We took a break at the Ranger’s station to refill our water. The last one km was tough, the slope was steep upwards. Subconsciously when you know it’s the last one km, it’s just feel your battery is draining.
But we finally arrived at our destination, TreeTop Walk. I freaked out in the centre part of this 250m suspension bridge when I noticed the height of 25 m beneath me. Still the experience was totally worth the visit! We walked at least 3km to get here and time was running out. I mean when you have a baby, you have to make sure you are on track. This is where it started drizzling. We took some photos and then head out.
Obviously it didn’t occur to me that it could get messy. Of course, I have forgotten my geography. The weather does change more quickly in the rain forest. So very soon, it was really raining cats and dogs. My husband run with the baby while I run huggling my bag. (I just got this new bag.) My heart sunk and I tried digging for the dust-bag to protect it as I ran. And this is how it was for the next 3-4 km out. We run from shelter to shelter. It was thundery and the showers were really heavy. We didn’t think it is safe to remain in the little shelters. And the rainforest canopy didn’t protect us from the heavy pours. We could be stuck here if any of the trees fell. But I didn’t foresee that all the trails were now muddy rivers. At one of the shelters, we asked one of the happy campers under the shelter if we could have their NTUC plastic bag. At another shelter, a nice lady who is not local offered us her towel to dry the baby. She was very persistent and so we took it. At this point, I forgot we have a HFMD toddler on arms.
While running, my hubby came up with a command line, ‘Finger in mouth, bag over face!’ to prevent baby from choking under the bag. Samuel would peep beneath the bag every now and then to make sure I’m still running behind. My hubby like a commander would be shouting ‘steps!’ and I would carefully thread downwards as we run for our life. He told me he learnt that we should alert the next person behind us carefully of the steps on Discovery Center. Okay, I begin to see why it’s important for city dwellers like us to watch Discovery.
And this is how it must have feel for those people running for their life in the movies. You are exhausted but you simply have to keep going with your family. We are totally drenched and water run under us. I stopped deciding to hop around the small pebbles on the puddles of water – My shoes were like boats. We were focused about getting out.
Finally, we arrived near the SICC. We then decided it’s best I continue walking slowly with the baby and bag while my hubby make a dash down the hill to pick up the car. For the next 15 minutes, we strolled along in the rain with the other families. They were carrying a baby and two tots. I admired their strength. A nice elderly family stopped their car for us. In fact, of all the beemers and mercs that went by from SICC, this was the only car that stopped and it’s a small Camry. I could see there isn’t much space for us and they had fabric seats. I was so drenched that I think it’s a bad idea sitting on their fabric seats. Besides I didn’t want to take the ride when the other families were still walking down hill so i turned them down.
Some 10 mins went by or could have been minutes – Time move slowly when you are weary. Finally our car arrived! We drive uphill so I could pick up the rest of the families who are caught in the rain too. Although majority has left in a cab by now, the other family thanked us and told us they had a cab coming too.
Lessons learnt: Bring something waterproof into the rainforest. Umbrella is a mandatory item. Don’t forget your titbits for the baby. And most importantly, my hubby can be a hero. He is definitely so much stronger than I thought. Time to get him to do more! 🙂
Snippets from the life of a working mom 