by Karen Swan
The spray spritzed them all and Bo reached for her phone and started recording, pushing her hood back so that she could feel it on her face. Anna’s instinct was the opposite – pulling her hood up to protect her hair and trying to get out of the way – but Bo, Zac and Lenny were straight into photographing and recording every magical first moment of it. They were the Wanderlusters, after all.
‘I said no stopping!’ Anders barked, making them all jump and comply. ‘Come down here.’ He walked them over to a small grassy area downhill. It stretched back towards the trees, away from the spray, and though not quite level there was enough room for them to spread out.
Bo shot him an apologetic look as they gathered together.
‘This will be the base,’ Anders said tersely, shrugging off his rucksack.
Taking that as their cue, Zac began unpacking his ropes and axes. Bo went for the lunches.
‘This is amazing!’ Lenny hollered, his voice barely audible over the sound of rushing water as he took in the panorama with his photographer’s eye, using his fingers to make a frame as he scanned left to right and back again. Zac meanwhile was looking up and down the waterfall, trying to establish where exactly they were. He and Lenny had pored over photographs and maps at the table together last night but it was hard to make out the shape of it when they were so close.
Anders pulled out a laminated image from his pocket and showed it to them. ‘So we are here,’ he said, pointing to a photograph of The Suitor. It was roughly bottle-shaped, with a narrow neck at the top splitting into multiple tributaries lower down where the rocks beneath jutted out, dispersing the waterflow. From where they were standing, Bo could see the gradient below become slightly more shallow as the cliffs sloped like a slide down into the sea. They themselves were situated just above the halfway mark, at the bottom of the neck section and immediately below the most concentrated vertical drop. At the top of it, the water came over the rocks with such force, it blew out as well as down.
She shivered again and looked across at Anna. ‘I’m glad I changed into the waterproof trousers after all!’ she called over the roar.
‘I wish I had!’ Anna shouted back, indicating her skinny jeans. ‘My vanity will be the death of me!’
Bo laughed, feeling her mood improve once more. This scenery, the hike, making up with Zac . . . she felt the shadow of the troll recede again. He only assumed the power she let him have – that was what the policeman had said to her the day she’d tried to report him, to do something. This man didn’t know where she was or with whom. He wasn’t a real threat, he was just the idea of one. Look at what he’d actually said last night: had she missed him? There was no doubt he wanted to intimidate her but, ultimately, it was just a question, that was all.
‘Can we please eat first before you go into Boy Scout mode?’ she asked Zac as he began roping up. He had got that look in his eyes, the one he always got when he was near a slab of vertical granite. ‘I’m starving.’
‘You’re always starving,’ Zac winked at her. ‘But you go ahead, I just wanna do one drop first,’ he said as he spooled out the coils of a climbing rope and clipped on his karabiner belt. He kept restlessly casting his gaze up and along the waterfall, looking for potential belay sites and she knew these were the moments he lived – and travelled – for: adventure and discovery. Pushing himself to the limits. ‘You with me, Len?’
‘Sure, man,’ Lenny said, already swapping his hiking boots for soft-soled climbing shoes.
‘Then let’s do this.’
‘Well, we all need to eat,’ she sighed, knowing better than trying to stop them, and settling herself on the rock, handing out the home-made rolls she had made earlier. Anna took one, Anders too, and the three of them began to eat, watching as Zac and Lenny began scrambling up the rocks together.
‘Does your photographer rock-climb?’ Anders asked her, his eyes on the guys.
‘Only to get into position for the shots. He’s pretty good but he leaves the really technical stuff to Zac.’
‘So Zac’s a professional climber?’ he asked, his gaze trained on the way Zac was almost swinging himself up the cliff. It seemed to Bo he was showing off a little, knowing he had an audience. He didn’t usually climb that fast.
‘Yes. Well, in as much as people follow him to watch him doing stuff like this. It’s what he’s known for – mad mountain-climbing selfies. It sort of evolved from his original goal of becoming the youngest person to visit every country in the world before he was twenty-five.’
‘Did he do it?’
‘Yeah, he did, but last year, a twenty-four-year-old did it too.’
