Day 22 - 'Raining'

Final views of the canyon

9am and we are up and on our way again. We are all knackered after a very fun but tiring night. Several of the guys opted for a night on the rock shelf with not a lot of space BJ opting to sling himself to a rock to stop him rolling into the river. Scout, Anne and I opt for the raft and have a watery sleep which leaves Scout with motion sickness for the day! We travel a few miles downstream to the last hike of the trip.

Shattered me, Andy and JB opt to chill on the beach (small muddy patch of flattish land) and spend the day learning how to tie knots whist avoiding sand slides. The whole river at this point cuts a deep channel through banks of sediment which regularly collapses causing mini sand avalanches to crash into the water. Everyone else heads off into what I can only call an overgrown jungle bush in search of the falls. Several hours later they return shattered, scratched and worn out from the hike. Turns out 10 mins upstream is a beautiful waterfall. The other one, a few hours upstream, didn't exist neither did a trail. So they had just bushwhacked for several hours for no reason before eventually calling it a day. 

Cutting trail through the canyon wildness in search of a waterfall

It's hard to believe this is our last night. Especially as we are tucking into a feast of food, a massive salad, fresh salmon starter and shears delight or Shepard's pie soup specially prepared by BJ. We laugh, joke and celebrate our journey over a bottle or two of vodka and Scout hands out the official 'Byron 2012 Canyon Trip Awards'. I am honored to receive awards for 'stores keeping' and also 'the best creepy crawly award'. Scout awards himself the 'terrible in the morning award' and Antoine dominates the evening with awards for climbing, guitar playing, beat downs and rolls. We also take the moment to share our favorite moments, memories and highlights of the trip. What a great way to reflect on the trip.

Its not suprise its so green here after all the rain

As the beach  is so small and muddy and exposed to sand slides we decided to camp at the base of the first fall. After far too much vodka we scramble / stumble up the overgrown path. The guys have set up a mini camp a massive tarp and two tents at the base of the falls on a rocky opening. Luckily I have a place in one of the tents away from all the boys and the rain. Yes that right rain! And there was loads of it. On our last night in the canyon, the heavens opened and it poured with rain. Scout, Ted and I were the lucky ones in the tents. Antonine, Anne and Andy managed to avoid the rain and just get eaten under the tarp. JB and Rob weren't so lucky. JB got eaten and woke up with an en suite bivy bag. Rob who had decided to sleep on the rafts got the hardest hit eventually taking shelter under a table on the raft!