About 1.5 hours from us, deep in the Borneo jungle, is a hidden waterfall. Many people enjoy trekking to this secluded spot, but it is well-known that blood-thirsty leeches lurk along the pathway. These terrestrial leeches can sense you coming, and will drop from trees, reach out from foliage as you walk past, or crawl up from the ground to latch on for a taste of your blood. There's not a whole lot you can do to avoid them except hope and pray they don't choose you as their victim.
Yesterday we set out on this Teraja Waterfall trek with 3 other families, 20 of us in total. The youngest was 6 years old (Lacy), and the oldest was a Grandma who was visiting from Brazil (I didn't ask her age, but she was keeping up with the young ones just fine.) We were on high leech alert, but after a little over an hour of hiking which involved traversing streams, climbing up and down rocks, ducking under enormous fallen trees, and clinging to the inside of narrow, muddy ledges, we made it to the waterfall with only one leech scare. The kids spotted one on a boy's leg, but he was able to brush it off before it latched on and started sucking. The children's screams, however, would have led you to believe it ate his whole leg. Silly kids!
Once at the waterfall, we enjoyed a swim in the cold, clear, leech-free water. Surrounded by the buzzing sounds of the rainforest, with fish nibbling on our feet, we were living the Borneo dream. When we felt sufficiently revived, we began the return trek. About 30 minutes later, the Borneo dream turned into a nightmare. All was fine and well until I felt a sting on my stomach. I lifted my shirt to see a small leech just a few inches to the right of my bellybutton. Agh! I'd been told that leeches don't hurt, so had fully expected to see an ant or some other stinging insect, but no, it was a dreaded leech! I called ahead to my friend Cathy to tell her, and she turned around to see.
I'm not sure who screamed first, but soon enough, both of us were shrieking loudly enough to put the kids' earlier shouts to shame. I tried to remove the leech, but the little sucker (pun intended) was too quick. Cathy and I watched in horror as the leech lurched directly into my bellybutton! Our terrified screams brought everyone running. I was jumping around, still howling, on the verge of tears as I felt the stinging deep inside my bellybutton. Frantically, I grabbed the salt shaker out of my backpack. Leeches hate salt, and are supposed to let go when doused in it. I manically began pouring salt into my bellybutton, and believed the leech had fallen out when I could see a red spot where it looked like it had been sucking. Cathy, however, was convinced the leech was still burrowing in there, as she had clearly witnessed it go deep inside. Ugh!! Disgusting! I was sufficiently freaked out, yelling about the horror of it all, so Keith took over pouring salt in, as Cathy tried to open my bellybutton enough to see. Unfortunately, due to a hernia repair many years ago, my bellybutton is lined in tough scar tissue, making it nearly impossible to stretch open! Why me?!? I felt like I was undergoing surgery without anesthesia, as Cathy got all serious and said, "Yep, Keith, look." Keith called out to our friend, "Marcos! Tweezers!" More salt, more pulling and tugging on my bellybutton, as I arched my back and gazed up at the towering trees through tears, screaming and undoubtedly terrifying the children. Keith again said, "Tweezers! Stat!" Ok, he didn't say "stat", but he should have. Marcos continued to fumble around in his bag for the tweezers, but the leech had finally had enough of the salt, and Cathy was able to pull it out and flick it far away from us, of course letting out a blood-curdling scream as she did so. We hugged, I cried, we screamed some more, and then my poor bellybutton started dripping with blood. The anticoagulant injected by the leech continued to work for a few hours. Seriously, so repulsive. I couldn't squirt enough Neosporin cream into my bellybutton when we got back to the car. I honestly feel like my Borneo experience is complete now. I can't even imagine what would have happened if we'd encountered a snake instead.
If you live in Brunei, and have considered doing this hike, please don't let my story put you off. You may just want to cover your bellybutton with duct tape though! Merry Christmas, y'all!
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