Our last day of the trip started off bright & early…at 4:30 am. It was pretty easy to get up though…we stayed up late the night before and apparently talked throughout the night, so it seemed like we hadn’t slept at all. Also, all we had to do was throw our sleeping bags in our packs and head off for the top of the mountain. It took us about 25 minutes to reach the top, going under barbed wire fences, over dead branches, and up a rocky incline, but we made it in time for the Big Show! Since we all stayed in our pajamas for the hike we just picked a spot and slipped back into our sleeping bags and watched the sun rise. It was really cool seeing the sun come up over the horizon. Once the sun was fully up, we dozed off for a bit before heading down the other side to our next stop.We reached another High Ropes course and had a quick breakfast of bagels with PB & J. Gotta love the PB & J! You guys probably wanna make one right now. Anyways, this course was called the Human Umbilical Cord. You & a partner were attached with a rope about 2 feet long at your belly buttons. My partner was Katrina and we were the first group to attempt the course. It was extremely hard, but we made it…in about 25 minutes. Brandon & Todd were the fastest group to get through it, in about 5 minutes. They were way faster than Katrina & I! The bathroom at this site was simply a bucket above the ground with a hole going down a few short feet into the ground. Definitely didn’t smell like any roses to me!
After everyone had completed the course we hiked down to the next activity…another high ropes course called the Free Fall. This one was by far the scariest course of the trip, so naturally I volunteered to go first. Not a big deal or anything…just had to climb up a free-hanging ladder, about 40 meters up and jump off the edge without being extremely secured to anything. I do this stuff all the time…NOT! Usually I am the girl who gets to the top and hangs out for 10 minutes, slowing freaking out until I slip/climb off the edge…but not this time! Oh no…I didn’t want to do that, so I climbed right up there, bringing the safety latch to attach to the tree for everyone who would go after me and jumped right off the edge…no hands! It was probably one of the craziest things I have ever done…jumping off right away, but it was Really Fun! I wanted to do it again!
We had lunch while waiting for everyone to complete their jumps. Guess what we had? Yup…PB & J on flatbread, an apple or orange of our choice, some leftover green beans & snap peas, and a muesli (granola) bar I found in my pack. We had one more activity left before we ended the trip, the HUGE swing. It was a system of bungee cords tied around trees. Once someone was strapped in, the rest of us pulled the rope, hoisting the person up, then the person counted down 3-2-1 and pulled a rope that unlatched them, sending them flying into the treetops. It was pretty fun, but once you were harnessed in, there was some major cramming in your junkal region. We each got 2 swings, but after the first one, most of us were ready to be done with it.
Finally it was time to head back down to the pirate ship to debrief. We went around the circle, answering 3 Questions…What was your Magic Milo Moment? One thing you learned, & Your most Challenging Moment of the trip. My Milo Moment was the sunset/dinner with everyone on the second day, talking/asking questions around the fire as well as the sunrise the next morning. I learned how to clean pots with sand [and they ended up looking better than scrubbing them with a scourer]. The most challenging moment of the trip was probably deciding to be the first to climb up the Free Fall and jumping right away. I really didn’t want to do it, but once I decided to, it was really fun.
We made our final hike down to Base Camp where the crabby bus driver was waiting. We boarded the bus at 4:30 (only a 1/2 hr late). We finally arrived home around 6:45 pm. Jeff, our bus driver, turned out to be a nice guy and drove us to
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