Challenges, Inspiration

River Walking and Rain in the Rainforest! – Leading the Sumatran Jungle Trek, by Operations Manager Jo, part 4

May 23, 2012

They don’t call this the ‘Rainforest’ for nothing!! We soon established after a few days trekking that the roaring sound of cicadas, followed by a blast of thunder and sudden silence was the preamble to the heavy down pour of rain, which usually began around 4.30.

You soon get to know the ways of the jungle and pick up tips and tricks. Such as the smothering of tiger balm (a substance mysteriously hated by leaches!) over feet, ankles, legs and even the edge of sleeping mats – just in case the sneaky leech tried to climb in with you!

After a full day yesterday of ups, downs and scrambling along on our hands and knees using tree roots to pull ourselves up, we decided a change of scenery was in order, so river trekking it was. It’s amazing seeing the rainforest from different angles and degrees. From being deep in the thick of it with towering trees, thick underbrush, to walking upstream looking in from the outside. The lush green of the Banana trees and the beautifully clear flow of river over pebbles was mesmerising!

River walking is a tough practice, with a strong undercurrent and slippery rocks underfoot, but it wouldn’t be a challenge if it was easy right?

Our bags are getting heavier each day as our kit is getting wetter. Our belongings (not to mention ourselves) are become immersed in the sensual stink of the jungle. Today the rain comes early so we get to experience trekking in the downpour, which is very refreshing. Thank God for those ponchos we bought, they actually have come into more use than we thought, especially in the night when you need to go to the toilet and its pouring down with rain, they are like our own mobile little personal tents! Amazing!

You encounter many hurdles trekking in the jungle and you really need to practice the art of multitasking. It would have been ideal if we could have a pair of eyes on the top and back of our heads as well as in front.

After a couple of days you really establish your jungle feet so soon you are only spending 70 percent of your time looking down at your now extremely worn in boots and not 90 per cent of the time as before. If only we had the opportunity to look up more! Now, for the art of river walking – establishing where to step and where definitely not to step!!  If only we had mastered the art of ignoring the annoying feeling of pebbles in the shoes!!

Walking up the river gives you the opportunity of spotting life in the jungle that you may not see in the depths of it, like a hornbill flying upstream or a cobra eating a viper on the bank of the river! You definitely avoid the leeches this way as apparently the Sumatran Leech can’t swim (us – 1 point, Leeches – 0)! We stop for lunch by a mini waterfall and are swarmed by a rainbow of butterflies which took a liking to Kate’s colourful socks.

To our delight we meet Iwan’s team who have now become known as ‘the mosquito’s’. They are already bathing in the river by the camp after arriving 10 minutes before us, we trek a further 15 minutes upstream and see our guides setting up the bamboo frame in a hurry as they have already spotted the black clouds over head. We watched fascinated and frankly amazed at how well they coordinate as a team and get the job done so quickly! Our sleeping area is erected, then the kitchen and finally the tarp thrown over just in time for the first drops of rain to come in. We sit under the shelter and soon see the first of the tigers Kinols team of lovely ladies, speedily trekking upstream trying to beat the rain. We cheer them on as they come one by one around a fallen tree. The emotion was raw today, everyone is exhausted and a nice walk up the river turned out being tougher than expected.

By the end of day 3 we had well earned our one and only cup of hot chocolate for the trek and savoured each drop! Especially as the following day we are allowed a lie in, waking up at 8.30 and not 7.00, followed by a swim and a clothes washing session. Up next is “Jungle Survival Day” – all about doing the laundry, collecting jungle food and fishing!! We couldn’t be more excited! Stay tuned for part 4 next week!

If Jo’s experience in Sumatra has inspired you, check out our Sumatran Jungle Trek here, and subscribe to this blog to hear about what happened next. To keep up to date on all our challenge news, both jungle and not, please enter your email address into the adjacent box to subscribe to our mailing list.

Tips & Advice

High Altitude Advice from the experts

May 16, 2012

THINKING ABOUT DIET, NUTRITION AND DEHYDRATION ON THE MOUNTAIN

You’d think that spending a day mountain trekking would be an ideal way to work up an appetite! But for a lot of people, it can be very difficult to maintain a healthy appetite at high altitude. The senses of smell and taste can be greatly inhibited by the general feeling of lethargy and nausea that often accompany mild altitude sickness, and hence put you off your food.

