw it. We've been quite sucluded at FB. Apart from jungle camp we've been stuck here and it's basically a house next to a busy road. Not much fun really.
We had a meal in a restaurant then as Wednesday night isn't a happening night everything else was closed. So, we've still to have a "let your hair down" type night.
We eventually arrived at Hillbank and it was a bit of a shock. Basically it was a construction site in the middle of nowhere. Although, the setting with the enormous lagoon and surrounding jungle was very beautiful.
In Scotland we have lochs with huge monsters in them. In Belize they have lagoons with huge crocs! Still couldn't resist going for a swim though.
We had a look at the old pier which was ginormous and the proposed site for the new pier which I was meant to build. The old pier was falling to bits and a bit of a death trap.
We went into the jungle to see what kind of stuff I would be doing the research plots (RP) in. It was thick wiry stuff, brilliant. The task was to reproduce the UTM grid system on the ground. Basically cutting straight lines through the jungle. Then scientists would use the RPs for various studies. It had something to do with the greenhouse effect and sounded pretty important.
There were two American scientists at Hillbank. One of them had a tangle with a Fer-de Lance snake that morning - eek!
John went away and we had a look around the place. My first impression of the place wasn't good. Too much construction stuff and not as remote as I thought it would be.
Turned out there were about 7 bridges needed and not 2! The road was vague to say the least and we had to pull one of the landrovers out twice. And then one broke down and we thought we would have to leave it. Eventually got it started again. On the way back the front propshaft fell off the Camel Trophy landrover. No problem just went from 4-wheel drive to 2-wheel and carried on. Amazing stuff!
The trip changed the project quite a bit. No chance we could get the pier, bridges, RP and mappping/cutting local jungle trails all done in one exped. So, I came to the conclusion that the pier should be delayed until next exped. I didn't have a scooby how to build it anyway, let alone the bridges.
At night we started writing up the report on my now invaluable palmtop. Amazing wee thing.
We went down and had a better look at the new pier site. Measured the length, 140ft, which confirmed that it was a good idea to delay to next exped. Very hot day and got a bit burnt.
Eventually transport arrived and we quickly headed back whilst there was light. The road was still unbelievably bumpy. Strange getting back to FB when there was no other PMs there.
Got it eventually finished. Phew. All the other PMs and medics had arrived back now and we chatted about our projects and problems over a few beers. Another late night.
Then me and my medic had our post-planning visit meeting with Jason. Got the thumbs up for my recommendaion to delay the pier to next exped and concentrate on the bridges, RPs and trail mapping/cutting. I just need to get the final go ahead from PFB. Should get that tomorrow.
Spent quite a bit of the day trying to get my web page sorted out. Quite hard trying to get on a computer and I can't use this to access Compuserve because there is no local number in Belize. The way I do it is by connecting to Compuserve over the Internet using a Belize Telecomm local access number. Complicated or what!
The actual launch seemed to be go very quickly. Afterwards we went wild. It was the first time the staff had a chance to let their hair down. Quite a few casualties by the end of the night.
2nd Update
The place we were at was Camp Oakley (CA) which was the Belize International Scout Camp. The PMs and medics had arrived that morning and we were going to be with our 1st phase venturer groups from there on. The place was a bit of a dump to be honest. The kitchen hut was cockroach infested and when we tried to cook lunch the cooker blew up. We were lucky it didn't take a few of the medics with it. So we had no cooking, no tents and no toilets and it was going to get dark in a few hours. Somehow we got it all together.
Some of us went to APC to help load a boat. It was dark now and we weren't supposed to be driving. It went okay and we had a welcome break at the army NAFFI shop with some cokes and Pringles. Then back to CA. It was getting late now and we were waiting up for Jason. Eventually he arrived and we had a final brief before the venturers arrived. Also got my list of venturers - 13 in total.
I headed back to the kitchen where the other dreary eyed PMs were hanging out. Soon it was take 2. The 2nd bus load seemed to be much more together. I didn't bother trying to get back to sleep as it was about 7:30am now.
