Halfway up, we turned inland a couple of miles at Kunigami as the guide book said that we could do a short walk to 25 metre high Hiji waterfall. As we read that it was only 1.5km each way we assumed that it would only take an hour. However, the path went up and down many steep sections of steps and from start to finish we were gone three hours. The trail began at a campsite, where you pitch your tent on a raised wooden platform. It looked fantastic, in its woodland setting right by the small river, though I would be nervous about the island's venomous pit viper, the habu, lurking in the leaf litter under the dais. The track followed the river upstream, through unbroken native forest. We revelled in the glorious variety of trees and shrubs, unable to identify many. The tree-ferns were awesome, some at least 20 feet high.
At the halfway point we came to a suspension bridge that was about 20 metres across and maybe the same in height above the river below. As we approached we passed beneath masses of dangling black-red locust flowers.
I felt very nervous as the bridge swayed whenever someone walked across, and could only cope if I stood rigidly in the very middle, though the view of the surrounding forest was certainly wonderful.
From there, the path seemed to go on forever, up and down steep staircases, before we finally rounded a corner and saw the 80 foot gushing Hiji waterfall.
By now we were tired and hungry so didn't linger at the spectacle long before backtracking to a wooden shelter we'd passed, so that we could tuck into our picnic. Emily refused to go in the carrier afterwards, saying 'I'm a big girl now, I want to walk', so we let her have her way and she managed a few flights of steps before we got her to agree to ride. Having nodded off just before Nick got back to the car, she woke when he tried to transfer her to the car seat. I assumed that she would drop off again once we hit the road for the final 15 miles to Cape Hedo, but I was wrong and she was still awake when we pulled into the car park there, though the rest of us were all very groggy after food and exertion!
The bracing wind soon perked us up and we enjoyed the karst scenery and crashing waves.
Emily was very taken with a statue of an island mascot, which I think is a cockerel though Nick said the sign didn't mention what type of creature it was supposed to be.
It seemed rather out of character in the place of natural beauty, but not as much as the hideous eyesore of a concrete block housing a restaurant and shop.
A mile inland we made a last brief stop to look out from a 70-metre cliff to the bay below, before the ubiquitous piped 5 o'clock music told us that it was high time we turned for home. Emily resisted sleep for more than an hour as we drove back to Kanucha, cutting across from west to east coast halfway down. We passed many pineapples on the road that linked the two coastal highways. The scenery here was equally as spectacular, though we had to pass inland several times to cut behind uninhabited headlands with high cliffs. Emily's eyes were on the brink of shutting as we pulled into the resort at six, with the sun hovering close to the horizon on this eve of the Equinox. She was happy as Larry to be allowed to 'drive' the buggy back to our room.
I was pleased that after being awake more than 10 hours she still ate plenty of fare from the all-you-can-eat buffet. Her meal culminated in an icecream cornet, her first cone, which she licked at delicately. It was a cooler evening, so we sat in the room and drank some wine after Emily had gone to bed, but we were all weary after another big day out and all those steps, so we were a-bed around 10pm.
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