We packed up for the final time today with our luggage being loaded on to mules again. After leaving the Pousada we followed a path that took us to the start of the Gold Trail where Sabola our local guide gave us a talk on the history of the trail and answered our questions. He also planted an orchid in a tree trunk as a memory of the poepl in our group, which he said were special and that he did not do this for every group that he guided.
We then started a long and treacherous donw-hill walk along the wet and very slippery cobble stones of the Gold Trail. The trail was used by the early miners to transport the gold from the hills to the coast for shipping. This part of the walk was probably the hardest of the week and was very tough on both the feet and knees. Walking sticks/poles were essential. Several people slipped and fell over at least once - including me! - but thankfully no serious injuries.
It was today that we heard monkey's in the distance, ate banana's freshly cut from the trees, and met a highly poisonous member of the rattlesnake family! I was less than 8ft away from it and I swear it was 5-6ft long! I didn't manage to get a photo quick enough, but a friend did, so when I get a copy I will up load it.
We stopped for lunch at a waterfall, and as we had made good time on the morning part of the trek we were able to rest for a couple of hours. We then had to cross a rope bridge before completing the remaining 45mins of the trek to the finishing line where we had photos next to the Unicef banner. After a great sense of relief and congratulations all round, we learned that the minibuses that were due to pick us up could not get through due to mud on the roads as a result of the heavy rains - we therefore had another 6km to walk before we could relax!
We eventually boarded the minibus for a 40 minute ride back to the nearest village, and then a 3 and a half hour journey back to Rio. We were all very tired, and very very smelly (take my word for it - you're just lucky that the technology doesn't exist yet to be able to upload smells to blog sites yet!). We arrived back at our hotel at around 8.30pm. We unpacked, had a quick (but oooh so nice) hot shower, then went out for something to eat. I was back in the hotel in bed and asleep by 11.30pm - found out the next day that some of the younger members of the group stayed out until 6am!
Disappointingly, we also found out the next day that one of the Dutch girls had her bag snatched from right outside our hotel, so she lost her money, phone and camera.
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