This can be a dangerous side effect of altitude sickness, as you will be physically exerting yourself and burning through hundreds of calories every day, so it’s very important to keep up your strength and energy levels.

Our Altitude expert partners at the “Altitude Centre” are on hand with advice.

“Fatty foods and high tech sports nutrition bars are difficult to digest and should be avoided. There are some advantages in taking vitamin and mineral supplements at altitude. ALTI-VIT is a unique vitamin formula developed by leading experts in conjunction with The Altitude Centre to support key body requirements at Altitude. With ingredients including Siberian Ginseng, Vitamin C, Reishi Mushroom Extract and Ginkgo Biloba,  is a nutritional altitude supplement supporting:

  • Oxygen uptake
  • Energy production
  • Immune function
  • Sleep quality

Visit altivit.com to find out more.”

Two further symptoms of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) are constipation and diarrhoea which tend to alternate and this can be dangerous as well as distressing. You can take medication to help with these symptoms but it is very important that you keep well hydrated and keep up your food intake – even if you aren’t hungry. On all our treks the water is boiled and cooled to sterilise it. Those with particularly sensitive stomachs may consider iodine tablets to further treat the water. A top tip to neutralise the taste of iodine, is to dissolve an effervescent Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) tablet into the water.

Indeed drinking is just as important as eating! Adequate hydration is essential to allow the body to regulate its chemical balance in response to the change in altitude. Aim to drink 3-4 litres each day and if possible try to add electrolytes to your water. Two brand names to consider are Nuun and Dioralyte. These will help to replace the body’s salts that are lost whilst walking.

The air at high altitude is always very dry. With each breath water will be stripped from your lungs. If you use your mouth to breathe a dry cough is likely to develop. TOP TIP: Try to use your nose to breathe through to prevent a dry throat. If this is not possible, suck a honey cough sweet to help lubricated the throat.

If you want to learn more about our mountain challenges, you can visit our website here. Also, to find out more about the good work and advice the Altitude Centre dishes out, please visit their website at www.altitudecentre.com. To keep up to date on all our challenge news, both altitude related and not, please enter your email address into the adjacent box to subscribe to our mailing list.

Challenges, Inspiration

Into the Jungle! – Leading the Sumatran Jungle Trek, part 3

May 15, 2012

Seeing the orangutans is an incredible experience. In Bukit Lawang, you can usually see them near the world famous orangutan rehabilitation centre, however we were extremely lucky to spot ‘wild’ orangutans on Day 5 of our Jungle Trek.

The semi wild orangutans will not stray too far from the feeding platform so you are pretty much guaranteed to spot them there. When it comes to truly wild orangutans however, you will be lucky to catch a glimpse of one in the distance while you trek deeper into the jungle. You will have to be careful to be very quiet and not scare them away! Wild orangutans will stay high in the tree tops, so spotting them takes a lot of patience and a very good eye from your guides!

Into the Jungle we go! Bags packed, re packed and packed again and the three teams with their respective guides Eddy, Iwan and Kinol set off within 15 minutes of each other on their epic journey into the depths of the jungle! An initial tough climb with a surprising amount of steps greets us as we approached the entrance to the Gunung Leuser National Park. It was an extremely humid morning, so the start was tough going, but we were all in great spirits, and rearing to go!

After a morning of trekking we soon discovered this was definitely not a stroll in the park!  Flat ground in the jungle is something of a rarity and for every steep climb there was an equally steep descent. We now understand exactly why Tarzan chose to swing through the trees – it’s a much more efficient way of getting through the jungle, there are far less obstacles up there!

After clambering up and over fallen trees, untangling a foot or two from the cunning and craftily hidden jungle vines,  taking a skip and a hop over the abnormally large tree roots, we finish by swinging from tree to tree as we manoeuvre our way down the extremely steep descent. The jungle was soon testing our mental awareness and strength to the extreme!

