Boonie Stompin' 2 (with photos)

So I didn't take a camera on the boonie stomp,
so part two of the story was waiting for photos....

here is the "rest of the story"

I get an email from another CEC wife sent to the wardroom spouses saying there was a "Rec and Crew" boonie stomp scheduled and wouldn't it be fun to all go together.

So with nothing on the calendar while the boys were at school, I said I would join in on the FUN!

I packed up water, sunscreen, bug spray, a hat, an apple and a granola bar.

We meet at the "Rec and Crew" building to ride the MWR vans to the hike spot and it turned out we had a large group. Four CEC spouses, but a total of 16 ladies signed up for the "stomp" and the two guides.

So we sign the release form (*which in hindsight, maybe I should have read)

load up in the two vans like high school girls on a field trip, laughing and joking and getting to know each other.

As we are driving, the guide says we would be back around 1pm, because he had an appointment to get to at 2pm.

Works for me.

Good exercise and home in time to shower before the boys get home from school.

Guide #1 is local and knows his stuff.

He parks the van on the side of the road in an area that looks like nothing.

But just a few feet into the underbrush and low and behold.........a road

A big road,

wet and muddy,

but an easy walk

Everyone is still laughing and chatting it up on the stroll ......we continue to laugh as a few ladies mis-jump over puddles and land in the water or get their shoes muddy. In fact, the cameras come out to capture the poor soul with the most unfortunate luck.

Then we come to an old WWII tank.

Another photo op -

according to Isaac, this is an old Sherman tank

After we took photos at the tank, we started down into the jungle part of the boonie stomp. Again, the trek was fairly easy. There were a few slick areas, but there is plenty of weeds / plants to grab hold of. (always take gloves!)

At the top of the first waterfall, we crab walked down a few rocks and then went up and over the side to hike around to the bottom of the waterfall.

This is where we started the moderate difficulty part. We had to climb up using a rope and then throw the rope back over the other side to repel down. Again, if the ground was dry, this part wouldn't have been as tricky, but it was slick and reminded me of Indiana Jones where he is sliding through the jungle. Many of the ladies did fall or slip, including myself. And some opted for the jungle butt slide and took their chances with ripping their pants.

Welcome to the JUNGLE!

Sinisa Falls

Some of the ladies got in at this point and went for a swim. In hindsight, this is quite funny. A lot more photos taken here. This would have been the final destination as I understand it, but it rained on us a little bit. Making the slippery part of our previous climb too dangerous to go back the same way.

So...... the "long way" home began. The next way back up was down the river.

I think we walked through the water appox 2 miles (*or more)

By the end of the "riverwalk" everyone was tired, hungry, WET, (muddy) and some of us, bloody - from falling into the water on slippery rocks. As soon as possible, those of us with a cell signal started calling husbands or neighbors to pick our kids up. The 9am to 1pm hike was now at 2pm and going to last past the 2:45pm school bell. We hit another waterfall (Lower Sigua Falls) before the climb back up.