The rest of the day was taken up with various admin tasks like medical checks, passports and dive interviews. There wasn't supposed to be much for us to do and a chance to crash out but instead we had a busy day rounding up "lost" venturers and coercing them to go to their next session. It was like being a shepherd but with no dog, and no stick! All PMs gave a talk about their projects which were short, sharp, and to the point. We were all pretty knackered.
The finale of the night was a lecture from PFB, Roger Wilson amd John Masson, my two main contacts so it was an important lecture for Hillbank. It was also a chance to get some project details sorted out. Roger's talk was great but it went on far too long and people started nodding off. I was close as well. I nodded off during John's talk a few times and then it was off to bed. The end of a very long day.
Eventually it was all aboard the two Batty buses (Batty is the bus company in Belize and they have buses built like tanks). Not for long as we had novice driver and we got stuck in the mud. After a preverbial "get off the bus and push" we were on our way but now well late and our extra early rise was in vain.
Eventually we got to the start of the walk and after a few radio checks my group gallantly took the lead. For about 10ft. Sam's rucksack fell apart and as we tried to repair it we had to let the other groups past. So, we were now at the end!
The walk in was tedious. All the groups were backed up. Eventually we got in and the vs had their demo on basher building. After lunch we started on the camp.
I soon had my first serious problem. Kate was finding the jungle all a bit too much and was in a bit of an emotional state. After a bit of reassurance she seemed a bit better. Seven of the group had opted to build one large communal basher and were having a bit of a laugh. The rest, like me, had individual bashers. Darkness fell soon and tea was made. After which we has a meeting under the communal basher because it was raining. Another v, Gill, was also finding it a bit all too much and I spent some time with her before going to bed. It really chucked it down during the night. We all stayed dry though.
I got called back to FB to meet John Masson. The story was PFB wanted to proceed with the pier and leave the bridges. Their choice and I made it clear they would have to provide the expertise as I was no dab hand at pier building. I was just about able to do some emailing and update the web page with this but I had to abort and get on transport back to CA. We stopped off at APC to load some stores and to our horror we heard over the radio that the other landrover had an accident. A young kid had ran out and was knocked down. Within minutes the kid was in hospital but it looked bad. The last thing we could have done with on the day before deployment.
We were having a BBQ party at night and unfortunately a lot of the FB staff couldn't make it because of the accident. I had all the beer vouchers for my group. I took the opportunity to have a group meeting and surprisingly quite a few people opened up. It was good that it cleared the air.
At the BBQ all the staff got together and shared our last night together as one.
The trip was good. It was a chance to sit down, take in the view, and relax a bit. Passed all too quickly and soon we were at Hillbank. We had a large shed to store our kit and after unloading, the bus dissapeared and we were alone at last. We started clearing an area for jungle camp but realised we would be spending the night in the shed.
At night we had tea watching a distant thunder-storm. We were having our meeting when we started hearing all sorts of weird noises from the jungle. One of which was a jaguar and it seemed quite close. On that note we headed to the shed only to be awaken a short while later by a torrential downpour that was battering off the tin roof. What a racket.
After lunch myself and Caroline planned a surprise CASEVAC drill. Caroline was going to be the casualty and I was going to monitor how the group reacted. Armed with chilli sauce we sneaked off then pretended I chopped a tree that fell on Caroline. The group thought it was real at first and there were a few relieved faces when they realised what was going on. It took them some time to get themselves sorted but eventually a stretcher was built and the correct procedure followed.
At night the camp atmospehere was a lot better than the night before.
When we got back an ugly incident had occurred involving a female venturer which neccessitated me getting to a phone to contact FB. It was too confidential to broadcast over the airwaves. The nearest phone was San Felipe near the Mexican border. Only about 60mins drive away and I managed to arrange a trip with a local scientist. We left when it was dark, got there, made the call, and got back to camp at about 10pm. San Felipe was a very small town and it was bizzare there was a phone there at all. We did manage to get a coke though. When I arrived back the group had really gelled together and there was a surprisingly good atmosphere. Unfortunately they were expecting me to come back with beers and I had none. But what was left in my hipflask saved the day.
