Abseiling The Cascade Waterfalls In Port Vila

The last adventure tour I want to share with you that I took up on my honeymoon with Carnival Cruises is the abseiling tour I completed in Port Vila.

Abseiling in general is a fun and thrilling adventure which does take some guts and nerves of steal. I have been abseiling only once before this trip which was in the Blue Mountains which was roughly a 10 metre cliff face.

You can see all the Blue Mountain Abseiling Adventures here.

However on this trip with Carnival Cruises to the beautiful South Pacific, my wife and I took it a step further. This time we were going to abseil down 50 metres, that's 5 times the height I've tried before.

Not only was there the height to deal with, but the rushing waters of the famous Cascade Waterfalls. Yikes.

Meeting area for Cascade Waterfalls

I must admit before we got on the cruise my wife and I were most excited about this adventures above all the others mentioned throughout these recent blog posts.

On the morning of the tour however I was started to feel anxious and nervous. I'm not overly comfortable with open heights and 50 metres, with rushing water and sharp edged rocks below was not making this easy for me.

But I managed to break past this anxiety and headed to the tour. On my last visit to Port Vila (when I actually proposed) we went to visit and swim under the beautiful Cascade Waterfalls. The scenery and the waters were so amazing that we just had to go back. But we wanted to step up our game.

We arrived at the family meeting point and kiosk and headed over to the gear already set up. Word of warning... you DO want to wear shorts that at least almost touch your knees. I had to laugh at the few people who had short-shorts on and the harnesses would uncomfortably catch their skin.

As the Cascades were high up the mountainside we had a bit of hike to reach the top through thick rain forest. The climb is doable and the tour operators will allow you a break so it is achievable, it just isn't overly easy.

The sites from on top of the mountain give you panoramic views of Port Vila and the islands that are found just off the shorelines and in the distance. One of these islands includes Hideaway Island which is amazing for scuba diving.

Once we reached the top we had a quick safety briefing explain the ropes and how to use both your hands and feet on the wall.

The first abseil was down an 8 metres practice cliff and into the pool below. As it is the first abseil of the day (there are 2) most of us were nervous even thoguh the height was next to nothing when compared with the cascades.

We all went down one by one with the instructors shouting out the techniques we should be using. My downfall was not leaning back far enough and I wouldn't let my grip go on the supporting rope.

Once the instructors knew we were all ready for the big drop we started over to the Cascade Waterfall.

Thankfully the initial drop off wasn't as steep as I thought it would be and it made it hard to look all the way down the 50 metres. It was more of a slow step backwards until eventually you were vertical.

As nervous as I was I decided to head down... I didn't really want to climb back down the steep mountainside we just came up so this was pretty much the only way down now.

There were 3 stopping places were more staff were waiting and would tie you up to the next set of ropes. The first third was actually not so bad. The water wasn't as strong here and the climb was pretty much straight down.

On the second one however the water was on our path, at least around our feet and ankles. It was here that I decided I must be at least half way down and decided to look behind me for the first time.... we were no where near the bottom so that wasn't the best idea and just added to the nerves.

On the next and last tier of our abseil the path took us right under the flow of water covering us head to toe in the fast moving falls. As scary as I thought this would be it was actually the funnest part of the adventure.

This last tier was also the biggest, probably around 25 metres to reach the water hole below were everyone else who finished the abseil cheer the remaining groups on.

Although the experience made me nervous and anxious, reaching the bottom in one piece made it one fo the most rewarding adventures of my life time. I had so much adrenalin pumping through my veins that I was keen on going up again.

I'll definitely be looking at other abseiling adventures that I could do in Australia so that I can work on my skills and to build up those nerves.

Daniel Hardie
Rock Climbing and Abseiling Adventures