A jungle trek on Havelock

An opportunity arrived to complete a rain forest trek with the Barefoot ecology centre today - after heavy rain over the last 3 days… It involved hiking with a group of students who were on a field trip!! Well I was eager to get on board and when I arrived at the starting point having paid for a tuk-tuk return ticket… I was met by Reya (Our guide), her students and 6 German tourists.
We set off at a brisk pace at first meeting little resistance along a red clay earth path amongst both rainforest trees and plantations of palm and other crops. Soon, However the path started to become more boggy and turned from red to grey and several of the German group in flip flops decided it was time to go barefoot!! (Luckily I had decided on Merrell boots and they gripped like glue and resisted the sucking clay soil). Arriving at the edge of the rain forest proper you are dwarfed by trees up to 30m tall 0_0 with branchless white trunks and buttress roots straight out of a textbook but soooo much more impressive first hand. It was an opportunity for a photo shoot - but try as you might there is no way to demonstrate just how big these trees are…
Onwards into the dark interior of the forest with sunlight falling behind us we wound our way along the elephant logging trail with its tell tail elephant foot prints. Reya guided our way along the treacherous pathway with sucking mud ready to claim trainers and slippery sides ready to lead people to a full on mud bath, there were several near misses but we made it through the forest with just a heavy covering of mud from the knees down :)
On arriving at the edge of the rain forest 40 minutes later we come out into Mangrove swamp with its associated mud banks, intertwined roots and meandering streams. The whole area was covered in the small burrows of fiddler crabs with their single enormous claw, mud crabs with bright blue and red markings and the ubiquitous hermit crab dragging along their shells here in great numbers. Luckily there were no salt water crocs and we were able to enjoy the maze of trees and finally our destination elephant beach - a chance to relax for 30 mins and go for a dip (or at least wash a little mud from the boots!!). It was also a fab chance to talk a little about travels and compare notes while sharing rations :) Looking around the tree stumps had been shaped into wondorous shapes by the actions of waves.
All too soon it was time to get back to the path (which we lost momentarily - but soon found) and wend our way back through the same sucking mud to the road.
All in all a good experience but will need a hose to get the mud of the boots and trousers!! The Merrells, once again proved their value being more than a match for everything thrown at them and they remained water tight and comfortable (definitely one of my top travel items).