* Some names have been changed or omitted in this report, in order to protect sensitive places.
Look at these sexy hunks of man meat. What more could you ask for? You got the bearded one, the muscle of the group, and chief long shanks. What a perfect crew for exploring, all on their matching red Attilas...
For the first half of the 2015-2016 school year, Singapore International School, or SIS Da Nang, was fortunate enough to have a small pack of Danish guys come and help out as they worked towards their various career goals Sonny, Jens, Kasper, and Thomas are four of the greatest guys you'll ever meet, and aside from their help in the school itself, their jovial nature and laid back attitudes were perfect to go on adventures around the countryside as well.
In January 2016 I tapped the Danish Boys to come with my friend Cuong and I as we went to scope a waterfall located somewhere in Quang Nam. We had some very limited beta, but were keen for an adventure so we set out to see what we could find. By this time Sonny had returned to Denmark, but Jens, Kasper, and Thomas were all excited and ready to go. Due to their matching bikes, naturally #TeamAttila and #TeamRedBike were born.
The first part of the drive was fun, through rolling foothills and beautiful fields. Because the weather was grey and overcast the colors were very strong and everything was quite strikingly beautiful.
The first part of the drive was fun, through rolling foothills and beautiful fields. Because the weather was grey and overcast the colors were very strong and everything was quite strikingly beautiful.
Later, we found ourselves on a familiar highway for a while, yet we turned off before too long and found ourselves an an unfamiliar country road. We wandered along this for a while, taking in a delicious view of the mountains on all sides, especially to the south. There was a good-sized waterfall dropping out of the mountains to the south that we could see pretty well.
The road became a smaller road, and that eventually became a dirt path through the trees. This eventually ended and we found ourselves on a steep hiking trail uphill. It wasn't too bad, but took some time, perhaps 20 to 30 minutes. Even though it was still "winter" and not typical sunny Vietnam, the high humidity still meant we were all sweaty by the time we got to the falls themselves.
The river comes pouring out of the mountains, and drops over a hard chunk or bedrock here, resulting in a bunch of small waterfalls and slides over polished granite. The trail from the bottom starts at the very end of this bedrock section, and actually traverses up and around the bottom half kilometer or so of the gorge, coming back in just above some decent looking waterfalls, both of which are about 4-5 meters in height.
We scrambled down to the bedrock slabs, and set up shop for a while, enjoying the peace and quiet of the place and the lack of trash that plagues so many Vietnamese swimming holes. After a while we gathered our shit and headed upstream a while, trying to see what was further up. Not too far upstream there was a series of small falls back to back to back, and Jens decided to take a ride down one of them. The water was a touch chilly but only for a brief moment when you first got in.
Abv Left: Dropping in... Abv Right: In the froth... Below: ...and all smiles!
And that was about it. After a while we decided it was probably time to head back, so we packed up our stuff and made our way back to the city. It was a great day with some great folks, and really neat to see something that is so unspoilt. Kelsey and I would end up making a return trip here later in February, which you can read about here. Thanks for looking!
All photos copyright Kit Davidson.