Svengali Falls 2019 Mar
These are “lower Svengali Falls.” The main ones are just visible behind.
“Carrie”, I screeched (yes, screeched), “I can see them up ahead; Svengali Falls.” We both did a whoopee of excitement, and, when she joined me, a high five that was very, very, both highish and fivish. We were relieved and happy. I feared we were doomed to spend the rest of our lives trying to make a way up this tangled stream. Carrie was confident that we’d reach it, but thought it could take a lot longer than it did. She also feared that one of us might get injured in the attempt.
This is in an easy section. All we had to do was continue up the slippery creek. The difficult sections demanded too much attention to go a-photgraphing. Injuries certainly seemed a highly likely item for the menu: not only was the rainforest rotted from the inside out so that logs appeared to be logs and trees, trees, until you put some weight on them, after which they’d crumble to mossy humus, but also, the creek itself, being the lowest point between two steep sides, held the debris from every storm that has ravaged the area for probably millennia. In order to move forward, we sometimes had to climb big distances up seemingly vertical cliffs; other times, we had to find a way around whopping logs whose girths were greater than our height; still others, there would be a fallen, multi-furcated tree that presented us with a jumble of branches that was daunting, and insurmountable. Up another diff we’d go. Climbing over seemed far too risky, as each branch was slippery and of unknown strength. It would be possible to fall metres if one collapsed.
I had warned Carrie that she’d get her feet wet, as a minimum. I hoped we wouldn’t be wading waist deep, but it was impossible to tell in advance. I didn’t even know if we could get through if the water was too high. I hadn’t bothered to contemplate the wetness of passing ferns and leaves and of the mossy logs we necessarily sat on to get over them. Let us just say: “We got wet.”
Behind are the upper – the real – Svengali Falls. We climbed up a steep spur to the left to get nearer the base, but the most photogenic position was here, so this is what you’re getting. She’s vain enough having been hidden for so long, to want to appear with her best side forward.
I was so excited to achieve our goal that I honestly didn’t care one iota about the quality of any photos I might take. This was a waterfall whose objective was the achievement of getting there, and the sense of adventure that moving through territory like that entails. As we retraced our steps (photo session completed), we were in more of a mood to spend the time appreciating the green wonderland we were momentary part of. It was a special feeling to have overcome the hurdles of the exercise and to be part of such primaeval forest. Another high five as we gained the track for “normal” people at the was in order. Mission complete.
