The worst thing to do in the jungle is straying from the path. People have gone missing here. You turn around three times and lose all sense of direction. The forest canopy is most of the time simply too thick to make out where the sun is coming from, assuming of course you were lucky in the first place to go hiking on a cloud-free day; not a very common occurrence, I have to say. So, unless someone made the effort to mark a hiking trail with these little colourful ribbons, it is advised not to venture into the thicket. Luckily for those of us who can't resist the call of the jungle, nature already has the best tracks laid out for us. Just follow your favourite creek. Upstream only though, always upstream. Because downstream, that's where the crocs are. They don't like the shallow, cold mountain creeks with their rapids and cascades that are so difficult to overcome for a short-legged reptile; instead, they prefer the deeper waters, closer to the warm ocean, where it's easier to hunt. Those are obviously not the only challenges in these undertakings. Rivers and creeks usually don't provide the optimum hiking conditions. The ground is wet, rocks are slippery, wading in water is slow, there are deep areas, where one occasionally has to take to swimming, resulting in everything getting soaked. So, preparing well is essential. Stable shoes. Sealed bags to keep phone and a change of dry clothes and a lot of water. It's surprising how thirsty on can get in a humid climate. All this sweating. And even though the river water might look deliciously clean, since the wild pigs have started to take over the rainforest, they've found salmonella in water samples. But the rewards for these struggles are just too tempting. Buchanan creek lead me right to a magical place, where the intense blue water winds itself through a deep narrow passage of intense green grass, shrubs and vines entangling artistically brown rotting tree trunks full with red and white mushrooms. Right out of a fantasy novel, wouldn't you say? Cooper creek requires some waist-deep water wading for about two hours only to surprise you with the famous Alexandria falls. Literally no other way to see them. Oliver creek doesn't even take that long to gift you with some adorable swimming holes, totally tourist free. And Noah creek leads to towards the oldest part of the jungle. This wide and calm river that you find when passing by in a car, turns into a wild assembly of gushing rapids, tiny waterfalls between gigantic boulders when walking about an hour upstream. It's dramatic and peaceful at the same time. I could have watched the crystal-clear waters, for the first time actually understanding the meaning of the word, for hours, hadn't I had to go back in order to hitch a ride before sunset. And I didn't even talk about all the tiny unnamed creeks that you find in every part of this forest. Just follow them and see where they lead you. But as a warning anecdote, a friend told me that he once followed the small creek flowing through his property for three hours upstream then left the water bed to walk in the forest for a few hundred meters, only to discover that after he had hiked back, he was about five kilometres from where he started. That can also happen, hahah.