1st August - Taman Negara

We tried to return to Nusa for breakfast but, in a pattern that was set to continue for the rest of our stay, it was closed whenever we wanted to eat. Instead we ate at the place next the the minimart, stocked up on snacks for our trek and went to the office to get the permits needed for ourselves and our camera to enter the forest.

We crossed river by boat and visited the office there in the hope that we could get more information on where to actually go walking for the day. The guy there was slightly more helpful and pointed out a route that didn't need a guide.

We'd read that most of the forest had walkways but it turned out that most of them were in the process of being re-layed and so the walk was a lot more authentic, and a lot harder, than we'd anticipated.

Our first stop was the canopy walkway. Someone had graffitied a sign to it saying that it was partially closed and 'not worth it' but we headed there anyway. It was indeed only half open but we went on it anyway and it was good fun. It was very high up in places and quite difficult to walk along as it swayed an awful lot but it still felt safe. We weren't sure where to walk when we got to the other side so we returned to the starting point where we'd seen a sign for Bukit Teresak where we wanted to go. We were told off by the guy when we got back but since he had no choice but to either let us walk along it again or to let us get off, we were allowed to continue.

Walking up Bukit (which means 'hill') Teresak was a bit of a challange in places. It was only a couple of KMs all the way up and back dwn again but much of it meant tackling tree roots, fallen trees and slippery slopes that required the use of ropes so it was good fun.

We didn't take many pictures because, as great as it is to walk through what is allegedly the old rainforest in the world, on camera it just looks like trees. We did get a few snaps of more interesting looking trees and a few of the creepy-crawlies that we saw but nothing more exciting than that.

We returned very hungry but were too gross to go straight for food so we headed back to our multi-coloured room for a much-needed shower before heading down to the floating restaurants. We were a little earlier than the night before and so managed to get a table at 'Families', which had been packed the night before. The food was ok but not as good as Nusa so we weren't sure what all the fuss was about.