Indeed, we would have been much better off using bikes, because after wrestling through an hour's worth of dense bamboo forest interspersed with stretches of savannah, we reached a small canyon which was impossible to cross with the scooter.

Excuse me, it would be possible if we just had another day, in which case I would have certainly attempted it. Although the old man had told us that there was a good road to Kanchanaburi, and we knew that there was to be a branch of the Death Railway hereabouts, we could not risk it in view of the short time we had available.

So we left the scooter and went on foot, crossing a creek which reminded me of one in Sorong, New Guinea. Like mountaingoats, we climbed up the scree slope to the foot of the cliff. But just about where we expected to see the waterfall and a nearby house, as promised by the old man, we saw something far different. The sky, which had been clear and sunny all day up to now, suddenly became dark gray, and clouds started to pur over the mountaintops. In a few moments it was very dark around us, and we ran back to the scooter because getting stuck here in a rainstorm would be disastrous. Imagine, we would not be able to trace our tracks and get back. So we jumpstarted the scooter and through the first gentle raindrops rode back. Fortunately, the rain remained like a gentle Dutch "regenbuitje", so initially we had no problem finding our tracks. Hereabouts one does not get lost because of the lack, but rather because of the profusion of trails. There was some lightning which looked marvelous against the jagged surrounding mountains. Things went faster than we thought, and soon we were back at the slippery rock in the creek. No problem! Next were the rockgardens, but here we lost the trail because there was no soil. We made a wide circle to try and find it back, but to no avail.