Dear family and
friends,
There were five of the little buggers on my leg when I looked down. About an inch long, brown, skinny as a matchstick, and flipping themselves up my leg to find the juiciest spot to hook themselves on and fatten themselves up on my blood, filling themselves to more than ten times their original size. Leeches. Ugh. In their search for fresh blood, these leeches can squeeze through a shoelace eyelet or the fabric of your sock. All you have to do is brush a small branch and they can drop on you and they are quickly heading up your leg or down your neck. I thought to myself "Merv, you are wearing shorts and sandals, you have only walked 20 meters into the jungle and you already have five leeches on your legs. Don't you think you should at least consider the possibility that you may not be properly outfitted for this?" With that thought I pretty much stamped as paid my interest in jungle trekking, and scurried back to the boat which I had just left. I was on the Menangul River, a tributary of the Kinabatangan River, at 560 km long, the largest in Sabah, the northern state of Malaysia Borneo.
There were five of the little buggers on my leg when I looked down. About an inch long, brown, skinny as a matchstick, and flipping themselves up my leg to find the juiciest spot to hook themselves on and fatten themselves up on my blood, filling themselves to more than ten times their original size. Leeches. Ugh. In their search for fresh blood, these leeches can squeeze through a shoelace eyelet or the fabric of your sock. All you have to do is brush a small branch and they can drop on you and they are quickly heading up your leg or down your neck. I thought to myself "Merv, you are wearing shorts and sandals, you have only walked 20 meters into the jungle and you already have five leeches on your legs. Don't you think you should at least consider the possibility that you may not be properly outfitted for this?" With that thought I pretty much stamped as paid my interest in jungle trekking, and scurried back to the boat which I had just left. I was on the Menangul River, a tributary of the Kinabatangan River, at 560 km long, the largest in Sabah, the northern state of Malaysia Borneo.
