Head over heels into the jungle (Day 20 of the world trip)

24th September 2019

Last night, as planned, we went to the cafe and took advantage of the WiFi there. Since we now had three entries including photos and the internet there was not very fast, we unfortunately (:p) had to order dessert after dinner <3 Jonas had blueberry cheesecake and I had a carrot cake. We were in heaven :D By the way, the WiFi was gone for a while and we wondered if we were to blame because we uploaded all the pictures... But at least we ate well there ;-)

This morning, the alarm went off at 6:30 am so that we could do yoga with Ajay at 7:00 am. I immediately got up and jogged a bit in the room or did jumping jacks to warm up. I also did some stretching exercises myself, which Jonas called cheating... :D

The session today was similar to yesterday, but at the end there were some new poses. Ajay again noticed that Jonas is very flexible in the hips and back, but not in the legs. It's exactly the opposite for me. So we complement each other perfectly and could try out different poses together :D :D Maybe we'll take the camera with us tomorrow or something to show our quality (or the lack of it) ;-)

After yoga, we had the Chay again (rejecting was not an option and today it tasted much better than yesterday :) ) and Ajay gave us another tip on how to get to another waterfall nearby.

With our standard supplies (water and cookies), we set off. According to Maps.me, the distance should take about 1.5 hours. Jonas actually wanted to leave later so that we wouldn't be back too early (too early means it's still too early for dinner^^). But in the end, it was a good decision to leave early, although we didn't know that at the time.

We went through the village and the tourist street to the bridge over the Ganges. Did we mention that Rishikesh is located on the Ganges? Many Indians pilgrimage here to bathe in the Ganges as the religion recommends. During our first visit to the bridge, it was crowded and it was almost impossible to pass. However, this morning it was completely empty and comfortable. But before we reached the bridge, an Indian woman approached us and even though we pushed her away, she painted a red dot on Jonas' forehead. We continued to say no and then walked away, although she probably now wanted money for it...

Well. On the other side of the bridge, there was a alley with shops and snacks, but after about 200m it was completely empty and quiet. Perfect! Yesterday we walked on "our" side of the Ganges and the road was dusty, in the blazing sun, and the roadside was littered. Today we were on the other side and it was pretty much the opposite. Paved road with gravel at the edge of the road, trees on the right and left, and almost no trash. Impressive! Here, almost only jeeps drive by that bring tourists to a spot where they can do wild water rafting. There are sooo many providers here, it's unbelievable. And if you walk along the Ganges like us, you can hear people cheering down in the water (whether it's fake to attract more customers or if it's really that much fun, we don't know ;-) ). Apart from us and the cars, there were also some wild monkeys, some with offspring. Really cute :) We also "rescued" a snail by moving it off the road and we could watch a dung beetle at work. Oh, and in reference to Göreme, there was also a flower photo :D

At some point, we came to a second bridge and from there a footpath led up the hill. After a few steps, an Indian couple came towards us and asked if we wanted to go to the waterfall. They couldn't find the way. Hmm. There was actually only one footpath but maybe the two of them didn't trust it. We quickly realized why. The path was mostly recognizable, but sometimes there were obstacles like a tree in the way or the path was completely overgrown and you could wish for a machete to clear the way^^

So the two of them accompanied us to the first stop, a mini-version of a waterfall. It was quite pretty, but we knew that it would get even better up there (like yesterday...). So we continued and came to a second stop, where there was a proper pool where you could splash around. We waded through the water to the actual waterfall, but unlike yesterday, Jonas thought it would be better not to stand in it this time. The pool was quite deep. I stood there taking photos and tried not to panic too much when I saw a small, bug-like creature. The antennae looked dangerous to me, so I was a little nervous, which caused Jonas to laugh at me and eliminate the "great danger" with a handful of water. Oops! Was it that simple? :D :D

Since swimming was not an option, we sat on some rocks and had a well-deserved cookie break. These non-chocolate cookies are already on their third day. We are so easy to please... ^^ When Jonas explored the surroundings a bit, he found a whole swarm of butterflies next to a bag of chips, which could even be photographed more or less. We spent some time there until two other hikers, two Israelis, joined us. They told us that they had met the Indian couple below and they had told them that we had continued further up. Then one of them asked how we got here and when we told him that we walked, he looked at us in amazement :D It seems that you can also take a rickshaw for the 30/45-minute walk to the beginning of the footpath^^ We talked about how this still wasn't the highest point and that we wanted to go even higher. One of them laughed and asked us if we knew a movie (I didn't remember the title). We both didn't know it, but apparently it was about people getting lost in the jungle...

