Smokey Waterfall

Our final trip in the Chapada Diamantina national park was to go to see the Fumaca "Smokey Waterfall", the waterfall plummets over 400 meters to a pool far below, half way down the water evaporates giving it the name the smokey waterfall.

The trip is a 5 hour round trip walk climbing 1000 meters.

The first 1 hour of the walk was where we gained 90% of the height so as you can imagine it was hard work, there was not a cloud in the sky and it was about 27 degrees.

We were rewarded with this view from the first summit.

After passing this we arrived above the Capao valley, this valley has a large history in Diamond mining, the town was established during the boom of diamond mining. Since Diamond mining was outlawed the town has become a favourite for hippies and farmers.

We were however advised that if you stumbled across a Diamond you could keep it, this led to Sarah completing the remainder of the walk looking at the floor!!

After another hour of walking we arrived at the waterfall, the only problem was it had not rained in about a week so there was no waterfall.....but the views were still amazing!

To get the best look of the valley below and across the gorge you could lay on a piece of rock jutting out from the cliff by about 8 ft long and 3 ft wide!! This is a 400 meter drop!!!

The ledge highlighted in red

As most people will be aware I have an acute fear of heights which meant there was no way I was going on that ledge, but after much pier pressure I laid on the main cliff to look over the edge....well near the edge anyway.

The below shot shows a panoramic of the gorge, this was a stunning place with no noise or human impact, totally peaceful.

While on the caves trip two days earlier we met a couple from Sao Paulo spending their holiday in northern Brazil, we had all agreed to do this trip together. They were a lovely couple and very knowledgeable about their country and culture, walking with them was great fun. (the Chinese bloke in the background was not with us he just would not get out of the photo)

 Come the end of the 5 hour walk it was time to celebrate our descent but Sarah had not found any Diamonds.

As is the way in Brazil, a long walk is always rewarded by a dip in a pool and a shower in a waterfall!

I'm not giving the middle finger either

A perfect day ended with a beautiful sunset out of the rear windows of our van.

Thanks to our new found Brazilian friends this is our track of Brazil that will always remind us of chilled out laid back Bahia!

Some may recognise Ben Harper.