Syndicate Falls, finally

Syndicate Falls, finally

Saturday 9^th and Sunday 10^th March, 2024

Saturday was our last day with the hire car.  Our plan was to head up to Syndicate Falls and the Syndicate Nature trail.  We had been to the nature trail before, but on that occasion, never saw the turning for the falls and failed to get to the start. We were quite disappointed.  At about 9 am we set out in the dinghy.  Darrell decided to join us, while Wendy thought the trails might be too challenging.  Between the paper map, All Trails and MapMe we located the turning to the waterfall.  The dirt road eventually led to a parking lot and cafe.  The area around the cafe was beautiful with many flowers and shrubs.  Birds could be heard from every direction.

We set off down a wide track that led to the footpath, which crossed the stream four times, making me very glad to have water shoes and the hiking pole!  Suddenly, we could see the waterfall.  Scrambling over boulders, we arrived at the pool at the base.  For quite a while we were the only people there.  At some point, I thought that the light had changed.  In short order it started to rain.  Steadily the rain became heavier.  By the time we returned to the cafe, we were pretty much soaked to the skin.  We had an excellent lunch consisting of sautéed tuna, fries and salad, along with drinks made from fresh passionfruit, ginger and lime. There were also samples of flavored rum passed around that Mike enjoyed, and we watched the owner stuffing marijuana leaves into bottles of rum to make his under-the-counter beverage (ready after two days in the hot sun). Lunch revived us and we set off to the nature trail area.  

Walking through the rain forest continues to enchant me.  We reached the three overlooks and were rewarded with views of a pair of red-necked or “Jacko” parrots.  Another pair of birds flew into the same tree, looking quite different.  We excitedly thought these were the imperial parrot or “Sisserou”.  Sadly when Mike took a photo and zoomed in on the birds, we realized they were scaly-naped pigeons.  How easy it is to fool yourself....It was lucky that Mike got the photo when he did, because soon, it started to pour with rain all over again. By the time our day finished at about 4pm and we were pretty wet and very tired.  

Overnight heavy rain set in.  We were up in the dark closing windows.  Unfortunately, we’d left our backpacks out in the cockpit to “dry”.  The whole day was one round of downpour after another.  The dinghy, up on the davits, was flooded with water, requiring the plug to be pulled out with the use of the boat hook.  Most of the day was spent reading and napping.  The late afternoon dried out and the sun emerged.  We spent some time getting ready to depart tomorrow morning and we are off out to a beach barbecue tonight!

Gloria 

The view from the starting point of the Syndicate Falls trail

The beautiful African Tulip tree ... known locally as the "flamboyant tree" 

The river below Syndicate Falls near the first crossing point

Syndicate Falls

A panorama of Syndicate Falls

Two shots of Darrell swimming below Syndicate Falls ... the first with a much slower shutter speed (1s)

... the second with a faster shutter speed (1/50 s, both taken with the camera on a tripod)

Syndicate Falls from the river below, as the rain starts to fall

The tree ferns could be right out of Jurassic Park

Gloria searching for parrots from the Syndicate Nature Trail

A view from one of the overlooks on teh Syndicate Nature Trail