After two trips to the beach we wanted to mix things up so we decided to hike up to the property where Beyond Cultures is planning on building the pastor training and retreat center…or at least that’s what we thought. I have been to the property before, so when we got there and turned right I knew that our final destination had not been communicated to us. It turned out instead that they were taking us on a 2 hour hike straight up the side of the mountain behind it. It wasn't quite what I was expecting to do that day and might have traveled a little differently with some warning. Also, it’s not exactly comparable to a hike in America because it is all jungle and the “trail” is wherever the machete clears.
As we began our journey we had quite the entourage out of town. Only about 10 of us went up the mountain, but they all like to watch us white folk trying to live Papuan style.
THIS believe it or not is the trail. The whole hike was thick with plants, trees, vines, and of course ants and skeeters. Joerg and I have well into the hundreds of mosquito bites to show for this hike. We both went and bought long sleeve shirts to hike in next time. 
This is Hengki climbing the roots of this crazy cool tree in the jungle while Selfi and I caught our breaths.
I asked Nirmala to take a picture of me, and Martinus jumped right in and whipped out his phone to be funny…They actually did get reception once we got to the top of the mountain. 
I fell about four times on the way down so I came out a little scratched up. I also had the misfortune on the way down to fall into a bee hive and got stung three times before I could swat the devils away. It was a very steep hike and a little unexpected so there were some not so pleasant aspects for me of that particular hike, HOWEVER there were some great things for us about that hike. I made a new friend my age on the hike named Nirmala and we made friends with a lot of the village boys that went with us on the hike. Also, Joerg and I got to spend time with Ron/Di’s partners Martinus and Hengki.
1 comment:
It sounds as if your 2 hour hike was full of trials...I am so thankful that you aren't allergic to bees!
Were you also hiking in flip flops since you didn't know you were going this far on a no trail, trail?
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