Lost World – Day 3 – Really, really lost

[Photos not available yet]

This morning we split into 2 groups – one group to wade thigh-deep across a river & follow the Donkey Trail with Ronald, the expedition leader, another group (mine) to go with Marcelo, the expedition scientist, to explore a new trail.
We left at 8.30am & all started out pretty well. When we reached a river, it took us 3 or 4 attempts at crossing to pick up the trail again but we did & had a good lunch around 2pm. After that the trail turned unexpectedly north & nobody realised for a good half hour, at which point we were deep into the forest out of GPS satellite range (no signal) and totally lost.
For a couple of hours, we trudged around, trying to find another trail. Every now & then someone would pick up a weak GPS signal which would then indicate a trail – we knew that there were 2 trails in the vicinity – Housekeeper or Celsos - and we were making for whichever of those came closest. At 4.30 the panic began to set in...it would be dark in an hour & a half and even if we were on the right trail at that point, it would still take us at least 2 hours to get back to base camp.
We continued in this fashion for another 5 hours until we eventually hit the Housekeepers Trail. It was exhausting. We were climbing up small rivers & creeks over large rocks & fallen, rotting trees, only to slide down when we reached the top, clutching at tree roots & long vines. I was trying to remain upbeat & positive, and I was always convinced we would make it home (unlike some others in our group), but inside I was freaking out at how dangerous our path was. If we had seen it in daylight there was no way we would have climbed up those paths, it was crazy...but as we learned in our training the day before...extreme circumstances call for extreme measures.
We made it back to base camp at 10.20pm, exhausted & a bit hysterical. When we got back we learned that Ronald had gone out searching for us by himself – and we could do nothing but just sit & wait for him to come back. A couple of vodka shots helped to sort me out - we drank a litre of vodka between us – and I passed out that night vowing to myself that I would not step back into that rainforest again.