Thursday, April 13, 2017

4-13-2017 trip to Davis Falls Near Hopkins, Belize


This Blog post is a little different because it is designed to help people see what it is like to hike to Davis Falls.

We went with a lot of people and it occurs to me that they all take pictures, but then those pictures all remain in an island....wouldn't it be cool to see everybody's pictures.

Probably some of the best pictures were taken by Roi.  He did the posts in 3 parts.

  1. https://www.facebook.com/sitteedwellers/photos/a.1673090402719327.1073741839.1143166629045043/1673090772719290/?type=3&theater
  2. https://www.facebook.com/sitteedwellers/photos/ms.c.eJxFzskNREEIQ8GMRtjgBvJPbNTrv5aeBRgZPqpMzSjaDxuyqEZUP~_hd4ECHr4JxAdZUgf4Vc5LKDWlCU9nFB7Egz5WkrUn0m8yg4agDYM5C6Re0HlPcxwpjTiT8AXR7LP8~-.bps.a.1674368062591561.1073741841.1143166629045043/1674368805924820/?type=3&theater
  3. https://www.facebook.com/sitteedwellers/photos/ms.c.eJxFz9mNBDAMAtCOVgYbH~;03tkomnvl9IoYgS2xWq92D~;MOD~;EA8cNMBH30Tosxs~_EsMMou90BcyFqLm3CDxTfg9inogXkD9ID~_wO3KaMZM5DxpzQN~_Wbp5a6LXMBAapXeqGMbVDsE1U34T0Es7zW3gtKGOQEa~;WLereoO8Nszw7PLfWeXaosKCh2gl7SydpJxHwB9F3h0L7BH6B9g~;f0VZ7.bps.a.1675282615833439.1073741844.1143166629045043/1675282785833422/?type=3&theater

I am not sure if any guides take people here or not.  I am not an expert on the conditions there either.  But I would imagine that you need to go there during December - May time frame.  There are several stream crossings and it would get awfully muddy in the rainy times.

It would challenge any 4 wheel drive vehicle.  I think you need to go in behind a tractor or you need to take a motorcycle. 

Not only would a private vehicle have trouble with the streams and mud, there are also several unmarked turns.

A friend arranged this trip and the person taking us on the trip was a relative of theirs who grew up around there.

We gathered up at 7 in the morning at Windschief and drove from there

as we left Hopkins we were greeted by a rainbow and we all took that as a blessing for a good day

21 of us loaded up in a wagon and headed out

This is the easy part going down the highway

This Massey Ferguson has seen adventure before
 
This is the turn from the highway, now it is 8 miles more down bumpy roads, crossing rivers, and going though orange groves

There were several stream crossings

Judging from the size of the creeks, I would imagine that these can get pretty good flow during the rainy season

This Fluffy thing was picked from a tree

Roi took a bunch of good photos and I hope to get some links to them for you guys to enjoy

Emma, from www.AlternateAdventures.com took her motorcycle.  You can go on that same trip by motorcycle if you rent one from her.

Roi is a very entertaining guy...

The tractor parks and from here you hike to the falls

We head off

Down down down, towards the river

We decided to hike up the river over the boulders which were very slick

We fanned out on the river and headed upstream

back and forth we went

Amazingly, our guide scared up a gibnut and actually caught it.

Olly was one of the guys that spearheaded the trip

We probably hiked a mile up the river

It was pool, riffle, pool, riffle the whole way

The river got cliffier and boulderier so we headed into the jungle for the final push

We knew we were on the right track

The falls is now in sight

It is a very large falls

This shows the whole falls.  For scale you need to look at the man sitting on the rock in the bottom to the right of the fall.  Look very closely and if you cannot see him then blow the picture up to full screen.

There is a nice pool that people swam in

Judging from the size of the pool you can only imagine that this waterfall really gets raging sometimes.



This shot is a panorama.  You can barely see the group of people to the left of the second pool.  Davis Falls is very large

Pictures do not do justice for what we saw


The jungle is full of colors

This is the last bit of the hike heading back to the Tractor

As we went through the orange grove we had to really protect ourselves from branches.....some people learned that lesson the hard way.

When we went in there was a tractor stuck here.  It was gone when we left.  We tried to make it up with the wagon full, but we had to bail and let the tractor go up on its own.

Pam spearheaded the trip  and on the way home she enjoyed a Belikan.  Her son Amen was behind her and made that lovely wreath for her head.

Heading through the orange grove

Nice group

We are wearing the same hat.....I was tougher on mine evidently

On the way back there was a tractor stuck, but our guy made it up just fine.

When we got home I gave the neighbors some finger paint and they were showing me what they made

They tore up a cereal box and created lovely canvases out of them

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