For Martyn's birthday we decided to spend 2 days throwing ourselves off waterfalls in a controlled environment. We joined up with a company called Borderlands that has it's resort 30km from the Tibetan border (hence the name). It is a beautiful place with a river running behind the resort.
As we booked with a company, we were placed with one more person, Sanjay (everyone say hi!). He's originally from Gujarat but now lives in the UK, he's a puppeteer, actor and magician! We all hit it off really easily and it added another fun dimension to the trip.
On day one we trekked up a grassy hill to the top of a river so we could start travelling down it. Unfortunately this is the exact type of terrain that leeches love! Martyn and I were wearing sandals. Eek! We managed to spot a few as we were walking and flick them off but they're sneaky little buggers. We got to the top of the hill and checked our feet. At first glance it looked like we were OK, but on taking off my sandals all of the leeches had congregated under the straps! I had 17 leeches spread over 2 feet! Eww!!!!
After we de-leeched, we started the day. We were learning the basics of how to abseil down waterfalls and understand the differences when running water was involved. Thankfully we'd all abseiled before and so it was fairly easy. Just getting used to the first part of leaning back, over a cliff, with nothing but a harness, rope and karabiner to hold you up was difficult but we soon got into the rhythm.
It was great fun, we all felt confident in our abilities and having 2 brilliant guides in Bobby and Ishwar definitely helped up learn faster and have a great time.
On day 2 we were all full of confidence and excitement ready to go. We were told that we were going to be abseiling bigger falls, jumping off things and having a few slides down the river. We weren't disappointed!
There were 8 different 'stages' that we went through on the second day. The first being a slide, it was in 2 stages and we were supposed to stop in the middle which the 2 boys managed fine. I however didn't seem to be able to stop in the middle and flew down the whole slide in one go. I ended up coming out of the slide upside down! All Martyn saw was my helmet and my feet, in that order! At the bottom I realised that my ring finger was a bit sore, and it had the familiar feeling of a break (uh-oh!) so we strapped it up and carried on.
This knocked my confidence a bit, which was a shame but we still carried on. The next waterfall had a short rope, so you reach the end of the rope before you reach the end of the waterfall! You had to jump down into a pool. That was scary but once I actually jumped it was great!
The waterfalls got progressively bigger, including a massive one that had an out-crop that meant when abseiling down you ended up behind the water. It was stunning, once under the water you were in your own little world, I even saw a rainbow due to the sun shining through the water.
The largest abseil was so big that we had to stop halfway down to reattach the rope to start another part. The water was so strong and loud we could barely hear ourselves think! It was truly spectacular.
At the end of day 2 we were soggy, battered and bruised but infinitely happy. We would recommend it to everyone!
As we booked with a company, we were placed with one more person, Sanjay (everyone say hi!). He's originally from Gujarat but now lives in the UK, he's a puppeteer, actor and magician! We all hit it off really easily and it added another fun dimension to the trip.
On day one we trekked up a grassy hill to the top of a river so we could start travelling down it. Unfortunately this is the exact type of terrain that leeches love! Martyn and I were wearing sandals. Eek! We managed to spot a few as we were walking and flick them off but they're sneaky little buggers. We got to the top of the hill and checked our feet. At first glance it looked like we were OK, but on taking off my sandals all of the leeches had congregated under the straps! I had 17 leeches spread over 2 feet! Eww!!!!
After we de-leeched, we started the day. We were learning the basics of how to abseil down waterfalls and understand the differences when running water was involved. Thankfully we'd all abseiled before and so it was fairly easy. Just getting used to the first part of leaning back, over a cliff, with nothing but a harness, rope and karabiner to hold you up was difficult but we soon got into the rhythm.
It was great fun, we all felt confident in our abilities and having 2 brilliant guides in Bobby and Ishwar definitely helped up learn faster and have a great time.
On day 2 we were all full of confidence and excitement ready to go. We were told that we were going to be abseiling bigger falls, jumping off things and having a few slides down the river. We weren't disappointed!
There were 8 different 'stages' that we went through on the second day. The first being a slide, it was in 2 stages and we were supposed to stop in the middle which the 2 boys managed fine. I however didn't seem to be able to stop in the middle and flew down the whole slide in one go. I ended up coming out of the slide upside down! All Martyn saw was my helmet and my feet, in that order! At the bottom I realised that my ring finger was a bit sore, and it had the familiar feeling of a break (uh-oh!) so we strapped it up and carried on.
This knocked my confidence a bit, which was a shame but we still carried on. The next waterfall had a short rope, so you reach the end of the rope before you reach the end of the waterfall! You had to jump down into a pool. That was scary but once I actually jumped it was great!
The waterfalls got progressively bigger, including a massive one that had an out-crop that meant when abseiling down you ended up behind the water. It was stunning, once under the water you were in your own little world, I even saw a rainbow due to the sun shining through the water.
The largest abseil was so big that we had to stop halfway down to reattach the rope to start another part. The water was so strong and loud we could barely hear ourselves think! It was truly spectacular.
At the end of day 2 we were soggy, battered and bruised but infinitely happy. We would recommend it to everyone!
Ah yeah!!! That was an awesome day - the bit where we all got battered by that massive waterfall was amazing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for a really fun few days :-)
Sanjay
Hi Sanjay!!
ReplyDeleteIt really was great. Just a shame it was only 2 days...