Jungle Trek with Justin and Jamie

On Thursday morning, we booked a jungle walk to explore the old growth tropical jungle right behind the resort.  It's also part of the National Park that comprises the Marine Park in which we were staying.  We decided we should take a before picture with our guides, Conservationist Justin and his assistant Jamie.

We spotted a huge water monitor that we'd seen a few times from our balcony, and it was a good opportunity to practice using our binoculars.

Katy looked very professional heading out into the jungle with her binoculars!

As did Gabriel
 
 It was wonderful to see all the old growth and to have Justin there to explain everything to us.  These old vines were absolutely amazing and around 100 years old.

Katy and Gabriel were impressed with the millipede, although nobody really wanted to hold it!

We found a huge lingzi, which would be worth many thousands of dollars in a Hong Kong Chinese Medicine shop!

It was much cooler in the jungle, which made the walk much more enjoyable.  We say unusual butterflies...

...and rattan vines, which start off as shoots with very sharp spines.

After a while, it became a bit too much for Katy, so Jamie took Mama and Katy back home, while Gabriel and Uncle Bert forged on ahead with Justin and Dada.  We were lucky though to see two little green snakes called calamaria on our way back home.  They were brilliantly coloured a light jewel green with gorgeous black markings. 

Gabriel had a little jungle nap before too long though.

 
The highlight of their trek was a beautiful green viper, which was also the highlight of Mama's trek when she did it again a few days later.

I loved the beautiful ferns, which were enormous.

We also saw lots of different kinds of lizards, and it was really fun trying to spot them while they were camouflaged on trees.