Day 218
Everyone we talked to told us that Edith Falls was the ants pants, and they also told us it was only 50 km away. Physically out of shape and mentally prepared for a short day, we looked forward to an easy pedal and an early swim. Battling a constant headwind made today feel twice as long and when we arrived at the turn off for Edith Falls, we were sad to find that we had another 20 km to go. When our path cut close to the river I tried to convince Cher that there couldn’t be any crocs here and we should camp early by the water. Later when taking a closer look at the water I didn’t dare go to the edge. Which we later found out was wise.
We arrived after 1pm and were directed to our little patch of grass to set up the tent. It’s a nice spot, and for 25 dollars a bit pricey, but we were here to see the falls. There are several pools that feed tumble down into a main pool, all free of crocs because as we were told, crocs don’t climb. Within a minute we set up camp, stripped and made out way to the main waterfall.
Although the waterfall isn’t that impressive, the deep cool, clean waters were pure bliss. We swam the 200 meters to the fall and back, the water becoming deep enough that you can’t see nor touch the bottom. Perhaps it’s because clean fresh water was such a scarcity over the last several months, but it felt like such a tremendous luxury to be able to swim in such a large pool of extraordinarily clean water. Locals claim that you can get a swim and a drink at the same time. With it’s source in the middle of a national park, there is some amount of truth to this. Regardless, all our aches and pains subsided and we had energy for the 30 minute hike to the next falls.
We read a lot of blogs about this cycle ride few talked about the number of little oasis that we’ve found along the way. Either it’s our slow style or loss of endurance after such a long break in Bali, but with the heat and the wind these little spots have kept us going even when our food is short. But since we can’t live on water alone we are both excited to get to Katherine, where there is a large grocery store. It seems that we eat more oatmeal than any other food and I had it as “dessert” tonight when our pasta ration failed to fill me up. We may be thin when we are done but our cholesterol will be great.