We decided the weather looked ok to go and hike the river. The guidebook said it would be an hour or two of rock hopping before we reached a road that would take us back to town. Usually we cover the distances in half the time the guidebooks say so when we’d been rock hopping and undergrowth barging, and slipping, and sliding, and barbed wire crossing we figured the guide book may just be a guide as opposed to a statement of fact. In fact, we got as far as a section of river we could not traverse due to corrugated iron being placed across it.
Coming back down the river was worrisome as the amount of daylight remaining was running out. The ‘guided’ 20 minute walk along the road back to town seemed all right but backtracking our 90 minutes scramble up the river, particularly after some additional rain which made things extra slippery, made things tricky. We made it out without too much worse for wear bar scratches, torn shorts and muddy clothes.
The hike was worth it though. It really felt like a scramble through the jungle. At times we were literally rock hopping. Other times we were making our way through undergrowth on the sides. Sometimes there were signs of people before us. At others we just had to barge our way through. Now I understand why some cruisers carry machetes.
We made it back to Dignity just before a deluge. Beers, showers and clean clothes were all in order. Later we went back into town to eat – we felt we deserved it. We had a three course set menu at L’Amer: Blood sausage (surprisingly mild), goat creole followed by desert.