The pace was laid back as we had to wait for one of my vs returning from the dentist. Eventually he arrived and we were off. We had the same driver but this time he knew where he was going. Dropped off the Isabella Bank project and headed for Hillbank. Got there, got all the kit unloaded, had lunch, then set up our bashers. Straight away it was obvious that I had quite a different group. No arguments and they just got on together and got things done. Quite a contrast and it felt like I had nothing to do. After a swim I gave the main project brief and after that we started getting ready for tea. Then, after saying to everybody, "it doesn't matter too much if you're basher isn't finished because it probably won't rain", an almighty storm hit. Within minutes the place was a river. I sprinted about 100m to camp and got soaked. This was more like the climate I was used to in South-East Asia. My basher stood up admirably and there wasn't even a hint of leakage. Other people were getting the buckets out! I got a little bit of flak about my weather prediction. At night it started again.
Another night was spent watching the stars. This group are so mellow compared to the last group who never really got out of the storming phase. Suits me fine.
I was wanting to do something that the whole group could do together rather than being split up into various sub-groups. Looking for Mayan ruins was the obvious choice and we set off to another area where it was rumoured some Mayan ruins might be. We got up there and split into 3 groups. After wandering around in the surrounding jungle for about half an hour we found a mound. Then another. And another bigger one which was definately unnatural, no doubt about it. With much joy we started heading back to tell the others and soon realised we were lost. Our "backmarker" who is supposed to mark trees as we go along so we don't get lost, hadn't, and we were lost. So it was out with the compass and head in a straight line time. Luckily the jungle wasn't thick and was quite easy to cut through. Then, all of a sudden, we walked into the largest mound yet. About 30ft high. We went around the base and found steps which meant it wasn't your usual mound but probably a ceremonial temple. Very exciting and many pictures were taken. Although, if you weren't there, a bit of cut stone in the jungle doesn't look all that impressive.
The other groups had also spotted mounds and we left for camp singing "Indiana Jones" theme tunes.
After that commotion we soon arrived at Irish Creek and whilst the rest of the group set up camp I took a small party to San Carlos. It was a 4 hour round trip and we were leaving at 12 noon so the pace was fast. We had been steaming ahead when I started seeing things that looked a bit funny. I started thinking I had missed a turn and there were plenty of them. Eventually I was positive we were "misplaced" (in other words lost). I knew if we headed east we could only hit the lagoon so that was the plan. Then, as you do in the jungle, we came across a mountain bike lying by the trail. I left the others standing guard to explain the situation to the owner should they come back and sped off in search of San Carlos. It turned out that it was just "around the corner" and returned to share the good news. On arrival there was a confused villager who happily took his bike back. Many "muchas gracias" were given and we headed off.
We were hoping for the whole group to spend Easter Sunday at San Carlos thinking that they would be celebrating it. It turned out that they didn't celebrate Easter much and the whole village was going to a wedding instead. So that was off. We had some cokes and talked about the Mayan ruins we had found. The "old man" of the village also talked of a large temple which sounded bigger than ours. We had to find this one. He only spoke Spanish so everything was being translated through some other villagers who spoke a little English. It made things interesting. One has to be exteremely patient and after an hour of asking the same question about 10 times but in a different way, we thought we knew where he was talking about. It sounded like the same place we had been yesterday.
We got back for 5pm to a welcome tea and shared the news of a bigger temple with the rest of the group.
We were thinking about building a raft to go down Irish Creek in but we weren't sure if there were rocks and other hazards so a group of us set off to find out. We were lucky and found an old logging trail scirting the creek and there were no major hazards so the rafting was on.
At night I had radio comms with Jason and he was talking about phase 3 being possibly somewhere else.
I was quite touched by the groups efforts and there was more to come. At night we were going to have a huge BBQ birthday party. There was 4 crates of beer and bottles of Tequilla which had been smuggled across the Mexican border by some of the PFB rangers and, beef and chicken for the BBQ. We even had ice to chill the beers.
Everything was set up by the lagoon when it became obvious there was a thunderstorn on the way. We got everything shifted in the nick of time into the shed and the heavens opened. Didn't stop us having a great party and I would write more but it's all a bit vague.
Eventually got it all sorted. On the way back Ben took us to some definite Mayan mounds. The good news was that they were exactly the same as the ones we had been finding. He also explained a bit of how they are organised which was helpfull. We had been blundering through the jungle in all sorts of directions whilst if we just went east or west, we would have found them for sure. Apparently the Maya built their structures in line with the rising and setting of the sun.
At night I had radio comms with Jason and it looks likely I won't be at Hillbank for phase 3.
At our nightly meeting we agreed it was time to move on and say goodbye to Hillbank.
We had nine days food to trek with to Irish Creek along with camp equipment. I let the group get on with it and soon everybody had full rucksacks with still an enormous pile of stuff to take. I leaped on the opportunity to give my speel about the "minimal kit" approach, i.e., no soap or shampoo, share toothpaste, only two sets of clothes and so on. Horrified faces looked on especially when I started chucking some of the food, like sugar for example. I couldn't believe the amount of sugar they were wanting to take. Also the custard and apple flakes got the chop along with various other bits and pieces. Soon we had a reasonable amount of kit and I headed off while people began repacking.
I heard a loud cheer and the sound of a landrover heading off. I went across and amzingly all the food and camp kit was gone but everybody's rucksacks were still small. My cunning venturers had sneakily organised a PFB landrover and whilst I was away grabbed all the "luxuries" I had chopped, packed the landrover, and sent it off to Irish Creek. Lucky for them the PFB had bulldozed a road almost all the way to Irish Creek. The previous group weren't so lucky.
It was using their initiative so I wasn't too annoyed. We trekked there pretty quick and put our bashers up. I spent the afternoon holding mid-phase interviews with each venturer.
Glad to be back at Irish Creek. It's a nice spot.
Back at camp the bulldozers had now hit Irish Creek and were alarmingly close to our camp. We watched in amazement as it destroyed the jungle, tipping over huge trees and making mish mash out of everything else. It dessimated an area in 20 mins that would probably take us 20 days to cut.
I felt a bit guilty because I had mentioned to PFB that we could do with a helipad at Irish Creek and this seemed to be what the dessimation was for. I was relieved when they mentioned it was also for a PFB base camp.
This had now totally changed Irish Creek camp. Now you walked 20m from the camp and there was a road and a huge hole in the jungle. On the plus side it meant that we could get beers brought up to camp for our party on Friday. It was one of the PFB Ranger's birthday.
We had a fun afternoon. A raft was built, launched, sunk, rescued and brought ashore to think again. Also finished my mid-phase interviews.
At night it chucked it down big style. Apart from a few drips I was dry. From the amount of torch activity and muffled cursing I reckoned others weren't so lucky.
Our main goal at Irish Creek was to find a quick way to the Mayan ruins we had previously discovered. That area wasn't good for camping and it was a six hour round trip from Hillbank. Irish Creek was closer but there wasn't a route. Until today. We were now pretty experienced at chopping down jungle and blasted through a trail in two days.
Tomorrow I was leaving the group for the day to do a planning visit for a possible phase 3 project. Lucy, shadow exped leader, was picking me up. I thought I may get a chance to get internet access so spent most of the night updating this log. It rained again. This is supposed to be the dry season!
3rd Update
I met the contact for the new project who was also the guy who gave us permission to camp at Lamanai Ruins. The new project was at Cerros which was a Mayan ruin that the Department of Archeology was wanting to make "tourist friendly". The place was really nice. It was 10mins in a boat and was on the sea front, i.e. a beach. There was still a lot to do there. A jetty, pavillion, toilets, trails, and also some work on the ruins themselves. All in all it was a great project. But, it wasn't jungle and Hillbank was meant to be a "jungle" project. It was left up to me which one to go for and although a change of scenery would have been nice, I went for Hillbank. Reason being that if I was a venturer and came on expedition to Belize I would expect at least one phase in the jungle. I also put it past my current vs and Hillbank seemed to come out on tops. So, after numerous radio calls and a planning visit, I was staying at Hillbank.
I was in the aforementioned group which meant trekking all the way back to camp then another four hours there and back. Yipee! We thought we could cut it shorter by using a different route but it stopped at the creek. We even swam across the creek to make sure it didn't carry over to the other side, and it didn't. So, thoroughly soaked, we went back to camp and then onto San Carlos. The "old man" wasn't there but we talked with some other locals we remembered what he had described. We came to the conclusion it wasn't the same temple and left with a sketchy diagram of where it was.
Back at camp plans were drawn up to make sure we found the "old man's" temple the following day, which was really going to be our last chance. We were having a party on Friday night and didn't foresee much work being done on Saturday. Sunday we were on our way to Lamanai.
We were getting our first official VIP visit. Peter Omorod who is quite high up in the diving world, and mainly here to see the dive projects, wanted to come out and experience a jungle project. We had it all planned out that a group would meet him on the 1951 line, show him the jungle, then come up in the landrover for lunch, have a swim, then go home.
I was in the group who were continuing our search for the Mayan temple. After following the map from the San Carlos villagers we concluded we had been in the right place all along and had already probably found the temple they were talking about.
So we sat down for a break. Problem was, one of us sat on a very large snake! I was looking at Emily who was standing pointing at Paul trying to say something. She was obviously quite excited and finally blurted out "snake!". Paul looked down and he was actually sitting on the thing. Needless to say he shifted ass pretty quick. It looked like it was a constrictor type snake which are slow, lethargic and tend not to attack like such things as a Fer-de Lance. Very lucky.
On that note, not wanting to leave the nice spot we had found for a break, we decided to climb a tree to avoid the aforementioned snake. Then Kabir, our Indian venturer, got very excited and started pointing across to the other side of the creek where we were at. He had spotted a maruajana field. Totally illegal around here and supposed to have all been erradicated. Obviously missed this patch. He was game to swim across but I perdsuaded him not to on account he would be on a plane home within 24hrs. Raleigh Rule No. 1 - no drugs.
