21.2.23

We all slept surprisingly well, at Buffalo homestay, but all struggled to be brave enough to come out from under the duvet.

I slept in my clothes as the pjs I laid on the bed on arrival felt damp.

When first dozing off I swear I could hear a water buffalo trying to break in.

There was the sound of running water all night, not good when you know there’s no way you’d risk going to the loo before daylight.

The pigs had a good old squawk a few times, and the 5 cockerels did their thing.

All in all though it was surprisingly relaxing.

Breakfast was chocolate pancakes, Sassy turned them over with her hands, so my fish slice is redundant now too, another utensil I didn’t need.

Off we went on the next days trek around 10.30am after saying goodbye to our host. I feel bad I don’t know her name, we were just told she was the mother of the people at our other homestay.

These hiking sticks were an absolute life saver. We were lulled into a false sense of security after asking Sassy if today was harder or easier than yesterday and being told some bit easier some bit harder. Followed by a giggle.

The concrete road was great, but then came the extremely steep slippery pathways, downhill this time, the mud, the more mud, the even more mud and the rocks and boulders.

After at least 30 minutes of tiptoeing downwards Sassy got a phone call to say I’d left my pac a mac at Buffalo Homestay. No way I was scrambling back up again, I’d rather drown. They said they would send it down by motorbike to Zizis.

Yesterday Saffron fell but bounced back up, today Josh half fell, John fell once and I fell twice. I did a delicate leg bend thing as well whilst trying to get up and sliding in the mud again 😂😂 On my second fall I landed on the pointy rock that I slipped on to start with. I have a huge bruise, but nothing broken.

Around 2pm we stopped for lunch in a small village and had tasteless rice and noodle soup.

Is the rest easier or harder? Sassy giggled.

It began to rain, so we were all very soggy when we got back to Zizi and Mekhoo around 3.30pm.

After a wonderful hot shower and change of clothes we got under the duvet to get warm and fell asleep until almost dinner time.

There were loads of us around the table again, but a great atmosphere and lots of laughing. It always seems to be the Aussies that are life and soul and Nick sounded so much like my daughters boyfriend it was scary.

We were happy to get back under our duvet and watched the first 3 episodes of Clarksons Farm. Love him or hate him Jeremy is brilliant in this.

When we said goodbye to Sassy we said we would only do day 3 tomorrow if it wasn’t raining or too foggy.

As masochistic as this has been we’ve enjoyed it but sadly missed out on so much with it being very foggy. I bet the views are stunning.

Saffron and Josh were brilliant company, great people to experience this with as so laid back and able to see the funny side. Despite the huge age gap, they’re early 20s, we had a lot of life experiences in common. So easy to chat to, not many people you meet and end up chatting about coming off the pill and menopause within 30 minutes 😂

Stay safe you two on that mad bike loop and maybe we’ll catch you in Oz next year. 😍