Jason was late for lunch. We had a meeting and it seemed that things had been resoled the best they could. I gave the group the rest of the afternoon off as it was now quite late.
After all that effort the GPS was acting up. It was having problems getting a signal from the satellite which wasn't surprising considering the thickness of the jungle we were in. However Daryl was sure that he could normally get readings and the US military were to blame. Apparently they sometimes switch off satellites or make them go wonky. For example one minute we were 50m from a target grid ref and without moving an inch we were suddenly 150m from a target. We tried our best and marked four out of five east-west grid lines that we were to cut in the following days.
By the time we got back it was mid afternoon and no time to do any more work. The heli had in fact not turned up due to a technical glitch. We had the rest of the afternoon off in preparartion for our party.
At night we had a party but it was a pretty mild affair. Basically not enough beer.
The heli also came in today. It was just a short stop. Jason jumped out, we exchanged mail, told me some bad news, then took off. The bad news was that there had been allegations of drugs against one of my vs and he would have to leave the expedition if they were proved true. If so there would be a FB car waiting at 3pm tomorrow. I tried my best to forget about it in the meantime.
When we got back there was a FB vehicle waiting and one of my vs promptly removed from the project. The group was obviously shocked and camp was quiet at night.
After that some of us headed off in Daryl's landrover with his GPS to confirm the rest of the lines.
At night a strange thing happened. After tea, in split second synchronisation, six people went down with severe stomach aches and vomiting. The finger was pointed at the cooks but we all had the same food. Eventually we went to bed anticipating the same symptoms but nothing happened. Apart from the "dodgy" six peuking up even more.
Today the group I was in was attempting to join the two trails we had cut to Irish Creek. We had already started it some days ago and it was a bitch of a trail. The other groups were finishing the trail to the Punta Gorda jetty and another doing the 1949 line. We all got back with successful stories.
During the trail cutting I had a bit of a scare when I had a tangle with what I'm sure was a rattle snake. I was cutting some bushes at the back of the group when I heard a strange rustling, rattling sound. It stopped and I thought "that was weird", then a few seconds later I heard it again. Then I thought "oh shit" because I realised it was a rattle snake and on the third rattle they strike! So I took the hint and did a sharp exit.
Cutting a trail through a swamp is not good fun. It is very smelly, visibility is nill and the grass cuts your hands. After a morning of hacking and swearing we made it to the river and to everybody's amazement the old bridge we were aimimg for was still there and what a beautiful spot it was. We carried on after a break and finished the trail. All in all a successful day.
However, we did subsequently find what we thought was Mayan mounds. Basically a pile of rocks about 5ft high covered with leaves and undergrowth. One had imagined temples with hidden trapdoors and all that stuff but that's only in the films!
When we got back to Hillbank I got the news that the pier was off. I wasn't surprised. The whole thing had been badly planned and I didn't have a scooby how to build it anyway. It meant that the future of the Hillbank project was a bit up in the air. Doing a solid phase of reserach plots and trails would be a bit much and only really last a phase. I talked alternatives over the radio with FB and we thought a split phase involving a 10 day trek in the Maya mountains was a good option. I was quite chuffed. A trekking project was what I really came for.
I could feel a monster party brewing and with the amount of rum that had been bought sensed that it would be a riot. And it was! Being the PM and all that I stayed fairly sober and it was just as well. I had two vs unconscious and vomitting. The local PFB guys were there in force and one so drunk he knocked down our "alter" (a lump of wood where the day leader runs the meeting from). The worst was Chris who went missing. We looked all over but no luck. Then some drunk PFB guys headed off in a landrover for San Felipe where a brothel was. My worst nightmare was that Chris was in the landrover. I hoped not but it started looking likely. After waking a few drunk PFB guys my worst nightmare was confirmed. I could not believe it. I went back to camp and stayed up with other shocked and worried people. The road to San Felipe was dodgy during the day but at night and drunk it was..... I didn't want to think about it. It was so out of character for Chris. Nobody could believe it.