By the way, when we got up, we saw a few ants carrying away our cookie crumbs. Really nice! ;-)

As a joke, they asked us for our names, in case they needed to send a search party, and we laughed, told them our names, and went on our way. The path became even wilder and slipperier, but then we came across the cave promised by Maps.me, which was dripping happily and looked really exciting. Someone had even set up a kind of shrine or something. We had to pass by the cave, where I hit my head of course because I still had my cap on, and finally we reached the actual spectacle. The pool and the height of the waterfall were similar to the second stop, but somehow much more impressive. Jonas also stood in the waterfall here and visually almost disappeared. And of course, we climbed and posed again since we had it all to ourselves. It all looked really untouched - except for an old fire pit.

Since it seemed boring to go back the same way we came, we continued uphill from there. According to Maps.me, we would then cross the river two more times and finally reach a road that leads back to Rishikesh. That was the plan. The path became even wilder, so much so that you couldn't see the ground under your feet because everything was so densely overgrown. You could barely make out that this was the path. Quite exciting :) Everything was going fine until the first river crossing. There was even a sign there pointing to a camp 3 km away, so we felt confirmed.

After about an hour without a second river crossing (according to Maps.me, 460m should be between the two crossings, yes, it was uphill and yes, I was perhaps quite slow, but we were pretty sure that it shouldn't take us an hour for this distance...) we became skeptical. We had obtained a "machete" (a small, thin stick^^) in expedition style to clear the way ahead of us (there were huge spider webs with large spiders across the path :O That should have made us suspicious that these spider webs were blocking the path. That must have meant that no one had been here for a while but never mind. We still wanted to try it and were already quite skilled in this kind of trekking, we could even take a nice panoramic photo, and yeah. We wanted to give ourselves another ten minutes to follow the path but if we didn't have any clues to the road after that, we would turn around.

I was already looking forward to going downhill again on the steep path -.- We were both sweaty, thirsty, and exhausted, but somehow it also made the whole thing a cool experience again. Us, alone, lost, without GPS reception / phone network somewhere in the Indian jungle :D We couldn't get too lost because we always heard the river beside us and knew that downstream was the road we had come from. Still, after the ten minutes, the decision was made to turn around. A little disappointed, we looked for answers to why this had happened. We would like to blame Maps.me or our "map" reading skills (or rather the limited presence of them), but maybe it was really because our path had been buried by the monsoon. Who knows? :D The way back went almost smoothly, except for a few slips and stumbles, but then we felt like we were back at the first spot where we had left the Indian couple about 3 hours ago. Strange :D

We also encountered an Indian (Jonas said he didn't sound like an Indian. He could also come from another country nearby and he's probably right, but to me he looked like an Indian :p) who was on his way up and asked us if more people would come because the river course where he stood was really unspectacular. We proudly and happily told him that there are two more cool spots further up with a bigger waterfall and also mentioned the cave. We wanted to get the camera out to show him our photos, but he had heard enough^^ He continued on his way up while we saw the road again. Back to civilization! I put our machete aside somewhat wistfully and felt like a child who had to give up his toy. This stick had really been useful for us! ;-)

Then we realized that once again my bottle had leaked, but Jonas carried the wet backpack back without complaints. Phew! Lucky :D

The way back was tough and super exhausting. Every step felt heavy and even Jonas was completely exhausted. When we arrived at the accommodation, it was time to shower, wash off the animals and smell of the jungle, drink plenty of water, and eat a little.

Although it was sometimes challenging, our tour was great!!! These "on your own" experiences are always the most valuable for both of us. Making your own experiences, literally taking the wrong path sometimes, and then returning exhausted but rich in impressions is something incredibly valuable :) And even though it may sound different here, don't worry. We never really got "lost" ;-) We just took an alternative route :D