August 2023
It was a long weekend and a stinking hot afternoon. I was beginning to wonder why I had been longing for summer so much…. (Oh, that’s right. I had lived through two winters back-to-back. Almost 12 months of coldness!) As we had done many times over the past few weeks, we eagerly headed to the river to have a much needed swim. We knew our usual place would be super crowded with people so we headed up stream to a less popular area. As we approached the spot there were three random high school boys walking on the road. Odd. This road goes to the wilderness and not much is up here, not even homes. Rounding a corner we came across another 10 or more boy-men. They were close enough to our swimming hole that we suspected they would be going there. Why else would they be walking on the road, a few with towels over their shoulders? It was a big enough swimming hole for them and us, but Shujin must have been feeling antisocial as he did’t want to swim with them. How unusual… not!
We continued driving, the road following alongside the river. The kids were all yelling out their opinions on where we should stop. Somehow Missy’s voice was the loudest, or at least the one that was taken notice of. With excitement she yelled out, "It's here, it's here!"
Shujin found a place to pull over. He and the kids piled out of the car to inspect the location. There was a path down to the river and I could see a clearing. Shujin gave the go ahead so we gathered our things and headed down the path. The forest was open, cool and so inviting. Speckled light reached the path on the forest floor. Despite the brown leaves carpeting the ground, everything felt lush. At the end of the path was a clearing and the kids searched for a path down the embankment in order to reach the water. We found a way and I was in awe of the beauty. I gazed downstream. Trees are growing on both sides of the river and leaning right over, branches touching in the middle and creating a natural arch. Rocks lined the banks of the river, green with moss. The water was crystal clear with inviting water holes plus plenty of rocks for climbing over and exploring. I was the last to reach the river as I paused to absorb the beauty each step of the way. I made it down the last part, the path having turned hazardous and slippery so it felt quite a feat, and right near the river, coming out of rocks on the side of the hill, was water. Little trickles of water forming small streams and joining the river. I touched the spring water. It's was FREEZING!!
There was excitement with shouts and squealing on the other side. The kids found a toad. Poor thing! Just leave it be! The waterhole was deep and bordered by rock cliffs. The river went around a bend so we couldn’t see past the waterhole. The kids were super keen to swim across and explore upstream. The adults were keen too. The water was pretty cold though. Actually, none of the kids had even gotten past their knees thus far!
Shujin stood on the edge of the waterhole, making a whole lots of noise and commotion to build up his courage to get in. The kids all yelled and shouted but none of them went first! What a whole lot of fuss! I thought and contemplated just going in first myself! But Shujin beat me to it and like ducklings on the edge of the pond the kids took no time to jump in straight after him with squeals and joy. Actually, no, ducklings gently plop in the water and glide. These kids were more like a standpede of wildebeests! I watched them swim the few metres across and decided to wait for them to climb up the rocks on the other side before I got in. No use in all of us treading water! The water was too cold for Okasan so Shujin instructed her to stay back. We didn’t need her having a heart attack!
With the kids all on the rocks I gladly and courageously dipped into the water and made my way across the swimming hole. The cold water felt extra cold against my hot skin. I easily made it to the other side and felt so refreshed and invigorated. The kids were well ahead of me and out of sight, large boulders blocking my view. All I heard from them was shouts and screams of delight. I checked my surroundings and was once again struck by the beauty! This place looked like it was straight from a movie scene! With rock cliffs on both sides, a few delicate vines hanging long down the cliff, and small greenery growing on the rock face. There were all kinds of moss. Trees above, gurgling river below, sunlight and shade, this place looked like paradise!
I picked my way across the rocks in the river, waded through the water, climbed up a few boulders and got around the corner. I climbed up another rock and stood up to see ahead of me. WOWWWW!!! There, up ahead, waiting for me in all its glory was a wide, DOUBLE waterfall! It was magnificent! Together they must have been over 10m in height! It was a breathtaking sight! Now I knew what the kids were making so much noise about! Shujin and the kids were just reaching the foot of the bottom waterfall. Missy saw me and came back down the river to help guide me up to the waterfall. After scrambling over all the rocks we made it to a sandy area on the edge of the pond at the bottom of the waterfall. The boys were all in the water with Shujin, swimming near the waterfall and having an absolute blast.
I noticed water trickling out from the side of the hill. Again! I showed Missy and we went to check it out. The water was FREEZING!! The boys were starting to get cold already and made there way over to us to see what we were fussing about. They all squealed and jumped when touching the ice cold water. Shujin went back into the river and said the water now felt warm! We all swam over the the waterfall and felt the power and energy. The water was shallow enough to stand. The boys were shivering cold and we did a huge group hug, jumping up and down to warm up then we rushed over to the sand bank and made our way back down the river and back to Okasan.
Despite their shivering and pale lips the kids kept exploring a little down stream. When coming back I had stood on a wobbly rock, my foot had slipped and the rock fell back onto it. A nice bruise was already forming. So I sat with my foot in the freezing cold spring water that I had discovered earlier, to ease the bruising. The water was so cold though, it hurt!
We were all getting cold and the mozzies had found us… But before leaving, the kids were keen to conquer the small, deep waterhole. Shujin checked the depth and gave the all clear. The kids swam over to the rocky wall with Shujin and he helped them climb up. The last feat of bravery was had as they stood high up on the rock and then jumped, plunging into the waterhole below. Exhilaration and satisfaction was written all over their faces!
What a spectacular place we found! This slice of paradise will not be forgotten and will certainly be revisited!
I really need to buy a waterproof camera so I can capture all the gorgeous scenery!
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What a beautiful spot, so inviting xo