In the jungle...

...the mighty jungle, the 11C volunteers managers slept last night:

Well, the night before actually but after an 18 hour day I'm afraid your trusty blogger was too tired to blog last night. I'll make up for it today with two I promise.

So, we spent two nights and three days in the jungle learning how to read maps, cross a river safely, use machetes to chop wood, build jungle camps using bamboo and tarpaulin, deal with medical emergencies by carrying an injured person (who wasn't really injured but pretending) on a stretcher for a mile or two, cook for ourselves using outdoor cooking stoves, and generally be all round jungle heroes able to trek for miles through rainforest, Bear Grylls stylee:

Beds? Pah! Who needs a bed when you can knock up a basha bed or a basha hammock in half an hour. Beds are, like, so last season:

And when you get up at 3.30am it's amazing how much you can fit into a day. Ross, our country programme manager, is our Scottish Yoda, imparting his extensive outdoorsy skills to turn us into superhero volunteer managers. Here he is, looking pleased with us, at the river crossing:

And here's why. We all got across and enjoyed it too:

We were divided into five teams which made for a bit of healthy competition. Whiskey 5 definitely had the best jungle camp which is why everyone came to visit us for a party. We rock! Whiskey 3 were well into their team massages after all that backpack trekking:

 
A few of us even had close encounters with local wildlife. Pete, in team Whiskey 4, couldn't have been more surprised when he heard a loud snarl and his rucksack was ripped off his back. Thankfully it wasn't a puma but a small dog who'd decided he liked the look of Pete's shorts hanging from the backpack! The dog's mortified owner, a friendly farmer, did his best to rectify the situation by directing them to a shortcut, thus shaving a half hour off their route.

And here's city boy Jonny, from Whiskey 1, befriending a horse:

Not sure what the horse makes of him to be honest.

Yes, we survived jungle camp and we're all the tougher for it. Next up, project allocations!