Thierry followed the tradition of painting our faces with the local earth so ensure Mother Nature would look after us today. The scampering chattering children scampered off with our back packs and we descended 200 rickety ladder steps to the river. Health and safety in the western world would never have allowed anyone to climb down anything as steep and muddy as this. Our young guide Thierry went face first without holding on. We took the safer steadier pace and ensured a safe arrival at the bottom. Here we entered the cave which has been cut through the soft limestone by the river. It's 60m hight, 20m wide, 500m long with a waterfall at the end and bats and swifts above us.
Thierry told us the water would only come up to our knees – that is if your knees are level with your chest at one point. We picked our way over boulders, through the fast running water and avoided the guano (bat poop) in complete darkness except for the light from our torches. The waterfall was great to feel and to know there was only a short distance to the sunlight at the end of the cave. It was great. Looking up was like looking into the vaulted ceiling of a cathedral (with bats flying).
There was a short break to eat our sandwiches which the children had brought over to us and then onto canyoning. For this David and I had chosen to bring short wetsuits in case the river water was cold. We had life jackets to wear and our sturdy shoes for foot protection. I'd never done canyoning before and wasn't sure what it would involve. Take one steep sided, water cut gorge with a low level river, fallen boulders blocking the way and 6 tourists wishing to descend the river, a touch of insanity and you have the necessary ingredients for canyoning. Thierry showed us the path which alternated walking down the river, climbing over, under and through piles of boulders and some fast running water.
Half an hour later and we were onto the floating-down-the-river-with-overhanging-trees-and-vines section of the day. Sounds pleasant and easy until it was noted the deep pools of floating with the current were interspersed with negotiating our way from boulder to boulder across rapids. This is the dry season so the water level is low but these are still raging torrents with whirlpools filled with rocks. Our guide helped us through and David was a star offering a hand to pull you up the last bit.
It was being in boot camp, I'm a Celebrity etc etc or jungle training in some of the most beautiful scenery. There were waterfalls from 50' above our heads and plenty of curious fish around our legs.
Just as we were relaxing into our floating Thierry told us this bank was where we get out and make our way back to his village. Naively I expected a grassy bank and a short walk. Reality was a rock face with natural hand hold with water flowing over it, muddy scrambles up steep faces grabbing tree roots for extra handholds and more of those rickety ladders until we emerged onto the plain. The final climb was an energy zapper for me – my poor little legs had worked harder today than they've done for a long time so the coffee and bananas we had at the village were most welcome.
Then we picked up our back packs and walked half an hour back through the forest to the minibus tired and muddy but buzzing on the adrenaline high.
This is one of the best 'adventure' days we've enjoyed on our travels. We didn't know what to expect when we set out this morning but as we dropped our tired heads on our pillows (early) we agreed we'd do it all again. How crazy is that?
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment