Cliff Hanger

Holy cow- what a weekend! I am completely exhausted but excited to share my adventures with all of you!

On Friday we headed to Semonkong which is a small town in the mountains. There is a great lodge there that offers a lot of fun activities. One of these activities is abseiling (repelling down a cliff). However, this isn’t just any abseiling- this is abseiling off the highest cliff used for repelling in the world! It lies next to a huge beautiful waterfall and measures 204 meters in height. If you see it from afar it is magnificent! If you see it from the top it is absolutely terrifying.



If you look closely you can see me on this picture of the mountain- just a little speck!!

I was originally very hesitant, but decided that I would probably regret not taking advantage of such a once in a lifetime opportunity! So. . . Saturday morning we were trained on small cliffs near the lodge- piece of cake. We couldn’t do the real thing, however, until Sunday. Therefore we spent the rest of the afternoon on a pony trek through the mountains. Sounds fun right? It probably would have been if my horse wasn’t so sassy. I soon named HIM, Ms. Independent because he had zero intention of actually doing what he was supposed to do. Every once in a while he would decide to gallop, other times he would just stop because he didn’t feel like walking anymore, and sometimes he would just pick his own route straight up the mountain! He ended our ride by taking me through a forest of trees and swiping me with branches in every direction. How I didn’t fall off is beyond me. Luckily the views were beautiful and I was able to get a lot of great pictures. Sadly, Miss Independent and I are no longer friends.

Sunday we woke up nice and early and after grabbing some breakfast, headed to the cliff. There was another group of young travelers from Ireland with us as well, and we had a nice time getting to know them. Once at the top, Alex took the plunge first. After waiting 20 minutes for her to make it to the bottom I was up! I have to say, I don’t know if I was more excited or terrified? Once I made it over the edge I soon found that I would not be able to reach the side of the cliff and would be spinning around in the air for quite a while before getting close enough to the wall. I checked the knots on my ropes quite a bit on the way down. I think I prayed a little more than usual too. Needless to say, I made it safely to the bottom, although completely soaked from the waterfall. . . overall, it was amazing, exhausting, probably the coolest thing I have ever done, and probably something you won’t get me to do again!!

Pictures of me going down, then exhausted afterward!

After the abseiling we soon found that the guides had “failed” to mention how we would get back up the mountain. Say hello to “Melissa the mountain climber”! Unfortunately, the fact that I am not in the best shape along with the altitude basically meant I would be huffing and puffing the whole way up. It wasn’t a climb for beginners either- there were times where I felt like I was rock climbing because it was so steep. So after that experience I have decided not to pick up hiking as a hobby- sorry guys.

I have plenty more to share but will leave it at that for now. I will keep everyone updated with new events on my next blog. For now I am going to call it a day. . . I have a feeling I am not going to be able to move tomorrow!!!!