(Daniel) As promised, the 4x4 Magazine that wanted to interview me showed up at silly o’clock this morning, just as I was emerging from the tent. I told them that I needed a shower and then went off to find a towel! When I emerged again, the reporters had found the other two expeditions, and were interviewing them over their trips, I decided that actually I have probably had enough press coverage for one week, and that I needed some breakfast. So I walked upstairs and found Aleyna, Lawrence, and some of the others eating the left overs of yesterdays food, and a lamb stew which Lawrence had made overnight. I sat and ate, while the other expeditions made breakfast in their vehicles outside.

After breakfast, we packed up the rest of the stuff from the anniversary celebrations, and I said goodbye to the other two expeditions who had to get moving on. The members and guests all moved to the area where we had the fun course yesterday, to take photos before heading off on the charity drive which had been organised for today. Around 30 vehicles lined up for the photos, many of which were standard Land Rovers, and Range rovers. Then after photos in various poses, we headed out in convoy, losing a few vehicles along the way!

After about 20 minutes we came to a turn off, which entered the farmland, everyone took the turning and drove down the thin lanes in convoy, passing the hydroponics growing tents, and bemused onlookers! As the farms came to an end, we entered a jungle track, which got more and more overgrown. I took photos and video as we drove along with my new camera. We had to stop quite regularly, as the lead cars reccy’d the track, which was getting more and more serious by the minute! Huge ruts and steep muddy hills meant that winches were being used all over the place!

The discovery in front of me started to struggle, and on closer inspection we found that during a tow recovery his prop shaft had been pulled out from his transfer box, meaning that he only had rear wheel drive. The freelanders that had come along were struggling too, as a river crossing with fast flowing water threatened to wash them away.

The Charity drive was supposed to be around 1 hour, and after 3 hours driving through rough tracks etc. It was finally time for the trailer axle to break again! This time not only was it the other side from usual that broke, but I had just stopped and given my camera to the car behind, and they filmed the whole thing! Given the delays that were happening anyway, I decided to unhook and take off the trailer immediately, then carry on the route, and come back later with another trailer to collect it and fix the axle again. Now was definitely the time to sort this axle problem out, once and for all! The others who had been delayed helped me to lift and drop the trailer to the side of the track, then I tried to put it out of my mind as we carried on into the jungle.

A little further along the track, the bamboo plants started to be a problem, I had to jump out every few hundred meters to cut down thick stands of bamboo that had fallen across the track. It was stopping to cut some of these when the next bad thing happened. I stopped in the middle of the track, and heard the sound of a modified engine roaring behind me, it was one of the Cameron vehicles, and as it flew around the corner, it couldn’t stop, and hit the Wolf at a good speed straight from behind. I jumped out and checked the damage, the bumper was folded underneath slightly. But really the damage looked minimal, I realised that it was much worse than it looked, as I couldn’t open or close the door. I was really angry, and it showed, but these guys laughed it off, I carried on in the vehicle fuming to myself, but realised that these guys are into off roading, not expedition, and really when I thought about it, what the hell was I doing out here anyway!?

After another 5 hours along the tracks, stopping and starting, we came to a fallen tree across the track deep inside the jungle area, and not far from the Aboriginal village that we had intended to visit. The lead vehicles were cutting away sections of the huge tree with a chainsaw, and digging out the track that ran underneath. When I walked up from the back of the cue of vehicles, it was obvious that out of everyone, my vehicle with its rooftent would be the hardest to get through, and in fact it was extremely unlikely that I would make it through in daylight hours! The other vehicles went through one by one, until mine came up to the tree. I pulled into the ruts and then got out to look. There was a good 8-10 inches required, unachievable in these conditions.

We discussed the options, but eventually it was Fie and Thomas, the two brothers who had won the Modified cup, and one of their friends, the guy who hit me a few hours back, who decided to help me. They would drive back with me, out of the Jungle, and then tomorrow would help with the recovery of the trailer. This didn’t sit too well in my camp, as I worried about the trailer being stolen or looted. But it had been a long day already, and 8 hours into the jungle, with night coming down, we were turning around and taking the long uphill route back!

We drove off at a much higher speed, racing the last of the light as the Sun went down. As we were only three vehicles, we didn’t have to stop for obstacles etc. And passed quickly through the Jungle to a hill climb where the ruts combined with an uphill section were too much for the Wolfs ground clearance, I had to stop and back off to allow Fie’s car to go first for winching. The track was a narrow path along the side of a cliff, which if you lost traction too badly would see you and your vehicle sliding down about 6o feet into the river below. He passed me and turned to allow us to attach the Wolfs winch cable to his vehicle and then tried to winch me through, but I just dragged his lighter 110 pickup on the soft mud dangerously close to the edge of the path.. He released the winch line, and turned around, wedging his vehicle against the side of the overhanging cliff, then we removed the sand ladder and used it to make up the side part of the track. At the same time I dug out a little mud with the shovel to allow for the differential. This time the winch got some traction, and I slowly ploughed through the clay like mud until I had traction on the tyres again, and drove forward to release the cable, and carry on.

