Last day on the lines today 🙁 and luckily it was not raining. Jonny was looking terrible – we all felt sorry for him as we attempted to eat breakfast. There was a definite pain when re-attaching to the lines – I miss my comfy harness. We left around 8:30 and enjoyed a few new lines (Jacob and I snuck in a quick loop while waiting for everyone to catch up) in between the now well known trails before sadly unclipping from the last one. All of us have improved our technique – getting your body parallel to the cable increases speed (and hence distance) dramatically. A short hike got us back to HQ followed by another hot and muddy hour down to the village where we cooled off in the stream before discovering that cold drinks (containing Sugar!!) were waiting just 50m away. Jacob has an impressive talent – managing to keep his sandles clean and dry while the rest of us were ankle deep in thick mud. I suspect it has something to do with the size of his feet – like having snow shoes 🙂

The dirt road ride back had it’s fair share of dramatic slipping and sliding but the road overall was in a better condition than when we arrived. Lunch at the well stocked cafe/restaurant was tasty (I thought) but having to eat more rice put most people off. Again we can’t get over the toilets here. A tin shack at a roadside cafe and the loo was pristine! In China it would have been a disgusting trough. The ride back to town and hot showers was subdued – everyone was pretty knackered.

In the evening we all met up for dinner at the restaurant attached to the Gibbon Exp office. It was almost difficult to recognize everyone looking so respectable. Rice was not on the books – most (including us) gorged themselves on excellent oven baked pizza. Life is once again (and as usual) very good 🙂

Tips for the Gibbon Experience (or some hints if the owners ever see this blog)
– Keep your pack small (we had a 10l daypack for the both of us). Zipping with a big one is a pain (or one with stuff hanging off). 1 clean set of clothes, one ‘dirty’ set and enough clean undies to get you through should be fine.
– Sandles worked fine for us but most were happy with old trainers.
– The gloves are not really necessary but will save your hands if you accidentally grab a cable.
– Don’t take anything that can start a fire. Tree house #1 burned down not long ago because some idiots left a candle burning.
– Soap, toilet paper, toothbrush and paste, mozzie repellent and a torch are essential. Towels are provided.
– iPod – maybe your group will suck (but you will need to carry it around all day)
– Camera (and charged batteries) with a backup cord to attach to your harness.
– Sunglasses could be useful. You may drop them.
– A little cash to buy stuff at the villages.
– Water for the walk in.
– Some found the bedding smelly – maybe a sleeping bag liner.
– The food was VERY dull. If you want to be popular/make some cash take;
– Salt, pepper, chillies and any other condiments you like.
– Loads of munchies. Chocolate, Chips, nuts, raisins etc
– Some kind of powdered cold drink. The free water gets very boring after 3 days.
– I would not recommend booze – drunk people 35m above the deck is a recipe for disaster.
– Remember you have to carry it all in.

Some More Notes for the Owners
– Medical kits ? Emergency radio ?
– Waste basket for loo paper rather than having to drop it into the forest.
– Mini map for your guests.
– Our guides were good, if a little lazy, but we think the whole enterprise could use a little sprucing up. Possibly a better manager on site to crack a whip.

Just our 2 cents. It was amazing but we felt a little overpriced and that feeling could have been addressed with only minor changes.

[Pictures: Sim about to drop off the house for the last time 🙁 ]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi