Jungle Jeeping

Today Kade and I went on a Jungle Jeeping excursion with Kade's Cub Scout Pack. Quite a few of the dad's here have Toyota Land Cruisers. They are great for tooling around camp and even better for taking off into the jungle to go 4X4ing. We had about 5 Land Cruisers taking about 15 boys + dads on our little trip.

It was quite an experience. We started out a few miles out of camp and headed to a Sawit plantation. Sawit is a type of African Palm tree from which the fruit is used to make Palm Oil. It was introduced to Indonesia by the Dutch and British in the early 1900's. Palm oil is used for cooking. It is probably the richest and least healthy type of cooking oil you can buy. Let's just say it is not endorsed by the Heart Association. The plantations are all over Indonesia and Malaysia. The rain forest has been burned up to plant this very profitable crop. This is obviously a big problem in Sumatra. Indonesia has set aside 25% of their natural jungle as off limits to human encroachment. This is a lot better than other countries but still a lot of jungle still allowed to be destroyed.

From the Sawit plantation we went to do a little trail driving. We almost got stuck in the clay like soil trying to get up a steep hill but avoided having to be pulled out. It was a little bumpy to say the least. We even had one of the boys in the rig Kade and I were in need to get out and empty his stomach. I have that same problem when I head out on the ocean.

After the trail driving we headed to "The Scab." The Scab is an area where they have taken a lot of the top soil to use in other areas of camp. For that reason it is basically on open pit with mud just right for jeeps to drive through and kids to play in. There were a few jeeps that couldn't quite make it through the deepest parts of the scab. It was pretty cool to see the mud bogging that took place.

Once all of the kids, I mean dads, finished up playing in the mud, we had a fire all ready to go for a good, old fashion hot dog roast. The boys had their Oscar Meyer hot dogs and loved it. Some of the guys here on camp made some homemade Cajun Bobi Hutan. I had one of those and it was awesome. The Bahasa word for pig is Bobi Hutan. That is your Indonesian word of the week.

The final activity of the day was the fire department coming out to demonstrate how to use a fire extinguisher and how to properly put out a grease fire. The boys and dads all got a turn using a fire extinguisher. From there the fireman used the water tanker to hose off the kids as well as the rigs.

This was a very cool experience for Kade and I. We were able to see some things we would have only seen from the road. Kade said his favorite part of the day was taking a mud bath at the Scab. The boys had a ball and the dads had fun as well. Kade and I were worn out by the end of the day but only one of us took a nap when we made it home.