Springbrook National Park

Country: Australia by Lisette

20-12-2004

Woot! I’m back in the rainforest. We actually only went in for a couple of kilometers but ah.. The views were grandiose! (Think 50-meter high waterfalls)

Also, keep remembering I suffer from vertigo as explained in my blog articles about Great Keppel Island and Hot Air Ballooning (I did it!) and you’ll get the right feeling. Now, before you continue reading, take another look at the picture left.. Think this is up close to a waterfall? Think again!

I actually got to walk behind this waterfall! Yeah, really… Insane!! My heartbeat went up in about a millisecond when I realized what I was about to do. Of course the guide had to give the standard warning “Be careful, all rocks are wet and slippery. Do Not Fall Down!” Cheers to that mate, wasn’t planning on it.

As I’m writing this article many years later in Mozambique it’s safe to say I am okay. Admittedly, I am gently rocking on my chair in the evening ocean breeze as I am remembering this walk. My skin is starting to feel sensitive and I have goose bumps all over again. My breath is quickening just a tad bit as my eyes glance over the pictures. I did this?

Apparently I did. Typically for me, I decided to let all others go in front of me while I started to fret more and more. My brain went haywire thinking how on earth I could get out of this adventure. There was just nooooo way I was crossing behind this waterfall!

At this point everyone in the group figured out I wasn’t too happy and the guide came back for me. Inch by inch we crossed. My head was spinning with my wild imagination; I know I came up with at least 5 horrible ways of dying right there and then. I’m not sure if my clothes were wet from the water or my sweat. I also have the sneaky suspicion that I must have bruised this nice man’s left hand terribly.

Having survived this, the rest of the path felt easy. A small, winding path brought us up and up and up. Lightly I jumped over enormous tree roots and muddy pools. Who cared we were 800 meters above sea level while I grew up in a country that famous for being mostly below sea level? Slowly the group got excited, as the guide shared a story about last week, and we were anxious to see all that beauty. What we had not anticipated was being completely enveloped in a cloud so we could barely see the person next to us.

You just never know what to expect in Australia.