Unpleasantness

10 August - Today, the plan was to make my way to the Mae Peng waterfall. Didn't know much about it other than the fact that it was there and it was suppoedly 4 hours walk from town.
Took me a little while to find the right exit from town to get on the way to the waterfall. Very badly labeled streets with the English signs posted nowhere near the roads. Eventually found myself on the right path - a pretty steep track up the mountain. I was just wearing my sandles but they seemed mopre than adequate for the job. Eventually the path came to the river and stopped. A local farmer helped me to that the path went through the river and I removed said sandles and crossed. Finally found the path again and carried on. To another crossing of the river. Removed shoes and crossed. Another crossing. Eventually I got sick of taking my shoes on and off again so I went barefoot (the shoes were only imitation leather and unlikely to withstand the rigours of walking through water). I felt like a giant hobbit making my way through some very hardy terrain to complete an important mission. When the rain came bucketing down it only increased my sense of bravado. The path was very difficult to follow and it kept on disappearing completely and I would just have to follow the water until I came to a likely exit The path was also very rocky and very slippery and it started to become very painful on my feet. I had a walking s tck i'd found but I could only hold it in my right hand because my left was still lacerated from yesterday's bike crash. However, despite this it was abssolutely beautiful scernery. And there was absolutely no-one around me for miles. I couldn't hear a single person or even see evidence of a person for ages at a time. it was very reassuring to be walking on a path (and mujch easier on my feet) but the sensation of complete isolation was something i've not felt for an age and it was wonderful.
After a few hours I found myself at a completely dead end. I had to climb up some very slippery rocks and rapids to get to ... Another dead end. I checked my watch and realised that i'd ben going three hours and it was going to get dark before I returned if I didn't turn back at that point. Considering I could see no way of climbing out of the canyon edged river I gave a few coo-ees and started back. After about 20m I came across three Israeli treckers (who i'd briefly met last night) - can't remember names but when I told them it was adead end and the waterfall was not for a while they decided to return witme. Quite nice guys, but slightly irritating - they fave me some Oreos so I can't speak too badly about them. One of them questioned me about the current state of Big brother on Oz TV, unfotunatetly I couldn't oblige him.
They WERE wearing sandles and took a much quicker pace than me back - really strugglling with bare feet - I considered putting them on despite my concerns for their condition and found that i'd lost one so I couldn't put them on. Because we were taking a quicker pace back it became much harder to get careful footing and I found myself in a lot of pain. Howeverf, this did mean our return uld be before nightfall. Eventuialy made it back to town (about six hours walking in total) and I took leave of my companions and after eating something I went for a well deserved foot massage ... It hurt almost as much as the walk did but I think it probably did some good.
Found myself a pub trivia in one of the local bars and joined a team wioth some of the people i'd met the previous night (the SAME crowd seems to be following me around, or i'm following them) and we placed a respectible second (and I won't be remiss to point out that this was almost solely due to my contribution). Am thinking of heading off tomorrow - will see where my path takes me.