Our first experience of lunch in the jungle was a delight for all. A blanket of fern displayed juicy pineapple and passion fruit and ‘nasi goreng’(fried rice with omelette) wrapped in a banana leaf. It was delicious! However, we soon found ourselves ambushed by a gang of ‘Thomas Leaf Monkeys’ or ‘funky monkeys’ as our guides liked to call them. They took a fancy to our lunch and I have to say I can’t blame them, I’d much rather have Nasi Goreng over leaves any day!! The Thomas Leaf Monkeys are very distinctive with their black mohawk hairstyle, they live in female groups of around 6 with one male ringleader. Their population, like most species in the rainforest, is decreasing due to their primary habitat being taken by logging and conversion to oil palm plantations. They are however, protected by Indonesian Law and are incredibly fun to watch!

It was a tough days trek, feeling the effects of jet lag, acclimatising to the humidity and realising that maybe a bit more training, scrambling and step climbing shoud have been in order. The steep climb into camp felt like it lasted forever, with every step seeking for that next branch,  roots or jungle vine to hold onto to ease us down. Part shuffle, part scramble, I think I can safely say we all had a couple of slips and bumps, with a struggle to get back on our feet with the weight of the backpack. I was anxiously scanning the trail hoping that there was enough low lying forest to ease the falls. We were exhausted and just about to throw our toys out the pram at our ‘oh so lovely guides’ through sheer exhaustion when we suddenly see smoke from our camp. We were very pleased to be greeted with hot tea and coffee and biscuits. and quietly welcomed by the sight of a mother orangutan with her baby watching us from across the river. A prefect end to a very tough day!

Next, we bathe in the river and the guides once again triumph with an amazing spread of dishes for our evening meal. Later, whilst sitting under a bamboo frame covered tarp listening to the pouring rain, someone shines their torch through the darkness across the river and into the jungle and for a split second we think we see a pair of shining eyes starring back at us! We turn off our headtorchs, huddle down into our sleeping bags and watch the fireflies go by. We sit in silence listening to the noises of the night and ponder over the days trek, realisation hits that we are here, in the prime jungle, just the 6 of us (and the other two groups maybe just 10 minutes downstream but you would never know!) and our team of guides. I know we are all thinking ‘how do we share this – how can we possibly describe living in the jungle? An experience as Barbara later said to me ’’ hard enough to sort it in my own head and finding almost impossible to explain to others’’.

The silence was soon broken by screams of  ‘blood’!. The Leeches had arrived. The trees were wet from the rain and the Leeches were in their haven – fresh blood had arrived!!

If Jo’s experience in Sumatra has inspired you, check out our Sumatran Jungle Trek here, and subscribe to this blog to hear about what happened next. To keep up to date on all our challenge news, both jungle and not, please enter your email address into the adjacent box to subscribe to our mailing list.

Challenges, Inspiration

Leading the Sumatra Orangutan Jungle Challenge – Part 2 – At the Orangutan Feeding Platform:

May 11, 2012

The day begins with an early morning rise and a short walk, followed by a canoe crossing to the orangutan feeding platform at 8.30am. Everyone’s doing well to acclimatise to the heat and humidity today, rehydration sachets have quickly become everyone’s best friend!!

The Gunung Leuser National Park is one of the orangutan’s last remaining strongholds, with more than 5000 animals thought to be living in the wild, and our first encounter with the Pongo abelii, ‘the Sumatran Orangutan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumatran_orangutan) was certainly something to remember! The orangutan, the world’s largest arboreal mammal, means “people of the forest” (Orang – people, Hutan – forest) in Indonesian. We’re all tired from climbing the steep slope up to the orangutan feeding platform and paying too much attention to our feet, when suddenly the group comes to an abrupt halt. Being the last one in the group I later discovered  that our path was blocked by a female Orangutan  standing 3ft tall, fists clenched and refusing to move to let us through.

The Sumatran Orangutan Society have devised a set of regulations when visiting the Orangutans in the Gunung Leuser National Park and our first encounter showed us just how important these are. There are many guides who will try to entice the Orangutans with food so they come close to tourists. This actually teaches them to be aggressive if they don’t get what they want!

 It is important to follow the guidelines and listen to the licensed guides at all times. (for more info see our Sumatra Jungle Challenge Q&A’s). All of our guides follow a strict code of no contact with the Orangutans. Some of our guides are also involved with research and conservation projects based in the area and are fully aware of the importance of following conservation guidelines, both to protect the jungle and the indigenous wildlife, but also to set an example to other guides and visitors.

