On one of my tours in to the jungle while in the P.I. during my time in the military....several of us hired a tour guide, and we hopped in these dugouts manned by local guides and we set off up this river.
I guess you could say it was sorta uphill. You could see where locals had taken the time to wade in to the river and toss many of the larger rocks out of the way, creating this channel during the initial ascent and in our dugout, our bow and stern men would leap out as needed and guide us to the left or right of large boulders. I'm unsure of the gradient, but during the initial start, there was more of this, and walking the dugout up than paddling.....
And then, we got to this point where, the gradient relaxed. The river became like glass, and the water was deeper. The sides of the ravines closed in around us and, you had to crane your neck to look up. It's been so long, the memory fades but....I distinctly remember these small individual little waterfalls and trellises(sp?) of flowers and vines that reached to the river, it was like a page out of a fantasy island and, it was quiet and idyllic. Our guides paddles on and after a couple of hours, we sort of dead ended at this place that was pretty breathtaking. We approached this small beachhead, and climbed out to enjoy this large waterfall, with a big pool in front of it. In behind was a cave, and while I resisted going to explore it, I wish I had.
But I had to laugh......talk about the enterprise of mankind, there off to the right along a part of the beach, some young guys were manning a small hut, selling soft drinks out of chests.
The cool part about leaving something of myself behind was in signing my name and where I was from, in this ancient log book one of them kept and, I can only wonder who first instigated it, but it was old.....and as I recall, it went back decades and I think, to the end of WWII and what I would assume would have been occupying American troops.
Until your post Crumbs, this thought was something I had not reflected on since.........well, into forever. I don't even think I realize I had left something behind.....at least until now. Don't ask me for a province or a locale.....I could not tell you. I worked out of Subic Bay for about 7-9 months and I was in, around, and working out of there for months. My only concern in touring was the Huks, but the countryside? Unreal. Head on a swivel.....😏
