8th DAY: River Tracing with Rocky

We woke up early to eat breakfast but didn’t have to meet Rocky at his work until 13:30 so we spent the morning working on our computers. He had a great internet connection and his house was so comfortable. He eventually called us and told us to come at 12:30 because his guests had arrived. I had no idea what we were in for but I’d seen some pictures from his facebook album. I definitely wasn’t prepared for this. I had never heard of river tracing before. It is where you wear a wet suit and follow the river upstream, taking the hardest path possible. At times we were chest deep. Rocky even went through a tiny little crack, and nearly slipped on his way out on the other end. No one else wanted to try. We were sometimes plunged in chest deep, climbed up small waterfalls, dove down with a mask and tried to get as close as possible and even went behind one of them. In the difficult sections, Rocky would use a rope and support you up in case you slipped or were unable. He said the river was bigger that day than any other day he’s seen it. We’d survived the climb but I didn’t make it back to the car without getting 3 leeches attached to me. 2 were still small and hadn’t sucked so much blood but the other 1 was a big fatty. Rocky burned him off of me and put salt on him. He shriveled and about 50ml of my blood oozed out of him. I didn’t think anything of it really until my leg wouldn’t stop bleeding for 5 hours. It was so embarrassing because I was helping Rocky serve food for a BBQ dinner for his guests. They were from the area so they understood. Then David woke up from his long journey hitchhiking from Fukuokua. He had been sleeping upstairs since 14:00. We prepared and ate our dinner in the candle lit darkness of nature with a running river next to us.

The whole experience this day has been fantastic. He knows what adventure is and he knows how to take care of his guests well. I highly recommend you to come here and give this a try!