It’s really a memorable experience to watch the orangutans in the tropical rainforest of Gunung Leuser National Park, but these animals need to be protected with care. The Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) are rarer and smaller than their Bornean relatives, who have lighter hair and a longer beard. Today there are approximately only around 6,600 left in the wild, most of them in the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra. The expansion of oil palm plantations into fragile Eco-systems is the most acute threat to their survival. But also illegal logging and the pet trade add to their declining population.

The purpose of the centre we visited was to rehabilitate orangutans in captivity so they can be released in to the wild again. Rangers teach the orangutans all the necessary skills to survive in the wild. After an intense period of quarantine, readjustment to the natural habitat and reintegration into the (semi-wild) population, the orangutan is released back into the jungle. All orangutans released are still monitored by the rangers and they still provide them with supplementary food at the feeding platform until they become fully self reliant. The Gunung Leuser national Park is also a life support for the people of Bukit Lawang. All Charity Challenge guides are employed by Expedition Jungle who is fully inclusive of the local population. Their viability depends on the knowledge of the people of Bukit Lawang as well as the natural and cultural environment. They also hope that by exposing tourists to the beauty of the rain forest and the current issues they can generate outside support and contribute towards highlighting the plight of Sumatra ‘s rainforests before it is too late!

Part 3 coming soon!

If Jo’s experience in Sumatra has inspired you, check out our Sumatran Jungle Trek here, and subscribe to this blog to hear about what happened next. To keep up to date on all our challenge news, both jungle and not, please enter your email address into the adjacent box to subscribe to our mailing list.

Challenges

Back to Brazil

May 9, 2012

Our veteran Team Leader (and blogger!) Trevor Gibbs is going to Brazil this October to lead our Brazil Community challenge, and is thinking back to what he experienced there 12 months ago…

“I am off back out to Brazil this coming October, to lead a team of volunteers into the slums of São Paulo. Now many might see that as a testament to a mind laid waste by Larium and swamp fever, but to me it sounds like the start of a whole new adventure.

I was last in Brazil 12 months ago, working in the north-east of the country for a company called Charity Challenge. The job back then was to look after a pair of teams working on the renovation of two crèches in the heart of the São Francisco Valley, near a town called Petrolina. I remember us arriving at work that first day, to be greeted with a series of concrete shells that were overgrown with weeds and littered with the broken reminders of years of neglect. The scale of the work was daunting to say the least. The playgrounds were a tangled mass of weeds, rusting metal and old car tyres, whilst the classrooms themselves were little more than a dingy collection of sombre rooms filled with cobwebs and mosquitoes.

Over the coming days though we cleared the jungle and removed the rubbish, built walls and sandpits and began to transform the walls of the crèches into canvases of colourful murals. We overcame heat and dust, giant toads and limping tarantulas. We cleaned floors and windows, tiled bathrooms and inflated enough balloons to launch a small car. We also had fun! Our mission had been to help create an inspiring and safe environment for the children and by the end of the project we were a mass of grinning smiles and grubby, tear-streaked faces.

There are few things in life more likely to raise the spirit than the sound of a child’s laughter, especially when that child has grown up in a community denied the basics that most of us have grown up taking for granted. I still recall my last day there, looking down at the grinning face of a small child covered in face paint and clutching a smiley balloon…

…Twelve months on and I have no idea what faces me in São Paulo, but if last year was anything to go by, it promises to be interesting…”

To find out more about Trevor and his adventures, please visit his website at www.agamaconsultants.co.uk. To learn more about our Brazil Community challenge, and all the treks that we offer, please visit our website at www.charitychallenge.com. To keep up to date on all our challenge news, subscribe to this blog by clicking on the orange RSS button, you can also enter your email address into the adjacent box to subscribe to our mailing list.

Challenges, Inspiration

Leading the Sumatra Orangutan Jungle Challenge – Part 1

May 1, 2012

My name is Jo and I am the Operations Manager at Charity Challenge for the Sumatra Orangutan Jungle Challenge. After 18 months of planning our newly launched Sumatran Challenge to everyone’s envy in the office I found myself sitting on the plane on the way to Medan, Sumatra. The three months I spent in the Borneon Jungle in 2007 seemed a distant memory but not so distant that I couldn’t remember what made me so excited about returning to this part of the world! I couldn’t wait to have the privilege of living and experiencing the prime rainforest in Sumatra if only for just 6 days. I also knew that the experience ahead of us would be one almost impossible to be put into words on our return. So I’ll try my best to convey the magical challenge of the ‘jungle’.

