Road Trip

Headed off this morning in a landy with Rory and a local girl called Mia to go and visit all of the project sites, deliver post and rations, take photos etc. We packed the landies up with a couple of weeks' of supplies, charged ipods, hammocks etc. and headed off.

However, 2 hours into our trip we got an emergency call on the radio saying that one of the venturers had fallen 15ft in the middle of the jungle and had probably fractured her lower back. So we've had to rush back to the office and there's currently a helicopter on it's way to the jungle to have to airlift her out. The group are having to carry her by make-shift stretcher for 3 hours in order to get her to somewhere with enough open space for a helicopter to land.

So... back in the office again, and as long as the girl is ok then we're going to try to head off again tomorrow.

Stampede

Had a day off yesterday so went to a gorgeous beach down the road, and went to see some orangutans. I'm not really an animally person but they were quite cool and seem to have a pretty chilled time just jousting around in the trees.

At about 5 Catherine and I went for a walk along the beach. She suddenly screamed and I turned round to see about 10 horned bulls stampeding towards us. There was a scrawny little local man trying to control them with a piece of wood but he wasn't being very successful. And we were just in bikinis so obviously didn't have much padding against bull horns. We stayed dead still and they ran round us at the last minute, but it was pretty scary. They had escaped from a nearby paddock and were heading off along the beach.

Work-wise, have been busy writing a couple of newsletters and making plans for more press events that are coming up. Also, last night was the first 'Radio Raleigh' which is a sunday night 15-minute radio show that I have to write and we (fieldbase) broadcast it out to all our project groups. Included news from home, messages, sports results, song requests etc. All of us had a different section to read out and we had a 6 o'clock news style 'gong' at the start which was a wok and a wooden spoon. It was very funny and it was great to hear all the project groups cheering from the other end of the line.

Opening Ceremony

After 'jungle camp' we had the official expedition opening ceremony last night. The Sabah Minister of Youth and Sports gave a speech, and then there was lots of cultural dancing and a buffet meal. Nestle were sponsoring it so we had free Nestle products for the venturers.

Managed to get about 8 different newspapers to come along and two different TV stations so we should get lots of coverage tomorrow. It was very handy that I'd already had a press encounter last week so the journalists all recognised me. Also very good throwing in that I used to work for the BBC - they love it.

Had to have dinner with several of the Ministers afterwards which was pretty painful - cold curry and rice, and lots of small chat in broken english.

Had a big press lunch today at a posh hotel in town to try to butter up a few of the mainland Malaysia press.

I'm completely exhausted so can't really think of anything funny to write....

More jungle, and a proposal

Right, where do I start, loads has happened since I last wrote...

All 96 venturers have arrived, I've been ill with a throat infection, I've spent 5 days in 'jungle camp', I've been proposed to by one of the Malaysian venturers, and I've been befriended by a bloke with ADHD.

The venturers arrived on Saturday and we met them at the airport. Took them straight to 'jungle camp' which is a really beautiful place on the edge of the jungle on a gorgeous river. We stayed there for 5 days and ran various training sessions for the venturers. I ran a few PR sessions and helped with taking them into the jungle and going trekking etc. Lots of games in the evenings, swimming in the river, frisbee etc..

We were staying outside in a sort of pagoda made out of bamboo down by the river, really lovely (Mark I've organised to go back when you're here).

Loads of funny things happened, probably the funniest being when a grasshoppery thing managed to get it's head stuck in Catherine's mosquito net, beheaded itself, and slowly bled to death on the net. We did try to rescue it but it was really stuck. I know we shouldn't have laughed but you laugh at the silliest of things when you're so hot, muddy and haven't had any decent food or a shower for ages. Oh and also a cat sprayed on my friend Claire's face while she was sleeping!

'John' a Malaysia venturer proposed to me on day 3 in front of everyone which was slightly un-nerving. I'll leave you guessing as to what my answer was. I don't think the surname 'Yong Jiang Hoe' is very me.

'Mike' the ADHD chap from Stoke Newington then befriended me and told me his life story. He's 19 and has got a 3.5 month old son who he's left back home with his girlfriend. He's been in and out of prison and is now training to be a plumber. He's on the Raleigh 'motivate' programme which gives disadvantaged people the opportunity to do adventures abroad.

Had a day off today which was brilliant after two weeks of being in the office without a day off.

A few of us managed to blag our way into the Shangri-La hotel down the road. It was absolutely gorgeous, very honeymoony, lots of rich Americans and Aussies, and lots of Japanese men wearing speedos pulled up above their belly buttons. Spent the day lounging in the sun and swimming.

The update on my media stardom is that yesterday I was featured in 5 local newspapers. I was on the front page of 2 of them with a colour photo. The headline was 'Lion dance thrills tourists at Indian-Muslim eatery - Ward and Barrett get briefed on Chinese Lion Dance Culture.' A bit gutted to be described as a tourist. Raleigh was mentioned in nearly all of the articles so at least I did a bit of accidental PR for them.

Last night we were invited to a Chinese family down the road for some new year celebrations (they really do milk it). They'd also invited a group of environmentalists from a university in Brisbane. I ended up sitting next to a professor of insectology who wasn't the greatest of company. I managed to excuse myself and went to sit near someone else but he turned out to be a collector of homo-erotic art so once again I was a bit stumped for conversation.