World Traveler

I was in Indonesia in Sumatra’s Bukittinggi with my sister and we heard that there was a gorge so we decided to head off on foot with our Lonely Planet guide and find it. Although we had a map, there seemed to be no turning off for the gorge so we ended walking up and down the same road a few times. Soon a local man came to our aid and lead us to where the gorge was. We walked through the jungle for ages and he lead us over bamboo bridges where my foot was wider than the bridge and there was no railing to hold on to! I’m scared of heights at the best of times!

Eventually , when we had no idea where we were, he turned to us and said “if you want me to show you the rest of the way you have to pay me” at this point we realised he took us on a wild goose chase into the middle of the jungle! I shouted at him and told him to leave (pretty silly now I think about it as no one knew where we were!) We carried on walking through the dense jungle and eventually ended up at an Indiana Jones style bride which went right over the gorge. There was nothing to hold on to and half the planks of the foot bridge were missing or cracked. We screamed as we clutched on to each other as we crossed the bridge and I was convinced we were going to die, with bits of wood cracking and breaking under our feet.

We made it to the other side but by this time we were dying of thirst as we didn’t have water with us. We made it out of the jungle and into a field where the grass was almost as tall as me. We walked for a while and then suddenly the grass stopped and there was no more floor, nothing but a huge drop - I am so glad I was paying attention to where I was going! So we had to turn back and after hours more of walking we eventually found a town, got a drink and managed to get a bus, 2 hours back to where we were staying!

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