Anna slapped her hand over her mouth. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh.’
‘But it is quite funny,’ Bo agreed, grinning too. ‘And next year, it’ll probably be a nineteen-year-old on his gap year!’
‘How did Zac take it?’ Anders asked her as she offered around the Cokes Lenny had packed.
‘Not well. He’s pretty competitive.’
Anders looked back up at Zac scaling the cliff face like it was hot to the touch. ‘Yes.’
‘So, Bo – how did you guys meet, can I ask?’ Anna asked, looking up at her with a fan-girl expression.
‘Me and Zac?’ Bo’s gaze fell to the ring-pull as she went to open her can. ‘. . . It was such a random thing, really. He’s from New Zealand, I’m from England and yet we met when we were both asked to do a promotion with the Java tourist board. There’s this lovely little place called Kampung Pelangi, which means rainbow village; the whole thing had just been painted – and I do mean every single house – painted with rainbows. They thought it would bring more tourists to the area and that our respective pages had the diverse spread that would cover most demographics: I had the spiritual, arty, yoga-loving crowd and he had the rad, adrenaline-junkie types, backpackers, gappers . . .’
‘So you met in Java,’ Anna said with a sigh. ‘Even that is cool.’
Bo smiled. ‘It’s a beautiful place. Really beautiful – but the town was tiny. We stayed there a few nights doing our own thing by day, but come the evenings there wasn’t much else for us to do but hang out together, chatting in the bar.’
‘What were you doing in the days?’
‘Well, I was off visiting temples and markets. But Zac was climbing all the volcanoes,’ she said, rolling her eyes. ‘Surprise, surprise.’
‘They’re still active in Java, aren’t they?’ Anders frowned.
‘Naturally. That’s how he likes it,’ she shrugged.
‘Was it love at first sight?’ Anna asked, widening her eyes excitedly, wanting the scoop.
‘To be really honest?’ Bo hitched up her eyebrows. ‘No.’
‘No!’ Anna almost fell off her perch on the rock.
Bo wrinkled her nose. ‘Well, all his action man thing – I thought he was a bit ADHD at first. He couldn’t ever sit still, shut up . . .’
‘No, no, no,’ Anna laughed, shaking her head. ‘It can’t be true.’
‘It was like being lumbered with a puppy.’ Bo glanced up at him on the rocks. ‘Still is, to be honest,’ she laughed. ‘Zac’s such a people person. He loves everyone, wants to be everyone’s friend.’
‘But he won you over in the end,’ Anna sighed, quite determined to get to the happy ending.
‘Won me over. Wore me down,’ Bo quipped with a non-committal shrug.
Anna guffawed, loving the inside track. ‘Well, it’s as well he did,’ she said wistfully, before looking over at Anders. ‘Do you know about these guys?’
Anders shook his head.
‘They went supersonic when they hooked up. It was a match made in Insta-heaven: Bo with her beautiful, wistful, spiritual images and Zac with his adrenaline-fuelled, crazy stunts, both of them so gorgeous. It’s no wonder they took over the virtual world.’ She sighed.
Bo smiled, but Anders continued eating his roll in silence – clearly not the least bit interested in her and Zac’s success – his gaze flashing ba
ck up the waterfall every few moments. Bo wondered whether he wanted to be up there too. Zac was screwing an eye into the rock and looping through the rope, Lenny below him on a ledge, his camera pressed to his face as he captured it all. Boys off having their adventures.
Bo felt the flutter of a few frozen, wet flakes on her cheeks; the sleet was getting heavier, the flakes bigger. She held out her hands and watched as a couple fluttered into her palms.
Anders looked around them, a frown creasing his brow as he finished eating and rubbed the crumbs off his hands. ‘The weather was set to worsen tonight but this is coming in sooner than expected.’
‘We should probably get some shots done sooner rather than later, don’t you think?’ Anna asked her.