Finally I decided to go to bed and get up at first light and hope Chris was back. I was sort of dosing when I heard soembody. It was Chris. "Where the hell have you been?". "Sorry, I fell asleep under Alan's house","What!!". I was relieved at the reply but also annoyed that I had been having kittens for the last couple of hours over nothing. The drunk PFB guys were obviously talking nonsense.
There were quite a few casualties but we got through the day. I also did some more one-to-ones with the vs about their venturer personal reports.
At night we had our final meal at Hillbank camp albeit minus all the bashers.
After breakfast the usual flaffing around began and we departed late. The trek up to Irish Creek, where we were making a new camp, was quick. We got there by lunch. After which we started setting up bashers. It should only take an hour to put up even an eloborate basher. My group took all afternoon and negleted the essentials like a pit for the toilet. Anyway, we had tea around a somewhat disorganised camp and went to bed fairly early determined to get going for 5:30am.
However, when we got back the three cooks, who were all girls, said that a couple of chaps on a canoe had passed by. In fact, later they admitted they were skinny dipping at the time and I reckon the canoeists got the surpprise of their lives. One doesn't expect to find three European white girls naked in a small creek in the middle of the Belizean jungle. Anyway. this was good news because the canoeists were obviously locals and they may know a way to Lamanai.
We waited in ambush for the canoiests and when they returned, Frank (Belizean venturer) called them over and spoke Spanish to them. Yes he did know a way to Lemonai and he offered to show us the way, for a small fee. We hurridly arranged this for Wednesday and he headed off.
We ended up also going to Hillbank where we met Roger and, after a tyre change, set back up the trail inspecting at our lines. On the whole okay but a few needed extending and Roger wasn't expecting bahoe so soon.
We got back to camp, had lunch, and waited for the others. And waited, and waited. The tea was ready and no group. I thought I would radio PFB at Hillbank to see what time they had left and low and behold I got them on the radio, and they were still at Hillbank! The "slackers" they were had arranged a landrover lift back at 4pm which was going to be pushing it as it was. But the landrover hadn't turned up. It looked like they were going to have to spend a night at Hillbank when luckily the landrover arrived. Myself and another v left with torches to meet them. The landrover could only get so far and they would need torches for the rest. I had already changed into my night time attire and had washed my daytime clothes so I was really hacked off at having to put wet clothes on. We met them and trekked back fast and got to camp as the final light was fading. It was a lively meeting at night time.
I was in the group that was going with the local to recce the trail to Lamanai. He arrived from nowhere and soon we were off at a blistering pace. It was soon revealed that the area was a maze of tracks and there would have been no way we would have found our way without some help. We reached our guide's village, San Carlos, by 9:30am and from there it was only two hours to Lamanai. What a scoosh!
San Carlos was beautiful and we decided that we should spend tomorrow there then trek to Lemonai on Friday. By the time we left we had organised for them to cook us a Belizean meal and we were to cook them a meal. Also a football match.
It was a hot trek back. When we got to camp there seemed to be a lack of cooks. Then we heard some shouting. I went across and the bloody forest around our bashers was on fire! It wasn't leaping flames but with everything being so dry it was very close to it. The cooks had spotted it 20mins earlier and had been flat out trying to contain it. We quickly got some more water up. We had two 25litre containers but they were full of filtered water for drinking. It was taking ages to filter the water and if we could avoid pouring it on a fire we would. After many runs and frantic activity with spades and parangs we got it under control. It was very nearly a major disaster which put all our previous escapades in the shade. If the cooks hadn't spotted it when they did we would have probably caused a major forest fire. Given that we were doing an environmetal project in a conservation area, this would have generally been a very bad thing. It was all caused by the previous days cooks dumping ashes on the wet pit. You're supposed to do that to sanitise it but not with hot ashes including bits of live embers. Hence when the wind blew up, it set alight to the surrounding foliage which hadn't been cleared back and Bob's your uncle, you have a forest fire. The total area was only about 20 ft square but in the initial minutes when the cooks had spotted it, it doubled in size so it was scary stuff.
