This is Ba Be

A beautiful day dawned. The view was shrouded in low morning cloud. This lifted in a magical way when the sun blazed releasing the view to turn up the panoramic volume. I sat on my balcony overlooking everything taking in the serenity and responding to an email from my tenant. She told me the fan in the composting toilet had failed and the house was stinking. Thanks to the world wide web I was able to get it fixed while sitting there. It's no wonder really there are telephone towers everywhere. You can be in the back of beyond with the only access out being a river that out competes the one in Apocalypse Now.

Our program for the day was to go on a boat across the lake. It is actually three lakes all joined up, that is why it is called BaBe. Bameaning 3 and Be meaning lake. Easy really. The reality is quite breathtaking. Jungle clad mountains rise from all sides. The faces of the cliffs are all multicoloured limestone. We motored across the 3 lakes and went into the river at the other end. I cannot tell if were North South East or West as my internal compass was not functioning. The river provided scene of family and community with little groups of houses lining the banks intermitently. We were still in a deep gorge surrounded by towering limestone cliffs. After some while we came to cave where the river goes right through a mountain. Here we got out of the boat and walked around the cave. It was very impressive, bats chattering above, ancient stalactites and stalagmites stained green with algae and huge columns. In the centre of the cave above us was an enormous hole that receeded into darkness. One wonders on the mysteries hidden there. Back into the boat we returned down the river until we almost got to the lake. We then went up a different branch for a couple of kilometers until we reached a village with a substantial landing stage. There were resteraunts here catering to the tourist and it was where we were to have lunch. Before this though we walked along a good footpath for about 15 minutes to a large waterfall complete with raging cateracts. It was very beautiful, surrounded by jungle and deafening with the roar of the falls. Walking back to the village we passed buffalo and goats. The goats were far more friendly than the buffalo who seemed suspicious and very wary. Lunch was as usual very tasty and good. Watered down with a beer Ha Noi it met all needs. Back to the boat we went into the lake for a little fishing. No luck here we motored across the lake to a  very small island where we had a lovely swim. The water was fantastic not too cold to shiver and not to hot to be oppressive. Finally we motored back to our start point and a really good day drew to a close.