Ian Rambles
I wasn't confident about treking with my weak knee and with George and Harry and was concerned that we would end up holding up a group of young and fit trekers. I needn't have worried. My knee survived and the boys enjoyed the walking and were amused by the guides.

The elephants were amazing. They carried us up steep muddy pathways through the forest without missing a step while reaching back every few metres to have a bannana poked up a nostril!

The second day, mostly downhill, gave my knee more of a testing and it gave way a couple of times and dumped me on my butt. I was glad to finally reach level ground and our transport to drive to the bamboo rafting.

The bamboo rafts make one way trips down the river and its rapids - then are dismantled to be brought back to the start again as a bundle of big sticks on the back of a pickup.

Fiona's Journal
We packed a change of clothes each, mosquito repellent, toothbrushes and swimming gear into our four small day-sacks, that usefully unzip from our big rucksacks. Then we had a hearty breakfast before the pick-up truck arrived to collect us at 9.30am. We had three guides and two other couples trekking with us and they were all much younger than Ian and I, so I was a bit worried that we would hold the party back.

Our first stop was a market, where our guides stocked up on provisions for us all. This was an hour's drive out of Chiang Mai and during the course of this journey we pulled alongside small motorbike parked at the side of the road and a small child was passed into the driver's cab through the window! I presume he belonged to one of our guides and this was a necessary part of their child-care arrangements because he was then dropped off with someone at the market.

Another hour's drive took us to the Elephant Farm where we mounted our elephants,, from a ten foot high mounting block, and headed off into the tropical forest. This was such fun and such a wonderful way to view the countryside that I wished the whole trek was on elephants.

Harry, George and I shared the lead elephant with her handler sitting, more or less, on top of her head with his legs dangling down her forehead. She was a gentle, biddable creature and she would stretch her trunk back towards us periodically to take a banana from us.

Ian and Arthur's elephant, immediately behind us, was a real comedian, with attitude. When they ran out of bananas she started nudging us in the back but when we tried to pass her one we could not quite reach and it fell in the mud. Then she started ripping up trunks-full of vegetation and throwing it back over her head and her deficient passengers, as if in protest! Luckily there were more banana stands around the trail route so Ian bought lots at the next one!

The trail took us steeply uphill, on a narrow and treacherous path with deep foot-holes in the slippery wet clay soil, but the elephants never missed their footing and just plodded slowly and imperturbably on round the half hour circuit and back down to the starting point. I was sorry to dismount and leave these endearing creatures, who have such evident intelligence and character.

While we were enjoying ourselves our lunch ingredients had been driven to a nearby roadside cafe and transformed into 12 hot meals for us in individual polystyrene boxes. After a further short drive and then a twenty minute walk, involving nothing more taxing than a bamboo bridge crossing of a small river, we arrived at wooden platform beside a waterfall. Here, we ate our lunch (really good) and then swam in the pool beneath the falls. It was very hot and humid by now so the refreshment of cool water absolutely revitalised us.

From here the trek proper began. It was continuous uphill walking from this point, steep in places but never a hands-and-knees scramble, and the path was well defined and dry. We were rapidly drenched in sweat again, despite our trusty Japanese towels refreshed with cold water at the falls. The path was mostly shaded from the direct sun by the forest trees and our guides made hats out of banana leaves for us all. They were very good at judging our capability and not pushing the pace too hard and, to my surprise, it was the five of us stopping periodically to wait for the others.

We had short breaks every half hour or so when sweets were passed round and water drunk and one of our guides would use these breaks to entertain the boys with puzzles. They all involved sticks laid out on the ground and asking the boys to move a set number of sticks to achieve a certain result. They were clever, and funny, and I hope Ian can find a way of showing one or two on line.

It rained suddenly and heavily late in the afternoon, which was refreshing but made the path a bit slippery afterwards. We reached our destination about 6.00 in the evening and it was worth every last step of the climb. We are staying in a hill tribe village high up on the side of a mountain and with breath-taking views across the valley to more distant mountain ranges. We had sleeping bags, on mats, under mosquito nets, all laid out ready for us in a big wooden lodge on stilts and while we sat gazing at the scenery and drinking a beer or two our supper was cooked for is in the next door house.

We devoured an excellent meal at a long wooden table with benches either side, outdoors but under cover. The sun set early and rapidly, as it does in these latitudes so by 8.00 it was quite dark. The only lights we could see across the valley were the very occasional flash of headlights as a vehicle traversed a mountain road.

We chatted a bit to out fellow trekkers who were, a very beautiful Swiss girl called Julia, who is a model, and her boyfriend Philip who is English but they both live in Barcelona and a glamorous Italian couple called Dario and Elisa who did not speak much English (and we speak no Italian). Luckily Julia speaks fluent Italian as well as perfect English (and presumably also Spanish) as well as her native tongue. We are definitely the “unbeautiful” people in this group!

