Sunday 4 January – canyon and Blue River visits

Sadly my cold has really kicked in, I wasn’t feeling that great so I opted to have a quiet day to try and recover. Phoebs is sneezing a lot but the lurgy hasn’t gone to her chest, so she was up for doing the excursions. They started with the canyon near where we are anchored on the edge of the big body of water. We visited it last time we were here and we were so surprised that there was nobody visiting, the yachts we have met who came up here have all just done the Blue River and not the canyon. Wonderful for the three of them to have the place to themselves, it is an incredible canyon, and like I mentioned last time, if there was a flash flood and you were in it, you would not stand a chance. Maybe that is why nobody goes! The walkway had definitely deteriorated , so definitely not in much use. The pool is such an amazing green, the water must seep underground, as there is no water in the canyon. It is a very spectacular spot which Phoebs and Dani really appreciated.

They then headed to the Blue River which is back down the river like channel to the open sea, they did not get too far when they ran out of petrol. Luckily these days we keep a few litres in the little locker so they were able to get back to PolePole. In the swirling current of the channel it would have been a tough row back! Back on PolePole they topped up the petrol tanks and had some lunch before heading to the Blue River. We also did this last time with a local in his long boat, as the entrance to the river looked so shallow. It really wasn’t that bad so they went up as far as you could go to the board walk, the board walk. It was pretty muddy from the rain, it is a couple of kms to the Blue river, they were surprised to find over a hundred people there. We think being a Sunday and the Festive Season there were more people. Loads of locals, the little huts at the site we were told last time were the army and police buildings. This section of the Blue River has spiritual significance, which is why you cannot swim up the river, there is just a designated section for swimming. The current was strong like last time. There were some local dancers dressed in traditional leaves with their bodies blackened with white decorations painted over the top. The video looks amazing (I will try and get it on the website!) it appeared the dancers had been organised for a tourist boat, and our lot were the happy benefactors of it too.

Meanwhile I did endless loads of laundry, it was a good day to be doing it, flat sea and sunshine. We had a peaceful night all to ourselves, just the birdsong serenading us. There was also a lovely full moon.