Waking up, I realize that we're covered with a blanket. It did feel a bit cool during the night, as there was a gentle breeze blowing. Maeya must have felt chilled and covered us. Sitting up and just looking around, I watch the sun rising in the direction we came from. She senses me stirring and opens her eyes. I tell her, Good morning beautiful! ... Well, today's the day! She says; "Yes, I've enjoyed the journey so far, but it will be nice to get where we're going and just relax for a couple days and not travel. We’ve been on the go for three days now, and I'd like to spend some time just taking it all in". Sounds good to me... I feel exactly the same way.
We get into the backpacks and eat breakfast watching the sunrise. There are just a few large puffy clouds on the horizon in a beautiful sky. The sun is already above them, and we can feel its rays warming the land around us. Finishing breakfast, we put on the backpacks and start off again.
Several hours later...
We’ve passed some pretty amazing landscapes this morning. We’ve traveled a short distance through a fairly narrow gorge, walking along its path, up against the mountainside. We carefully walked hand in hand on this path, noting the swiftly flowing narrow river far beneath us. One wouldn’t want to try to navigate this in inclement weather… one slip and… well, you know. Once we were through the gorge, the view opened up nicely and the trail was a lot wider, much to our relief. Gazing at this more open view, we saw sheer rock canyon walls that just beautifully radiated color from the reflected sunlight. Looking downward, at the base of the cliffs, and near the river, we saw dozens of animals in motion that reminded me of bison. They stopped at a place along the river that had pooled because of large boulders at the rivers bank. Here the water wasn’t swift at all and the animals with their young could safely bathe and drink without danger of being swept downstream.
We’re climbing ever higher. We're really starting to notice that the incline and altitude is taking a bit of a toll on our energy levels, but at least it isn't hazardous traveling. I was just thinking, in spite of Maeya not having the physical strength and build of most of the Sarn women, I can tell she’s in excellent physical condition. She has no trouble at all keeping up with me. In fact, sometimes she is so eager to see what’s up ahead that often she moves ahead of me without realizing that I’m more than just a few steps behind, and I have to play “catch up”!
The trees are thinning now, and the way is becoming more rugged looking. We stop to take a break and fill our water pouches in a small creek running along the mountainside with swiftly flowing cold water. Man, does this hit the spot! Looking around us, we take a rest after finding trees that have some tasty nuts on them and vegetables growing near the creek's bank that we pick and eat.
As we’re seated, out of the corner of my eye, a fleeting shadow on the ground darts quickly past me. Instinctively, I look up in the sky, and see several very large birds soaring on the air currents making wide graceful arcs high above us. I’ve never seen this type of bird from our village perspective. I’m sort of laughing to myself because they resemble those ancient birds that I’ve seen in those old black and white “cave man and dinosaur” movies! I guess it must make its home here at this higher altitude than we are from. While we rest here and chat, I glance up often at them. Observing them for at least five minutes, they haven't had to flap their large wings even once. Talk about freedom! They can see for miles and are soaring effortlessly on the updraft. Watching them, it occurs to me that the sky is such an intense blue. It’s really breathtaking! As Maeya is seated next to me, she takes my right hand, covers it with her hands, and places my hand in her lap. She turns her head to look me in the eyes and just smiles. She doesn’t have to say a thing. I respond by resting my head on her shoulder. She presses her shoulder up against me to get closer and kisses me on the cheek. In return I kiss her, then whisper in her ear and tell her jokingly; you know, if we keep this up we’ll never make it to our destination tonight. Without skipping a beat, she lets go of my hand and wraps both her arms around me. She smiles again, tightens her hold on me, while whispering in my ear; “I know”. With that statement, both of us start laughing so hard our tears just flow! She’s still hugging me tightly with her head on my shoulder as she laughs. I just can’t tell you how much I love this woman… and her sense of humor! In a minute or so, I take her by the hand as we both stand, grab our gear, and proceed onward.
After a few more miles of travel, by now, it’s getting late in the afternoon. We notice the sun is making its way toward the horizon. We still have daylight left but realize that we should pick up the pace and not take another break before we arrive at our destination.
There really isn’t any shelter here at this altitude. We look around and see just a few trees on this rocky incline. As we make our way, we notice what appear to be a small herd of mountain goats perched on some pretty narrow ledges. They’re standing motionless just watching us make our way up their territory. Before I can take another step, Maeya abruptly stops dead in her tracks and says; do you hear that? Listen! What do you hear? ... Do you hear that low rumbling noise? Listening carefully, holding my breath for a few moments… "Yes, I hear it now." She says, let's keep moving on and see if the noise changes. It seems as if every few steps we take up the incline, the sound becomes more distinct, and not difficult at all to hear. "We must be very close to Land of the Waterfalls"! I think so too Maeya! Even though we've not traveled a full day, we're really starting to get weary because of the climb. We're quite excited though, because we sense that our destination is so near.
