Five Guys and a bitch
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Wed 10 Sep 2008 17:40
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Hi Folks,
Well I guess that all you guys have finished your
hols and are now getting into the Christmas spirit, well that's what the
retailers would like you to think , here are minds are on our trip to Tong,l we
have started to prep the boat, starting with a hull clean which I am not
participating in reasons will become clearer as the blog goes on ..
Yesterday to celebrate my birthday five of
us, Myself,Rob,Ike,Dan ,Wolfgang and the local female
guide dog whom we named "Jeffrena" ,(Dont ask me why blame
Dan) climbed the third and second highest peaks on Bora Bora, as is always
the case we set off on a bright morning, the scramble and climb took about three
hrs via some very steep inclines, and 10 deg rock faces which have ropes so
that you can haul yourself up, it was a good job as after the first hr of the
journey the wet stuff appeared and as its the tropics it comes down in bucket
loads, the tracks turned into muddy streams and the foliage and roots made it
extra tricky to negotiate the inclines, anyway after three hrs we arrived at the
first peak, this was at Mnt Hue 2031 ft from sea level , after
taking pictures when the cloud cover parted, which wasn't for long Rob,Ike
and Dan went further along to the next peak called Mt Pahai 2169 ft from
sea level , the cloud closed in and vis disappeared, Myself and Wolfgang stayed
at the first peak, the guys got there and back in an hr, the rain started
again and we all had lunch and contemplated the wet decent,we could
her Jeffrena whining at the bottom of the last steep incline waiting for
her men friends with extra sandwiches to return.
The first obstacle was a twenty ft rock
face with a rope running from top to btm, once we had made our way along the
ridge we commenced the decent, none of us had really good foot ware, most
of us were either in trainers or deck shoes, not the ideal stuff for
slippery rock and muddy tracks , anyway half way down the first rock face I lost
my footing and swung into the rock face, still hanging onto the rope, winded I
descended to the bottom rather quickly, ribs were on fire as well, it hurt,
after a few minuets I got my shit together and we all descended very slowly
with me dragging my arse down most of it because I couldn't reach up or bend
down to well, it took four hrs to decent and we got down just as the light was
fading , the guys were great and looked after me all the way,it was a
painful decent and as more rain came down and the wind picked up we all
became cold, after arriving on the dingy dock were we said goodbye to
Jeffrena ( pics to follow) we had a two mile run back to the boats at the
bottom of the bay and by the time we got there we were really cold,once onboard
we got our thermals on Nursy (Ruth) checked my injuries I took some Ibrofarin ,
measured my waist, and wrapped myself in a blanket until I warmed up.
After a good meal and the pain killers had kicked in I was feeling much
better and glad to be back onboard.
A few lessons learnt and ones all of us new, as
most of us are experienced in skiing and mountain walking , take foul weather
gear and good foot ware .. being in the tropics we were lulled into a false
sense of security and were luck to get down before dark , the sensible thing
though we were in a large group, had VHF radio contact with the boats
.
This morning I am on light duties,
having had a good nights induced sleep , with no blood in my urine its only the
stool test to go , and I will assume that it either bruised or cracked ribs with
some pulled muscles in my arm ..
Anyway as the weather has come down a lot of boats
are prepping to move on , over the next few days will see an exodus , look
at the picks blog to be posted shortly of the mountain views, it was worth it
..
A battered kipper
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