Bo suppressed a groan. She would have liked to sit and admire the view for a few minutes, to rest up a bit and actually appreciate this place, rather than merely document it. And besides, there was still a bread roll going spare. A snowflake landed on the tip of her nose and she crossed her eyes trying to look at it. ‘I agree, but I need Lenny. We’ll have to wait for him to come back here,’ she said, looking over to where the guys were climbing: Lenny was a third of the way up the drop now and kneeling on a narrow ledge, his attention solely traced on Zac as he searched for handholds, getting as close to the water as he could. Bo already knew what her fiancé was doing – looking for a dip, a hole, a cubby, somewhere just shallow enough to press himself against the back of the waterfall for some ‘behind the falls’ footage. Being roped up to the rock-wall, he would be safe enough against the pressure of the tumbling water. Should be, anyway.
She went to reach for the extra roll.
‘. . . Well, I can take the pictures for you,’ Anna suggested. ‘It’s better than nothing.’
Bo looked up at the white sky again. She supposed Anna had a point. The clouds were thick, the sleet falling like wet feathers from the clouds, no brightness anywhere. The weather had well and truly set in for the day; Signy’s and her own instincts had been right. Reluctantly her hand dropped, away from the food. ‘Okay, sure.’ She had another gulp of her drink and stood up. ‘Anders, there’s a spare roll there if you want it.’
She had offered it to be polite, expecting him to refuse in an equal display of manners. ‘Thanks,’ he said instead, reaching for it and taking a huge bite.
‘Why don’t you stand on that rock there?’ Anna called. Bo turned to see she had clambered down the slope a few feet and was standing right beside the waterfall. Leaving Anders to the last of the lunch, Bo walked to the side of the fall and looked down to where Anna was pointing: a narrow seam of rock – more of a lip than a ledge – protruded six to eight inches from the cliff face, for a run of six feet; it was easily enough to get a foothold on, and as it snaked towards the fall itself, it bellied out into a small basin maybe two feet wide, the rushing water pooling there momentarily before spreading and spilling over the edges on the final approach to the fjord.
The deafening roar of the water made her heart beat faster, her feet tingle; it was like standing in front of a steaming engine or a puffing dragon. ‘Um, I’m not sure,’ she hesitated. ‘That’s pretty close to the falls.’ Right beside them, in fact.
‘Yes, but there’s enough room to plant your feet in that shallow pool. It’s only the spray that’ll be an issue really, but if you keep the hood up . . . it would really show off the range’s technical waterproof properties.’
Two hundred thousand pounds. That was the deal they had struck to promote the collection. And if the clients wanted to show off their waterproofability . . . Could she really say no?
‘Okay,’ she said, handing her phone over to Anna and taking a deep breath, carefully stepping off the grass.
‘No!’ The shout made her turn. Anders had jumped to his feet, the roll dropped in the grass. ‘You can’t go in there. The water pressure is too great.’ He ran over.
‘But she’s not going into the middle!’ Anna exclaimed, as though that point was obvious. ‘Bo’s not going to stand under the waterfall, just at the edges here. Where it’s calm. Look, the rockwall here is nearly dry.’
Anders looked across at Bo, ignoring Anna completely. ‘One misstep and you would be swept over.’
‘I appreciate your concern, but it’s fine. Like Anna says I’m only going to stand at the sides. Don’t worry, I’ve stood in hundreds of waterfalls.’
‘In the tropics, maybe, but not a Norwegian fall in winter you haven’t,’ he said. ‘The recent mild spell has melted much of the early snowpack; the rivers are fuller than usual. And the temperatures are unsurvivable.’
‘Oh, thanks to Ridge Riders, I’m perfectly warm – and fully waterproof too,’ she said with a cheesy smile and giving Anna a thumbs-up. Anna did the same back.
A wet flake landed on the tip of Bo’s nose. She had to resist the urge to stick her tongue out and catch it. ‘Trust me, I have no intention of falling in.’
‘Bo—’
‘Anders, really. I’m fine. You’re our guide, not bodyguard. This is what we do.’ She took a tentative step forward, aware of the weight of his disapproving stare as she angled herself into the sheer rock wall and went to pigeon-step across the river’s exposed bedrock.
‘Then wait!’ he said with an exasperated tone. ‘I will show you where to stand, at least.’
‘Okay.’ She shrugged, as he side-stepped past her with ease.
‘Right, take my hand. These rocks are very slippery.’
‘No! Really?’ she teased – he was pretty easy to rib with that taciturn demeanour of his – letting his hand squeeze around hers, his grip was so tight her knuckles blanched as she awkwardly made her way along the rocks too. ‘You getting this, Anna?’ she hollered. She didn’t want this effort to be in vain.
‘Yes!’ Anna shouted back, her voice faint beside the water.
Moving so close to the waterfall, it wasn’t just the full impact of the roar or the mist that hit them, but the whirling air too that was displaced by the rushing torrents, whipping Bo’s hair around her face. The spray and wind combined was freezing but Anders seemed oblivious, his head bent as he looked for the right footholds, his body leaning in to the mountain. With her one free hand, she pulled the hood back up.
The depth of the basin was greater than it had looked from the bank and it was up to their ankles here. They were both wearing fully waterproofed hiking boots but she could already feel the pressure of the water trying to push her feet from beneath her. In spite of her breezy, possibly even cocky, words a moment ago, she keenly felt that the line between beauty and danger was a thin one here. He was right – a Norwegian waterfall in winter wasn’t like anything she had ever experienced before.
‘There. Now that’s as far as you go,’ he said, not releasing her hand until he was sure she had a secure footing. She leant back against the rock face. The pool, though wider here, stretched barely two feet in front of her. It was round enough to sit in, but that didn’t feel like much consolation when that was all that was stopping her from sliding down this rock face into the inky waters of the fjord.
‘A bit further over would be better!’ Anna yelled from her spot on the bank, waving her arms to indicate where she wanted Bo to go. ‘If you can!’
‘No!’ Anders shouted back hotly. ‘The water pressure is too strong.’
‘It’s only for a second!’
Anders stared at her, disbelief and then a bolt of anger colouring his face. ‘. . . No,’ he said shortly, but there was finality in the word. No further argument would be brooked.
Anna gave a shrug.
Anders looked back at Bo. ‘Do not move,’ he said in a stern voice. ‘Tell me when you want to come back and I will get you.’
She nodded, but ironically his caution was only serving to make her feel more nervous. She pressed herself in harder to the wet rock wall as he tried to get round her again, their waterproofs rustling against each other as he momentarily pinned her to the rock before his foot could find the g
rip to inch away on the other side. She gave an awkward smile as he passed over her.
‘Excuse me,’ he murmured, his eyes flashing to hers and away again. But she felt that funny drop in her stomach that she had got the first time she had seen him. Something about his eyes made her . . .
‘Bo! Look at me!’ Anna shouted, her phone already up to her face. ‘Can you move your arm? We need to see the badge!’ she added, pointing frantically at the badge on her own red jacket.
Anders moved further to the side, still on the rocks but out of frame now. He crouched down, watching on. Bo gave a shiver. Without him there, she suddenly felt uncertain. Immediately in front of her, the tiny plateau she was standing on dropped sharply from sight, whisking the lower falls down to the sea so that it felt like she was balanced precariously on the very lip of the waterfall. She felt like a dust mote, a single raindrop, a solitary snowflake – alone, exposed, vulnerable . . .
She couldn’t hear the click of the camera for once, but she knew it was on her and she moved in the way she knew how to – slowly, to prevent blurring. Arms out. Arms up. Head back. Head down. Hood down. Hood up. Bent leg. Looking to the side – giving them lots of different options to choose from. And all the while flashing her bright smile, never faltering.
‘Bo!’ Tentatively she looked across to see Anna waving at her excitedly from the bank again. ‘Put the hood down! Hood down!’ she cried, pulling her own hood up and down to make the point clear.
Bo shivered. The sleet was feeling icier by the minute and it had to be several degrees colder here than it was on the bank, but she did as she was asked, feeling the mist immediately spritz her hair. She smoothed it back with her hands, blinking and gasping as the spray drenched her. It was shockingly, shockingly cold.
‘Okay, are we good?’ she called after a few minutes, turning to leave the rock pool. She put one foot forward onto a submerged rock, but as she transferred her weight, it moved beneath her, sitting loose in the water.
