The Mambo waterfall is an instant charmer for those who love to hike, those who love adventure, and those who would want to take a quick break from the hustles and bustles of the urban lifestyle. Located on the other side of a downward slope in the mountains of the Mambo community, it’ll take a solid but exhilarating journey through an uneven stair of hills to reach that spectacular validation of nature’s incredible craft.
The event that led to my very first encounter with the Mambo waterfall was part of an exercise routine organized every two weeks by VSL. The event targets those who wish to stretch their muscles through challenging long walks- in a time when covid-19 has made, staying home, the new norm. At 7:30 am, over a dozen of us who were determined to take on the challenge had arrived at Hamilton Junction. It was where the walk to the fall is meant to start. In droves, we began the walk. Each set of people who knew each other maintained about a meter distance around themselves. Either consciously or subconsciously almost every group of people was adhering to the social distancing measures.
The journey took us through verses of exciting walk on the highway of the Hamilton and Mambo community. Some of us bathe in the cool morning winds of the mountainous peninsula while cars race by and onlookers stand afar, curiously watching at the unusual parade of people of different shades of race, age, and gender. The athletic diversity of the group was evenly balanced. Some were strolling unhurried and quiet, with music in their ears or having a chatter, others had their feet walking at an alarming pace while those with athletic prowess were virtually racing to the fall. Over a thousand steps into the walk, we approached a curve- it took us off the highway, at that moment, we began ascending the nerve-wracking hillside of Mambo. The path leading to the fall is motorable up to a certain point. For those who would want to visit the fall but do not want to take on the challenging hike, that is a win.
In just under 30 minutes or more, some of us reached the top of the main mountain that one has to conquer in order to reach the fall. Drenched in sweat and exhaustion, we stayed there for a brief while to catch a breath. When we look down, that position offered us this beguiling God’s eye view of the entire Mambo community. We could see how the vastness of the ocean project its blueness and how the sea waves crash into the beach as if to embrace the shores. We saw how human settlement had progressed into nature’s cloak but still, a significant amount of lush vegetation, still remain in the community and beyond.
The last length to the fall is a descending walk we took through what’s left of the shallow jungle that is now dominated by sparse human trails. As we disembark the slope, with sour muscles and racing heartthrob, we began to hear the alluring symphony flying into the air when the stream of water musically glides down the rocks. In what seems like no time, we gazed upon the Mambo Waterfall- for some of us, it was our very first time and behold, all the pain we incurred from the exhausting trekking ceased to matter anymore. We were in the face of a scene so grand and electrifying that I thought, even nature must have stopped and wondered, each time it glanced at such an astounding cascade of elegance.
From atop the cliff, where the water seems to flow, you could presume a single stream of water is feeding these chains of stairways that must have been etched on the rocks over time. As the gang of wild-frosted-water, in daring pageantry motion, cascaded these naturally enthralled stairways. You could almost feel, taste, and smell the astral gesture of imperial beauty that is riddled in such a melodramatic sensation submerged in the face of the Mambo Waterfall.
At the foot of the waterfall, a pool harbored a body of water so reviving, cold and apparent that you could see the little fishes strolling about. When the water overflowed it dribbled down to another pool which formed a chain of pools, and with each pool more profound than the previous. As we buried our minds in the soothing ordeals of the Mambo fall, I imagined; the collective experience offered by this waterfall, no matter how long one basked in it, one will never say, I’ve had enough of it.