Picking up the pace somewhat, we can just make out what seems to be a clearing that levels off between the rock formations up ahead. Being weary, we can only slowly jog up the incline even though we want to run. The noise we’ve been hearing is still getting louder as we approach the clearing. I take her by the hand for the last few yards and we finally reach the clearing where the ground is now level.
We're entering what seems to be a winding passage that is about fifteen feet wide of smooth dark rock. The noise we're hearing seems to reverberate around the rocky formation around us and seems to have no defined point of origin. Maeya's hair is being blown wildly about by a refreshing blast of cool moist air as we're walking through this passage. Man... that cool air sure feels good after all this traveling under a sunny sky!
Making our way through the passage, we finally reach the end of it. Whoa, take a look at this! We're standing speechless as we look around us! To the left of us is a waterfall cascading into the lake only about fifty feet away. The mist from this fall is what was cooling us as we came through the passage. Looking straight ahead, I see an absolutely beautiful deep blue lake that seems to be sitting within the rim of what could have been a meteor crater or volcano eons ago. All along the left side of this mountainous rim are many small waterfalls emptying into the lake from different elevations.
Near the center of this lake is a large island that is completely covered with tree growth. Flocks of birds can be seen flying low across the lake; some of them are swimming just off the shore of the island. I assume that there are probably fissures under the lake that slowly release the water down this entire elevated area into creeks that eventually end up feeding the forested areas down below.
To our right, the lake has a wide shoreline that isn't quite level and it rises slowly to meet the opposite side of the rim from us. This shoreline meets the mountainous rim with no waterfalls on that side. From this vantage point, you can’t see the surrounding land... only the lake and the rim that extends all around it. I can just barely make out what appears to be a raised clearing at the end of the shoreline at the other side of the lake. We'll have to find out what can be seen from there.
Looking to the left, I see that we can walk on a short path that that would take us to the edge of the small waterfall. I turn to look at Maeya as she says, "I can't believe how beautiful this place is. I don't think I could have imagined it if I tried. Look how blue the water is! Look at all the small rainbows around the falls"! She is really overcome with the beauty here. I can hardly believe it myself! "Let's take this short path to the left first", she says.
Taking her hand, we carefully walk our way around until we’re alongside the fall. We watch the cascading water flow down the rim, and empty in to the lake creating a large pool of white swirling water. It feels great standing here because we’re cooling off in a fine mist from the fall. We just stand still for a few minutes and let the mist continue to cool us off from the climb. After we feel refreshed from the mist, we walk back from this fall toward the entrance as I say to her; Look over here. Let's check this out! I notice a small hollowed out area of the rim that has caught some of the cascading water.
As we walk over to the hollow, I see that it is only about five foot deep. She says, Let's jump in! "Ok Maeya"! We take off our backpacks, set them aside, and disrobe. She jumps in first, and as soon as I jump in she immediately puts her hands together and sharply pushes the surface of the water with her palms toward me. She splashes me right in the face, then ducks her head under the water to avoid retaliation. Diving under the water, I wrap my arms around her waist tightly and lift her partway out of the water. "Maeya... now what are you going to do"? She is laughing so hard she can't speak! She wraps her legs around me, and throws herself backward by pushing off against my shoulders, pulling us under the water again. Under the water, I manage to wrap my arms around hers, pinning them alongside her body. Standing up with her in the water, I release my grip a bit. I place my head alongside hers and just stand still for a moment. She lifts her arms to wrap them around me. "I'm so happy to be with you here in this place Maeya! I'm glad we have made the journey here". She wraps her arms tighter around me... pulling me closer to her for a few minutes. We don't speak at all, we just embrace each other.
We're excited to see what else awaits us, so we climb out of the pool and dry off. After getting dressed, we pick up the backpacks and take the path back past where we first entered this place and start to walk along the shoreline. "Are you hungry Maeya? Should we stop here to eat?" Yes, I'd like to eat something now. I'm really hungry. I think all the exertion of getting here is finally catching up with me!
Walking in the direction of the lake, we find a place to rest, and sit down on the shore. There are a good number of trees providing shade, and the spot we've picked is under one of them. While eating, we watch flocks of large birds fly circles around the lake, landing, and taking off after they had their fill of fish or plant life.
We spot some striped antelope-like creatures further from us under the trees near the end of the shoreline by the raised clearing. They look right at us but seem to be unconcerned of our presence here.
Maeya is in awe at the view all around us. She's been a bit quiet since we've arrived here. I just think that she is so overwhelmed from what is going on around us that she is at a loss for words. I'm looking at the small waterfalls... the mists that they create when the water splashes down the rocky face of the rim just take the sunshine and produce such beautiful rainbow colors around them. We notice an occasional splash in the lake; no doubt some large fish catching a meal that was flying overhead. After eating, she sits close to me and places her hand over mine as we watch the waterfalls. She seems to be so captivated by them. I just smile at her, and let her take it all in. I'm in no hurry to disturb her enjoyment of this land.