4 minutes. I have to be honest, I'm enjoying this, knowing that apart from a few angry taxi drivers there will not be a problem. 1 minute and the first one surfaces, Imogen is off to get the others. No-one has gone to tell the taxi drivers.
Yep, poo is flying and most of it towards Jack. He decided to leave wake up to Imogen, yesterday's leader. Was last one down just now. Needs to recover this quick.
Time to go I think.
What fun!!!!!!!
Neil
I know you are off the radar for a bit but the suspense is killing me........did you all make the boat and did any of the kit get left behind in the mad panic that I'm sure ensued??!!!!
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Yes Mandy, we did make it and I think with all kit intact. Amazing how quickly they can move when they need to.
Poor Jack! The day did not get any better and anything that could go wrong did. Not all of it was his fault of course, like the taxi jouney from the dock to the bus station. It was not that far and 4 taxis arrived at the bus station a little before 3pm. Over half an hour later and the last taxi finally arrives having taken Mark and 3 others to the airport! The driver, who apparently spoke not a word of English as the group desperately tried to get him to stop and turn around, suddenly became bilingual when the police got involved.
At the bus station I heard one small group saying that they would never again complain about our own transport system. When we arrived we were mobbed by staff from about half a dozen bus companies wanting us to use their service to get to Miri. At first it was difficult to know what they were saying due their broken English and the fact that they all shouted at once. It turns out that they were shouting out times and prices, but it was like a Dutch auction as the prices kept coming down. Just when we thought we had settled on a particular bus we discovered that their promise of 19 seats was a lie, there were fewer than 10. No way were we standing for 8 hours. This charade was repeated several times before we could find one that could accommodate us all.
The journey itself was relatively smooth. By the standards of my previous expeditions, the driving was positively Advanced Motorist, but it was so cold that the group were desperate for the rest stops. We finally arrived in Miri at around 1.00am, but when we got to the hostel we discovered that they wanted us to put the group in a mixed dorm with some random adults, including the manager who was a bit of a dodgy Dutchman. This was not the first time we have had need to thank Mark. Despite the time he decided to investigate an alternative and took 3 of the team to another hostel. He was successful and so we grabbed our gear and moved out. This hostel is luxurious by comparison and not to normal expedition standard, though it does come with the obligatory ant residents. Jodie thinks the spiders are huge too! She's seen nothing yet! Finally got to bed at 2.00am!
We will be here for 3 nights before flying into the jungle. Will try to blog again soon.
Neil