This is my first canyoning experience.
Short version first:
I did not know what canyoning is. I thought it was kayaking, we would row boats. However, when I was there, I saw no boat. I was told to jump off cliffs, jump into the waterfall, climb on the rock. At the end of the trip, I was gifted many parts of bruises, scratches and scars. What's more, I 'donated' two shoes, three socks to the Mother Nature. This is how the title came from.
Long version:
You have already known how this passage came about. I gotta say I am very grateful that I am alive to share with you my experience.
I really love adventures. Or probably, I should put it this way, I love seeing people taking nice adventurous videos and photos. Despite my parents rejected this idea uncountable times (I doubt they know what adventures are), I believe that one day I would take up adventures too, and here I did.
To define adventure, it is a bold, usually risky undertaking, hazardous action of uncertain outcome.
However, life is always an adventure, isn't it? Most of the time, if you follow the rule, you will be safe, but there's certain level of risk because of the unpredictable nature.
The Dalat Canyoning consists of:
Practice how to use the equipments, dry abseil with the rappel of 15m high.
1. Go to the first waterfall to do the abseiling. Swim to opposite land.
2. Do a spectacular Tyrolean Traverse, also known as zip-line.
3. Waterfall Slider.
4. Water Taxi.
Picnic lunch (Handmade Bahn mi!)
5. Real Canyoning at the great 25m waterfall, free fall at the last few meters.
6. Cliff Jump (7m/9m/11m)
7. The Washing Machine.
Trekking uphill to the van, back to the collection point.
Technically, there are 7 parts that will be in touch with water.
1&2 are not so scary to me. With my rock-climbing experience, I am confident that I could handle it. The difference between rock-climbing & canyoning is the former is going up, the latter is coming down and have to deal with the water current.
However, maybe the most terrible comes when it is least expected.
The slider is fun but it gains velocity & momentum when you reach the end of the slide. I dumped deeply into the water. One of my shoes was washed away. My specs that were secured with the ropes almost dropped into the water. I could not catch my breath as I did not expect the time underwater would be so long. I remember I struggled, trying to catch my specs and float out the water. (I would still float out of the water surface with the life vest.) My heart was racing so fast, I could not forget how I was 'drowned' and my hope rose when I saw the sunlight in the water.
This is not the best thing yet. When I floated at the water surface, I was caught in the swirl. No matter how I kicked my legs, I could not reach the rock side. At that point of time, I was really hopeless. I was so afraid that I would really be drowned because I started to lose strength in my both hands. I saw a member standing beside me. I asked him for help but seems like he could not hear what I was mumbling, lolll. Finally, I made it through. I managed to catch a rock and stand out of the water.
I did not exaggerate but that's my true experience. That's the time that I realized my swimming skills were not so well equipped as I thought I were. And I realized how strong the water current can be. What the risks really are behind all those great photos & videos.
There was a Vietnamese girl who did not know how to swim at all. She came with two guy friends, who seemed to be very muscular. She struggled like me. I saw the two guys laughing at her on the side. My another girl friend who was in front of her helped her out.
I knew it might be fun seeing your friends struggle, but I felt so sad for the girl who made friends with such guys...Don't call me a pessimist, but I would really feel the darkness gulping me if my accompany did not take care of each other in this kind of risky activities. But on the other hand, she is also quite daring to do canyoning without knowing the water, isn't it?
Because I lost my first shoe, I had to trek one-side-barefootly to the next destination. The stones along the way were so sharp...my foot hurt. But I told myself, I should withstand the pain. If not, who else is going to carry you? Anyway, we had four tour guides. The leading guide was wearing a pair of slippers. My mindset was...if he could do that, it meant that it could be put up with. (alamak, laugh cry and thumbs up for my persistence)
The water taxi was not that challenging. You simply floated along with the current in the stream. It was lunchtime after that! We chilled above the cliffs by making our own sandwiches.
As I lost my shoe and did not wear socks, the next abseiling required us to step against the rock with socks (this is the best condition). I did not have any socks...my team mates offered me 3 socks (a guy gave me his pair of socks, the girl who helped the vietnamese girl just now gave me one of her socks too. So I wore two socks at a side, the other at the other side.
The best part of this waterfall is that the sound of the water was so loud that you could not hear the instructions. You could only rely on your confidence and another instructor at the ground. But the water would splash on your face so hardly, that you could hardly see the instructor at the ground. For my part, I did not know why the rope kept trapping my legs. Hence, I kept slipped down & hit the rock. Tried many times to stand up. Finally, it was time to let go of the rope! The water current washed away all my socks -- this time. Indeed, I found it funny, and I laughed out loud. My team mates found it funny too and we made jokes of it throughout the journey. However, only I knew that I was so scared and my whole body was shaking, although I did not know whether it was caused by the cold weather or the real shock I got.
After that part, a tour guide passed me his shoe (because his other side was broken) so I had an unmatched pair of shoes. At least I would not hurt so much on my feet. However, the story did not end here.
At the last stretch of the activity, also known as the washing machine, as the waterfall would splash on you and you would swirl into the water.
This part was terrible to me too. When I was dumped into the water, I lost another side of my original shoe. The current was so strong that I was worried that my helmet would drop and I did not know which directions my head & legs were. I was scared that I would hit the rock. I was terrified that my specs almost flashed away by the current. I was stoned that I could not control my body. I struggled to catch my breath. When I finally floated out of the water surface...I could not stand up. Again, my legs could not reach the rock...and I could not stop myself from being flashed away by the current. The ground tour guide shouted at me "HEY! HEY!" He urged me to stand up, but I just could not. Then he rushed towards me. He asked me "are you ok?" I realized that I was at the edge of the pool already...which meant if I did not stop myself from being flushed away by the current, I would be swept into the speedy stream.
What's more shocking to me is...my team mates seemed to have no reaction at all. They stood aside. I could not blame them because they did not know what's going on. Maybe they perceived me as a strong one. Only then I realized how vulnerable I could be. Of course, when I got back to the rockside, I still made joke of myself, by losing the shoes, again. This time, there's no extra shoe for me to wear. So the girl friend gave me her only sock to protect my feet from being hurt by the sharp stones.
The other girl behind me had a more crazy experience. Because when she abseiled down the cliff, her helmet was washed away, and she released her hands to grab the helmet! THEN, SHE DROPPED! She did not even have time to scream! The team on the rockside were worried. They walked towards her to help to pull her out of the water...quite different from mine. LOLLL.
Despite having the protection, the whole walking experience was a torture. I spoke the most times of "SH*T!""DAMN!" in my life!
Other than the above experience, I enjoyed the cliff jumping too. The free fall was heart pumping. But at least the pool below was calm and still. I could swim easily to the side. The only worrying part was there was stone stucking out. One has to jump far away to avoid being hit by the rock at the back...and it really took courage to jump down the cliff without a second thought.
Today, I made myself a record of losing two shoes, three socks. I learnt how beautiful yet strong the mother nature could be. However, along the way, I learnt how to adjust myself to cherish my life, to embrace other's accompaniment, and to make fun of myself out of the pain.
As the saying goes, no pain, no gain. I think I will take up more adventure! This is just the starting page of my adventure story. Alright, till next time!
