The supposed early-morning abseil did not happen and we only got up at 8am. We had breakfast, packed up and started making our way up to the waterfall; we left our bags at the bottom and rock climbed up the left hand side, ending up close to the top, but about 20 meters from the summit. Bees and a large number of other unidentifiable insects harassed us, while the guides set up the ropes. Kel demonstrated how to abseil down and made his way to the bottom in record time. One of the German girls is very afraid of heights and wanted to go first, for fear of psyching herself up so severely that she wouldn't go at all, so she went next.

She made her way down and then the other German girl followed her shortly afterwards. I went next and was very nervous: it was a long way down. One of the German girls said she sought solace in the thought that if she fell, it would be an immediate death; there would be no potential for permanent bodily harm - that would be it really, see you in my next life.

Edd went last and had the camera with him; unfortunately we did not have a second camera to take photos of his descent, so he took selfies every so often instead - dangling from a rope down the side of a waterfall, as you do. He got to the bottom; we all had a swim, grabbed our backpacks and did a 5 minute walk down to the first zip-lining platform. Kel showed us the ropes (pardon the pun) and lead the way. We took it in turns to zip line across the forest with the guides climbing down to the next zip line to set up again. Kel would abseil us down between the platforms to the next zip line and we made our way back down through the forest for 4 hours.

We had lunch at the bottom of one section of the waterfall (on banana leaves again) and then did the final 2 zip-lines. We took our harnesses off (attached mine to Edd's backpack, I kept my backpack on in an attempt to not overload Edd again and Kel had our sleeping bags). We were at the half way mark and had to trek the rest of the way back. The first part of the trek back was a drop with a small section for feet, with a long way down. We held onto tree roots, but because I was last, by the time I got to the bits for feet, they had been trodden away and I slipped, dangling from a tree root by my right arm. Edd turned around and helped a grumpy me get back up: I'd hit my left leg on a rock and now sported scratches and bruises underneath a layer of dirt, not to mention my right arm and shoulder that had to support all my weight - I was not happy with life.

The entire pathway was slippery and dangerous because of the storm from the night before. One of the guides cut a tree branch for me, which I used to help me get down the 'steps' and in case I lost my footing: this proved to be an ingenious idea and Edd was left to not need to tend to a whiny me. The hike back down took 2 hours and we discovered new obstacles along the way, which included muddy puddles, fallen tree branches and soggy leaf beds.

We got back to the river and were relieved to nearly be back in 'civilization' (I use this term loosely). We had a 'bath' in the river after we navigated the higher water level and stronger current (one of the guides had taken our bags for us so we could swim if we wanted / fell and needed) and changed into clean, dry clothes. The took took arrived and took us back to the company office in Vang Vieng where we sat and looked up potential guesthouses in Vientiane. After searching for over an hour and coming up with nothing, (because of hideous internet connection and a useless computer mouse) we decided to book into the same guesthouse the German girls had chosen (even though it was totally over priced) and the tour company arranged a private mini van to take us to Vientiane. (This was more expensive than if we'd waited for the next day, but we didn't want to stay in Vang Vieng another night).

It took 3 hours, at approximately 50km/ph because of the shocking conditions of the roads, to get to Vientiane at 9pm. We found our guesthouse after a bit of confusion (there are 2 hotels, same name, one ends in Inn, the other ends in guest house). We checked in and dumped our stuff. We went out for dinner at a nearby café and then went to bed shortly afterwards. Hiking 2km's into mid air, back down again, AND then done a 3-hour ride to another city was quite a lot in 2 days. We all needed at least one day to recover, if not 2...