We wake up early this morning - too early to get going - so we laze around in the tent for a while, getting up at 6:30 AM. We help get breakfast ready, have breakfast, and then get ready for the day's hike. A few of us have decided to go to another camp for tonight, so we gather up our stuff and separate out some of the food and cook gear for some of the porters to carry for us.
We head off shortly before 8:30 AM - there are five of us and one guide. We have a 8 KM walk through the forest to Rengo Rock Camp. Along the way, we see many things and have a great trail to walk along.
At one point, we come across four huge buttress tress that have grown up right next to each other - it is quite a sight to see four of these trees right next to each other (or even on top of one another).
We have a few streams to cross - one of which we use as a bridge a tree that has naturally fallen across the stream. It is like in the movies. At one point, we come upon a stretch of the trail where there are lots of birds feeding on the insects on the trail - the insects turn out to be swarms of ants crossing the trail. we have to run across stretches like these as these ants have a nasty bite!!!
We also hear lots of birds and see flowers, mushrooms, butterflies ...
...and insects, like this blue dragon fly.
Part of the way along, the guide points out to us a leaf from a vine - he says that this leaf was recently found to have properties that kill HIV and could possibly cure AIDS. The problem at this stage is that the leaf is so toxic that it will also kill humans that consume it (our guide knew one local person who tried it to cure AIDS and he died within seconds of eating the leaf). Scientists are currently working on ways to reduce the toxicity to humans while keeping the anti-HIV properties. It was a very interesting walk as he pointed out other plants and their uses.
We got to Rengo Rock Camp shortly before noon. Before heading onto Rengo Rock itself, we decided to hang out at the camp for a while and have our lunch. Once completing our simple lunch of bread and cheese, we headed off through the forest again towards Rengo Rock. Rengo Rock is a big rock formation in the forest, which you can climb up and get a view of the forest all around you. As there were lots of black flies there, we did not stay to long. It was also very hot being out in the sun on the black rock.
We returned to the camp site just after 3 PM. For the rest of the afternoon, we took it easy. This included going down to the stream that passes by for a bath. This stream was not as large as the one the day before, but it was more peaceful. After having a good wash, we returned to the campsite to prepare dinner.
Dinner was "Bean Fest" - a soya meat substitute. It actually turned out quite good and was just what we needed after a long, hot day of hiking through the forest. After dinner, we played some cards using one of the gas lanterns. It is very nice every once in a while to get away from the modern aspects of life, such as electricity and TV. Once again, we are off to bed early. Now we know why, back in the days without electricity, people went to bed earlier. Once again, we had the moon and all the sounds from the forest. The sounds were just amazing - loud and very varied and coming from all around you.