Straight up

Getting to the start is half the trip: a longboat up the river, then a long walk through the forest to Camp 5, where you sleep in a wooden bunkhouse and listen to the rain.

The trail itself is about 2.4 kilometres, and almost none of it is flat. It starts as roots and mud, turns into rock, and finishes on ladders and ropes fixed to limestone sharp enough to cut a glove.

And then, quite suddenly, you're above them: grey blades standing out of the forest like something left behind by a much bigger world.

Coming down takes about as long as going up. Nobody mentions that until you're halfway.

“Nobody mentions that until you're halfway.”