There were no more incidents requiring recovery after that, but the river crossing, which had been so much fun, was suddenly a very different game and had to be negotiated with care in order to avoid hitting unseen rocks. All three vehicles passed through the river, then we headed up the track a short way where Fie pulled over. Fie doesn’t really speak any English, he just murmurs so that the words are ominous enough to mean whatever you want. He jumped out of the car infornt, and started murmuring something about dinner, which I took to mean that we would be stopping here. We all switched on our work lights and made a camp. Fie pointed at a river which ran alongside the track. “Washing here!”

I undressed, and then realised that I had no boxers, but these boys wouldn’t mind, so I stripped bare and walked into the dark river. Fie lit several flares and placed them around the area to deter mosquitoes while Thomas pulled a stove and gas bottle from the back of their pick-up and started to prepare some food. I walked upstream into the forest to find a deep place to wash, and as I stopped next to a sand pile that just pierced the surface I noticed some tracks in the soft sand. It suddenly dawned on me, that there was more than just creepy crawlies in this place, and that these cat-like tracks about the size of my open hand were from some kind of large cat potentially a Tiger! I called Fie and showed him. He ran over to the vehicle and grabbed a couple more flares. We looked at the tracks, and took photos, but for the life of me, I can’t find the bloody photos now! He said that it was more likely a panther, but they were definitely large enough to be a Tiger. More importantly these tracks couldn’t have been more than a few minutes old, because as we looked at them, the lapping of the water made them start to disappear.

After getting out of the water, Thomas asked me to go and cut some bamboo to make chopsticks, as they didn’t have any forks. I sat down with a piece of bamboo, and whittled several sets of chopsticks out of it, just as I finished, the food was ready. Tom Yam Noodles and Sardines, they tasted good after a day in the Jungle. After eating, we packed up and got back in the vehicles. Then we drove up the track, and found the trailer again. I emptied some of the more important stuff into the Wolf, but when I turned to Fie, he was sizing up the trailer. He suggested that we get the trailer from his workshop, and return here tonight to recover my trailer, It wouldn’t be easy, as we didn’t have a crane, and I wasn’t sure what kind of trailer Fie had, but this was a very enclosed place. I looked at Fie, and at the trailer, here in the middle of nowhere, and I agreed to try tonight to bring her out.

We drove back along the tracks until we found the road again, and then to a place called Trincap, where Fie’s workshop was located on his farm. There he had a simple trailer, which consisted of a land rover axle with no suspension or brakes and a flat bed. It look about the same width as the trailer, but I figured we would sort that out when we got there, after hooking up the trailer, and parking the Wolf in the yard, Fie, Thomas and I drove back out to the Jungle, and the same spot where the Trailer was broken down.

When we arrived, Fie tried to lighten the mood by setting of some distress rockets, which were incredibly loud, and echoed throughout the forest around us. Then we set to working out a plan for getting the trailer which none of us could lift, onto the other trailer, which was the same width, and didn’t have any wheel covers! First we lifted my trailer up with three high lifts, then we backed the other trailer underneath it. It would only go so far, so we had to winch it the rest of the way. To make this easier, Fie wanted to cut a tree down, and then cut this into rollers. He went to cut a beautiful fan shaped tree, but I stopped him, and made him cut a dying rubber tree next to it. This he cut into rollers with the chainsaw, and then we lifted the trailer again with my 5ft hi-lift jack to slide the rollers underneath. Then we used his PTO winch to pull the trailer up onto the other trailer sliding it on the rollers. The rubber tree was not a good choice, and pretty much disintegrated immediately, however, it gave us just enough time to get the trailer up far enough to transport. Finally after 16 hours in the jungle, at 3.30am we drove back out and headed for Fie’s workshop.

I sat in the back, and in the darkness I kept finding a web or something very strong on myself, and had a strange feeling that something was on me. As we pulled up at the workshop, I saw it, a huge spider crawling up my arm. It was black, with red and yellow parts, and had a big body, and bigger legs. The fangs were huge, and I shook it off me before it bit. When we stopped I found the spider crawling on the roofrack, and went back with a box to catch it. I have attached some photos. Once the trailer was safely locked up in the yard, Fie told me that I could stay at his house, which I was grateful for, and left with him.

We drove into a big farm, with a very nice house on the hill overlooking the tents full of Orchid and Strawberries. It was a traditional Chinese house, and had Altars at the gate and outside the door. Inside there were two more alters, with many offerings around them. I was so tired that I just went in with Fie, and when he pointed me at a room, I went inside and fell straight to sleep!

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