Adventure Weekend!

I finally had a full two days off so was pretty excited to do an adventure weekend with Groovy Gecko. The weather and my health may have not wanted me to (rainy and with a lil but of a cold) but I pressed on with my plans and had a great weekend. On Saturday, I trekked the three peaks in one day hike with an Irishman and two Swedes. As we made it to the top of Lang Biang peak at 2100 meters, we experienced fog, wind and rain but it didn't spoil our hike, just the views. It was a nice long hike and I enjoyed amazing jungle-like terrain. We ended at a minority village and meandered past a wedding, kids playing soccer in a church and a very talented lady weaving blankets, bags etc and so I finally bought a Dalat souvenir of a handmade small case. I'm trying to limit my purchases (trying to keep my bag to 12 kg max!) but I was happy to have a local keepsake.

On Sunday, I joined the Irishmen again and three Germans (it was fun hearing German again... Even if I still don't understand what they're saying!) for the canyoning trip. Now I really would've liked it to be warmer today as we spent a lot of the time in and out of the water so it did get quite cold but usually my adrenaline kept me warm as we did some really crazy stuff! We first practiced rappelling and then rappeled down a few rocks, jumped off some cliffs (including a 7 meter, 22 foot jump!), slid down some natural watersides and basically just enjoyed playing in the water. The two really tricky abseiling parts were also the most exhilarating. The first was walking down a waterfall which was crazy enough as the water is pummeling you while you're trying not to slip and then you run out of rope and have to just drop about 15 feet in to the water. The last one was the scariest as you rapel off an overhang and free-rapel down through the waterfall that's hitting you from the side and the drop and get carried out in a pretty swift current. Its called the Washing Machine for a reason! It was an incredibly fun trip but I really looked forward to a hot shower and a good nights rest!