Six hours into my flight and I’m trying to get my head back into jungle life by reading the Guidebook to the Gunung Leuser National Park so kindly written and downloadable on the Sumatra Orangutan Society’s website (www.orangutans-sos.org). Feeling a little nauseous from eating a big coconut and a chocolate cookie followed by a small toblerone bar given to me on the plane! I’m starting to leave the insanely busy mad rush of London behind me and starting to imagine the crazily loud call of cicadas, the sound of running water and the sensation of sleeping under the thick canopy of trees sheltered only by a single tarp with my group of Challengers (I hope no one snores!!!) I try to imagine the noise of the calls of the Orangutans and the rush of wings of the Hornbills as they soar overhead but all I can think of is Leeches, spiders, centipedes and snakes….In fact anything that moves that is not soft, fluffy and cuddly!

I soon find myself arriving in the small airport of Medan, and to my delight I am greeted with the numerous and never ending smiles which welcome you to Indonesia. Yes this is Sumatra and this is the start of the Challenge to come!

It’s soon time for the group to arrive, and Friday morning I’m at arrivals after a 4.30am start to transfer the 3 hours from Bukit Lawang to the airport to pick up the group. Romi and I play the game of ‘spot the group’, which really in Medan airport was never going to be that difficult as not many westerners came through security. One by one as they grab their day bags off the scanner I smile at the Boots and Charity Challenge t-shirts and suddenly get extremely excited for the upcoming week.

One of the most exciting moments of the challenge is meeting the group at the airport. Getting to know new people, building lifelong friendships and knowing that the next 10 days will be one of ups and downs, physically, mentally and emotionally. Full of raw emotions, exhaustion, happiness and maybe even terror, but knowing you have others to go through the experience with you, supporting you, offering a hand, a shoulder and a friend makes it an experience you will never forget!

As an Operations Manager at Charity Challenge, I am usually busy organising the challenges in the office and spend most my time in envy of our freelance leaders who get to meet inspirational Challengers and experience the treks first hand.

After everyone hopped on to the minibus we start our 3 hour drive out of Medan city, Sumatra’s major metropolis and Indonesia’s third largest city, population of 2million. We travel through  Palm Oil Plantations and go deep in the depths of the Sumatran Jungle until we reach Bukit Lawang! Bukit Lawang is home to the Sumatran Orangutan, and the entrance to the Gunung Leuser National Park, the surrounding jungle of which our challengers will take place, this is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world and is home to eight species of primate plus tigers, rhinos, elephant, leopards and cobras.

We are greeted by a smiling group of young boys who were eager and ready to carry our heavy bags across the rope bridge to the ecolodge (www.ecolodge.com) where by this point everyone was keen for food and rest. The Ecolodge is designed to serve as a model for sustainable livelihoods, as a non profit organisation, revenue is put back into community development, social programmes and nature conservation. Bukit Lawang (http://wikitravel.org/en/Bukit_Lawang) situated on the Bahorok River is famous for the rehabilitation centre for the Orangutans founded in 1973. Devastatingly a flash flood hit Bukit Lawang in 2003. The disaster destroyed the local tourist resorts and many friends and families of our guides. 239 people (5 of them were tourists) were killed and around 1,400 locals lost their homes. As you walk around Bukit Lawang you can witness the reconstruction and hear the stories of the local people, still all with that amazing Indonesian smile on their faces.

We hear a sudden sound of thunder as we sit down to Lunch of Nasi Gorang, Omelette and fresh watermelon, and realise it’s not thunder but the Macaques racing over the corrugated Iron roof, running and jump from tree to tree, branch to branch to finally nose dive into the river. The macaques are a funny looking primate with their whiskers and moustache and beards for the females. Macaques love the water and are great swimmers. So you are pretty much guaranteed to see them type roping along the telephone wires around the ecolodge and bathing by the river.

Part 2 coming soon!

If Jo’s experience in Sumarta has inspired you, check out our Sumatran Orangutan Trek here, and subscribe to this blog to hear about what happened on my next. To keep up to date on all our challenge news, both volcanic and not, please enter your email address into the adjacent box to subscribe to our mailing list.