It soon transpired that what we have in common, as Europeans, is a strong desire for coffee after our meal rather than more beer. Our Thai guides seemed a little surprised by this but gallantly made us round after round of coffee and tea and even hot chocolate for the boys. A few people took turns at playing the guitar (including Arthur) but we had very little common ground with regards to the songs we knew so it did not turn into a sing-a-long session. By 9.30 we were all starting to fade and drifted off to our beds. As I lay there, half a sleep and listening to the gentle patter of rain on the banana leaf roof, I thought “I am completely content – there is nowhere I would rather be at this moment”. Very Buddhist!

The morning dawned with the valley filled with dense white cloud below us. It had rained quite heavily overnight and this made the morning excursion, across a mud-hole on a slippery and cracked plank of wood, to the dilapidated shed containing the hole-in-the-ground toilet, rather interesting.

While breakfast was being prepared, we drank coffee and watched the white mist rise dramatically out of the valley and up the wooded mountainside until it cleared the ridge and become fluffy white clouds in a clear blue sky.

Pon cut some lengths of bamboo and he and Ale fashioned extremely effective pop-guns out of them for the boys. It only took them about twenty minutes to make each one, and fine tune the exact fit of shaft and barrel, and they fired pellets of wet paper an amazing distance, with a very satisfactory “crack!”

Pon assured us that today's route was “easy” (his favourite word) and all downhill. This latter was more or less true as we followed the course of a river downhill but downhill is not always easy, in my opinion, The rocky path was slippery after the nights rain and required great care and concentration in places. Ian's dodgey knee gave out on him twice, the second time rather spectacularly! It was a tiring hour and a half's descent to our first stopping point.

This was a really dramatic waterfall which formed a curtain across the front of a wide cave in the mountainside. The force of the water as you dashed through it into the pool was intense!

A further hour's walk took us through paddy fields and banana plantations and down onto the road where our truck was waiting to take us to our lunch. We completed the trek by bamboo rafting down a fairly gentle stretch of the river and then the long drive home.

We arrived back at the BRC, tired but rather pleased with ourselves. I was very proud of George and Harry who hardly grumbled or moaned at all, although they moan all the way when I take them on a five mile dog walk!

Arthur's Log:

We took a ride in the back of a pickup along the mountain roads for an hour to get to the elephant park.

There is something amusing about putting a banana into a elephants nostril and watching him flip it round and throw it into his mouth. The ride was amazing. The elephants they were carrying us up 45 degree slopes through thick thick forest.

Each elephant had a distinct personality. The one Mum, Harry and George was riding in front was clearly the elder and more mature of the group. The one me and Dad were on behind was the opposite, when he didn't have his trunk back over his head demanding bananas he was trying to steal some from Mum on the one in front, or trying to get the the other elephants tail. When we both ran out of bananas he decided it was time to cool off and started hurling mud back over his head, plastering us.

We started the walk and after an hour we stopped at a stream. Most of us went for a swim and the current was very very strong, which just made it fun.

We are with four other people. An Italian couple called Dario and Elisa and a Swiss model called Julia and her boyfriend Philip. She speaks Swiss, Italian, English, German, French and thats just the ones i know about. She said she wants to master accents as well but she allready spoke it so well that the thing that made her stick out was that she spoke english too well.

Pon, every time we stop, has been making little puzzles for us on the ground out of sticks. They're good and always with a querk to the the solution that gives us all a laugh.

We finally got to a bambo cabin. We talked and ate untill we went to bed.

Got up and had a very relaxed start. While we ate breakfast Pon and some of the other guys at the cabin started hacking away at bits of bamboo. They made pop guns! They were really loud as well - enough to make mum jump and Harry put his fingers in his ears. We mucked around with them for a bit. then doodled down the valley to the steam and an excellent waterfall. Most of us went for a swim and we over stayed a little having a shower in the fall. The water was so heavy and powerfull that you couldn't stand in the center without falling over, disapearing under water and not reappearing for another 15 yards down the stream.

No more riddles from Pon today, but some cool plant leaves, first one was a cupped leaf that, when placed face down on one hand then slapped with the other, made a very load bang. Next was a leaf that when rubbed between thumb and index finger bled blood red sap that stained my fingers for a few days. Finally was a very normal looking leaf but Pon picked it and carefully split the stalk with his nail, leaving just 2 fibers. He squeesed the leaf a little then blew. Bubbles came out by the milion they were small but so many of them!

We made the final strech through a field of banana trees, the pickup was waiting for us to take us to our next event.

Bambo rafting. Six or seven enormous pieces of bamboo strapped together. For the first ten minutes we just flowed gently downstream and didn't get bashed about at all but there was a sudden change where it went into a narrow fast moving patch.

The man with the stick at the front of our raft was too busy talking to us and didn't notice. He didn't even see untill we pointed out the large rock wich we proceeded to smack into. That was the first time he fell off - but not the last. We got the sort of final excitment which was a meter and a bit waterfall followed by rapids. We came over the crest of the fall and sploshed down into the lower pool no problem but he turned back to check we were ok and we went headlong into.... I would say rock but it was bigger, more like a wall. He disappeared under water and the raft was still moving and he almost didn't come up in time to grab hold of the raft.

We got back, ate, talked and got some sleep.