After all that we started to head back. Not for long. Mandy decided to stick her machete into her leg. Didn't sound too bad at first, "Woops, Stephen, I think I've cut myself!". On inspection there was a rather nasty incision into her calf. Chance to get my first aid kit out in anger. After a bit of cleaning and sterri-stripping we were off but it really needed a few stitches. Nicky (medic) was with the group waiting for Peter and we had arranged comms at 12:15. Problem was that it was 11:30 and an hour walk from camp. Until there, decent comms was unliekly so a group of us legged it back. The plan was to get the FB landrover to drop Peter off, pick up Nicky, stitch up Mandy, then go back for Peter and the others.
We raced it back for 12:15 with Mandy following behind with the rest of the group. Turned on the radio and heard the landrover, mobile 1, trying to call us. They were lost! They had taken a wrong turn and were miles away. I tried to talk to them but no response. I tried talking to our other group who were also trying to call us but no response. We could hear them but they couldn't hear us. Our radio battery was dead!
What else could go wrong? The only option was to jog 2.7kms to the other group to make comms from their radio and set Nicky on her way up on foot. I jogged down with another venturer. We tried to make comms from where they were but it was very broken. We had to jog back to camp where we had a proper antenna.
Pretty knackered by the time we got back. Hooked the radio up and the channel was busy. Waited for ages before we could cut in. Mobile 1 was trying to get through again. I pressed down to transmit and hells bells the reading went dim which meant another dead battery!
Both our handheld radios hadn't been recharged for a while and had been getting a fair use. Anyway we could hear mobile 1 and they were back on the right track. Then Nicky arrived and set about stitching up Mandy. Soon the landrover appeared with our VIP who didn't seemed pleased with the hassle getting here. He was greeted with an unhappy Mandy who bravely didn't want a local anesthetic for her stitches. She was lying face down in the middle of the camp with Nicky doing the stitches. "Welcome to Hillbank"! Mandy got four stitches in total.
After all that, the day seemed to sort itself out. I nipped down to Hillbank in the landrover and got our main battery. Our VIP left, a lot happier than when he arrived, and we relaxed a bit before our long awaited party. The PFB Rangers had got us beer from Mexico (smuggled across the border) and were bringing it up for around six.
By seven we were getting worried. I was just about to radio when headlights appeared up the logging road. Yee-hah the party was off and what a party it was. Beer, Tequila and Rum was being drunk at a frightening pace and it wasn't before long we had our first casualty. As usual, the reliable staff members, myself and Nicky, had stayed soberish and ended up nursing one very drunken young lady. I think it was the worse I have ever seen. Eventually, after several attempts, the drunken PFB guys meandered off in their landrover through the jungle. I had a welcome cup of tea and biscuits (stolen from the rations) before getting some sleep. It was 4am which considering we are normally in bed for 9pm up at 5am, was very late.
What a day!
I made an effort to do them in my basher by fixing a candle to one of the trees I had my basher tied to. My torch batteries were running low and I wanted to save them for more important tasks, like getting to the toilet in the middle of the night.
I was on water duty so it wasn't long until I had to get up anyway. After pumping 50 litres of smelly creek water through our filter, sticking in chlorine purification tablets and waiting 20 mins, we could have breakfast. Quite a difference to using a tap back home!
We packed up camp quick and headed to San Carlos on our way to Lamamai Ruins. The 2nd phase has whizzed by. Monday we trek to Lamanai Ruins, where I should get to a phone and update this, and on Tuesday it's changeover time. Another new group and Hillbank phase 3 rolls off for it's final time.
We did the same as before at San Carlos. Eat, played football, got beat, mingled with the locals, bought numerous cokes from the small shop, and basically chilled out for the day. Except me! Once again I had 13 venturer reports to write and I was determined to have some spare time at Lamanai Ruins to actually see the place. So it was an all out blitz from the minute I got to San Carlos. Needless to say there were various interruptions and here I am, 11pm, still writing. Seven down, six to go!
4th Update
We stopped at Indian Church village where there is a phone and I tackled with BTL's system trying to update this log. Then down to Lamanai Ruins and straight back into report writing. Got a few more done, just two more to do.
On the way down Susan had a tangle with a large snake. It apparently shot out in front of her and wrapped around her foot. She jumped around a bit and eventually got shot of it. She reckoned it was more scared than her. Susan is from Boness so that would explain it.
We arranged for one of the guides to take us around which was definately better than last time when we aimlessley wandered past stones that have been around since 1500 BC. The tour was excellant although I don't have a mind for taking in a a whole lot of historical facts.
I then had to go through all the reports I had written with each ventuerer and inbetween tea got them all done except one. We had our final project meeting which was a laugh. We all got presented with some sort of prize.
I then started writing up the reports in pen but quickly decided that FB could live with my pencilled scrawls with arrows all over the place. Got to sleep very quickly.
Got to Camp Oakley 10mins early. I messed up on getting back to FB for Compuserve access. There were two trips going back but I missed both. Really annoyed about that but finally finished my last venturer report and gladly handed them all in.
Inbetween getting all the stuff for next phase and eating numerous bars of Snickers and M&M's, the rest of the day was spent chilling out and talking to other staff. Party at night.