We got up early and set off to avoid the heat of the day. We had some breakfast at the Canyon Coffee Shop then walked over to the hill and down the steep road leading into Sianok Canyon. The canopy of trees overgrew the road and it was cool in the shade. Halfway down the road passed the lower entrances of some caves where Indonesian prisoners were held by the Japanese during World War 2. There was a brass sculpture affixed to the cliff face depicting the horrific treatment that was metered out by the Japanese to their prisoners.
At the bottom of the canyon, we began following the river upstream along a rough road cut along the foot of the cliffs and above the river. Patches of jungle alternated with rice paddies and clusters of houses. People were busy in the fields harvesting and threshing the ripened rice crops.
We stopped after about an hour or so and watched teams of local men and their dogs heading off for a day’s pig hunting in the jungle. On the way back down the canyon, we followed the river itself, wading along through the water past lazy, cud-chewing buffalos and small huts and farms.
In the afternoon we spent an hour exploring the labyrinth of caves beneath Panorama Peak but being Sunday, the place was crowded with masses of noisy locals.
CurseOfTheTraveller 