adminAdio AddieTee Dinika
The rocks were extremely slippery and the noise from the water meandering its way past the rocks and navigating in the narrow pass did not help my balance. I dared not imagine what would happen if I lost my footing and went cascading into the river. I carefully removed my shoes, trusting my bare feet and continued with my down river descent. The volume of water in the river was low; hence the current was somewhat weak.
I came to the edge and shouted in triumph, raising my hands in all directions to the clicking of cameras and shouts from my friends.
As per our itinerary, the morning was dedicated to official business and the afternoon to touring.
Day two involved a visit to Mutarazi Falls, the second highest waterfall on the continent. The happiness in the camp was palpable.
The drive to the falls was long and boring, threatening to dampen our jovial mood. The only thing that saved us from total boredom was the rows of beautifully laid out pine trees that grew up almost everywhere.
They could be seen going up the mountains and on flat ground, planted in an organised manner, some following a rectangular shape, others triangular while others conformed to the shape of the terrain.
A large white board declared that these were the products of the Wattle tree plantation company.
Following the ascending and meandering gravel road (most of the roads were gravel) we came to beautiful log chalets belonging to a company called “Far and Wide”. We stopped at the chalets for a few minutes stretching our limbs. “Come this way,” one of my friends called following a dirt track that seemed to lead into the bush. I doubted it led anywhere but since he was the only one in our group who had been here before we followed wondering.
We found him seating at a rock staring far into space. Abruptly the flat land gave away to a cliff that was so steep that falling would mean one thing.
A chorus of “wows” ensued as we took in the view.
“That is Honde Valley below there,’ he explained pointing to the matchbox sized settlements far off in the valley. “That guy sure is brave.”
I exclaimed pointing to a house perched just at the edge of the cliff near the chalets we had left behind. We proceeded with our journey and came to a small office where the payments were made. I felt theUS$5 per person fee was exorbitant, grumbling we paid and the attendant opened the boom gate for us and we proceeded to the end of the road about a kilometre further.
The falls were about 600 meters away, according to the sign there. We parked and grabbed our cameras and phones and burst into the jungle.
There were several other groups there already. We followed the sounds of joy emanating from people viewing the falls. It struck me as funny that the roar of the falls was low for a feature of such prominence.
From the edge of yet another cliff we viewed the water cascading down the mountainside; it was very high no doubt.
We all wanted a closer view and since there was no way we could go to the base, we set off for the head of the falls.
The dirt track was well beaten, indicating that we were not the only dare devils. The river was small and since the water level was low we got in and let our cameras do the work.
There were several other smaller falls just a few meters from the main falls, but considering the size of the Mutarazi, they were not worth calling falls.
I followed a companion who had walked up to the edge of the mountain where the river was forcing its way through a narrow pass and cascading down the cliff side.
It was exhilarating, the smell of danger in the air added to the excitement.
Online Reporter