After all that it was time to crash out and have lunch. The other group soon returned and the prervious days cooks were left in no doubt about their folly. Generally the atmosphere in the camp was the best it had ever been. We were finished the research plots and on our way to Lamanai. Everybody was looking forward to mingling with the locals in San Carlos and the whole group stayed up late exchanging funny stories.
The football match was a bit of a one-sided affair. I was my team's star player and if anybody knows my football talents they will realise how dire we were. After it I had my first non-river wash in three weeks. It was a bucket and jug, luxury!
At night we got invited to the co-operative's meeting. Although it was all in Spanish it would have been rude not to attend. Apparently they were deciding whether or not to grow peppers for chilli sauce. It must be quite a complex subject because the meeting went on for ages. Then finally I got to say my piece to the co-operative members. I thanked them for their hospitality and wished them all the best with their peppers.
It was quite late by the time we went to bed. A bit different tonight - a school. Actually, I would have preferred the jungle. A concrete floor with no karrimat isn't fun.
We had some more Belizean food for breakfast followed by a Pepsi. Eventually we left after saying goodbye about six times over. We also saw the co-operative in action. They were rounding up their cattle cowboy style for vaccination by a local vet. His vaccination technique was quite a sight. I reckon his forefathers used to hunt with spears.
Before we knew it we were at Indian Church village and 5 mins from Lemonai Ruins. There was a small shop and a community phone. Andy, who had had no letters from his girlfriend, decided to make a call and was closely followed by several other sad cases.
Then came the news that we couldn't camp at Lemonai ruins without prior written permission. Not a major disaster but there were no areas suitable for jungle camp and Indian Church wasn't a good place to stay either. So I got on the phone to FB so that they could phone the Archeology Dept and ask them to fax Lamanai giving us permission to camp. We had to wait for the manager to get back from a trip to Orange Walk. At first it was 3pm, then 4pm and he finally turned up at 5pm. By that time it was too late for any faxes and he ended up just letting us stay. We were to sleep under the picnic huts and yet again they had concrete floors. No way I was spending another night with no sleep so I strung up my basher between two trees. It was kind of strange having a military style jungle basher in the middle of a tourist spot.
The atmospehere at night was very quiet. We made plans for our last day and went to bed. Or so I thought they did. A bunch of vs decided to go swimming in the lagoon. If they had been quiet I might have not noticed but they were screaming and shouting so a few words were had. Going to be a busy day tomorrow with thirteen personal reports to write, discuss, and then finalise. I was hoping not to have all this to do on the last day but here I am.
I did get a chance to see the main Mayan Temple which was the fourth tallest building in Belize. The views from the top were amazing of the flat surrounding jungle area. They used to have sacrifices on the top of temple and chuck the bodies off. Apparently it was an honour!
Got the news over the radio that email at field base is down so it looks like even less chance I'll be able to udate this web page at changeover tomorrow. I'll try my best though.
We had arrived to changeover on time although the bus was an hour late at Lamanai and the driver didn't have a clue where he was going. Changeover was the usual mayhem but there was something lacking in comparism to previous expeditions. Apart from no beer, there was no real "atmospehere". The mood from FB seemed to be, "let's get this over and done with and get out of here". There were also no skits which was dissapointing since my group had prepared one along with other groups.
Anyway, it was good to see the other staff and exchange stories about our troublesome venturers. Myself and Caroline stayed up late writing an article for the magazine which was entitled "Auntie Caroline and Uncle Steve's Agony Column". It was our revenge on our vs for chucking us into the lagoon.