The Waterfall Story!

His story was so attractive that we couldn’t resist visiting the waterfall in the midst of the light jungle. Our friend Salehin, the story teller, who write about his journeys and makes them so attractive that no one can help saying, wish I was there too!…

We never heard of it before and the locals resisted them to go there saying nobody goes there! We were excited to hear the scary description of their night camp near the fall and the jungle around… how a strange light showed up at night and vanished… So, in the next week end we were all set to go… the Hammam waterfall! (also mentioned as HumHum by some ppl now)

We traveled by Train and reach my favorite platform at Srimongol by 3 o’clock in the morning… it’s always a pleasure to reach there at late night, only few people at the station, two small tea stall, few sleeping ones on the ground… and when we take out our sleeping bag and lie on the floor, somehow a crowd gathers around to see us! They have never seen people like us (somewhat well and strangely dressed) to sleep on rail station ground!

Morning came slowly; a train came to platform and tried to awaken the surrounding … morning feels different everywhere… at first only the sky brightened a bit, the rail sleepers began to shine somehow… may be wet with morning dew, reflecting light… the birds starts their day… and its our time to start too… we started by a strange vehicle, somewhat looks like a human holler… our way is through Lauachora reserve forest… this is a beautiful rain forest… will write about this some other day…

We reached the village up to where motor cars could go… we walked on to reach the last village before the jungle starts… people were so curious to see all of us, strangely dressed to them and with our cool backpacks, tents and all… some of us talked with the villagers and we found out the boy who helped our friend last time, and started our journey through the jungle.

There are two routs, one a bit up and down through the hills and other following the stream (called jhiri).. Why leave one trail? So planned to go through the hills and come back following the stream.

The sun was already up high, the trail went up and down… the jungle was not dense but we had shed on our head most of the time… It’s always difficult to hike up to the hills for me and my face turns red with time J but I love it! Green, green, green all around, big family of trees, bamboo bush on the slopes, birds chirping, blue sky above! What else! Nothing beats this… I love the green hills! It gives me peace inside, gives a new hope to live, live and see and feel this life on earth!

My feet started aching, I did the most wrong thing for trekking, wore a new pair of sneakers L, my toe was hurting so much, I had cut the front of the shows to release them form the shoe case!..

Walking and walking up and down we reached the last part of the trail on the streams… small and big stones here and there… Some covered with green moss… the bamboo made a shed over our head from both side of the stream… green shed above, walking through cold water on slippery stones, listening to the sound of water through the stones…made the tiredness of the long trek go away J … we were coming close to the waterfall, the flow of the stream increased … but does it matter if the waterfall is not huge or something super striking to mind? I loved the trail and wonder how the trail would be when we go back…

The water fall didn’t disappoint us… its beautiful… I don’t remember the height … may be 50-60 feet high one step falls… made a small pool at the bottom… high walls on three sides of the place and one way out… we wished to stay there but it was rainy season, not enough space for 6-7 tents… so we walked back near the village for camping…

The way back? Oh it was fibulas! I can’t explain it well, as it was raining lightly, the path went muddy and very slippery. We started to slip and laughing on each other, I found a lich dancing on my finger and then realized actually they were everywhere around on the ground, one the leaves of the small plants! I am scared of them! It’s scary that you can’t feel when it starts to take away your blood! With rain the small fountain started to appear here and there, the flow of stream increased below our feet… smell of mud started to grow strong! I love this smell J… at some point we reached a kind of open place, ground covered with vegetation, big trees here and there and long green trunk hanging from the braches… the last light of the day coming through the cloud, gave the green place a somewhat strange look! It felt to me, this scene is not from earth, it’s something like a scene from one of my science fiction book, a place from another world!

Yes! Some moments at some places are so uniquely beautiful that they remain in heart… for long long time… I wish I could spend some more time there!

photo Credit: Chowdhury Shah Ahmed Shihab