Lost in the Jungle

Day 2 in Feejee involved a trek through the jungle which included walking through a river/stream!

The journey there was very random, we were picked up bu what can only be described as an almost military type truck which was covered in canvas and had a bench along both sides of the canvas, the back was open and if the guys on the end slipped they would have fell onto the road. After about half hour on our transport and a 10 minute journey on a very dodgy gravel track we arrived at a clearing in the forrest where we started our trek. The path was guided out by a guide at the front and back and then a few random signs scattered about the jungle when the path split up in different directions which was generally quite straight forward but a little bit concerning cos the signs weren't always that clear and in places the path wasn't that easy to follow. After about an hour and a half we got to the river and started walking through it, half hour of this and we arrived at the river where we did our river tubing (laying in a rubber ring and letting the river take us through small rapids and stuff. We then got to the waterfalls where we started jumping in which was really cool.

After this we went on motorized longboats and made our way down the river, it was at this point we realised someone was missing from our trip! A quiet canadian guy who looked at lot like bill gates and funnily enough worked for microsoft as a spam analyst or something wasn't with us. The guides frantically re-ran the route but he wasn't found. Alarm bells started ringing and a number of search parties went out that night. The local villages were contacted but no one had seen him. That night was spent in a place called raintree lodge, http://www.raintreelodge.com/, surprisingly enough this was a cool lodge in the middle of the rainforrest, the pool's edge went into the rainforrest and we had an excellent barbecue, but the evening was spent in a slightly eerie mood with everyone's thoughts wondering what had happened to our poor canadian friend, especially when the canadian embassy had to be called and 2 of the people on our trip having to give police statements. As the night wore on everyone feared the worse, there were no dangerous animals as such in the rainforrest but there were warthogs that would attack him if they saw him and if he had fallen at any number of the steep drops we had to walk along he was likely to be in urgent need of medical attention. All night there was no sign of hime depsite a number of search parties continuing throughout the night. When we awoke the next morning we still hadn't heard any news, but then at about 11 the next day we heard news that he had been found.

Make of it what you will but our guides believe that it was the ancestors that had taken him, it is believed in fiji that if you walked on tribal land which we had been that day you shoudl bring Kava to the tribe in the village which will protect you from their ancestors. That night the guides had a special ceremony asking for forgiveness and his return from the ancestors and the first search oarty the next morning found him. After spekaing to him we found out he had continued in the stream in the same place where i had nearly walked myself and if it hadn't had been for my friends behind me shouting out to me i would have walked the same way he had. Apparently he got to the top of the waterfalls we had jumped in and he tried climbing down but got stuck and turned back, the guides had apparently checked that entire path but had no luck in finding him - strange stuff!