Our day with Dalat Highland Adventures started early with a pick up from our hotel, before heading straight to their base at Datanla waterfall on the outskirts of the city. Datanla is one of the most popular waterfalls to visit in Dalat, with an alpine coaster and walkways you can explore on your own. The canyoning tour gives you an entirely different experience from what most visitors at Datanla waterfall get, filled with the adrenaline rush of abseiling, ziplining, sliding down natural waterfalls and floating down the lazy river.

We got suited and booted, literally in wetsuits and hiking boots, ready to take on the falls. After getting set up with our harnesses we had a quick safety talk before practising our abseiling skills on the fake cliffs at the Highland Adventure Tours base.

The first of 7 challenges you conquer on the Highland Adventures Canyoning Tour in Dalat is an 18m abseil down the first portion of Datanla Waterfall.

We were all a bit nervous about embarking on our first abseil, but nerves were quickly overridden with adrenaline. It was so exhilarating to make it down the first plunge of Datanla fall with encouragement from our group and instructor! The drop into the icy pool at the bottom woke us all up and got the blood pumping for what was to come.

After beating the current and climbing out of the waterfall, we trekked down a short trail to a new section of Datanla waterfall, beyond where the regular visitors get to explore.

Here we prepared for the next challenge; ziplining. The guides expertly set up the zipline and got us ready to cruise from the top of the waterfall all the way to the embankment on the other side of the river.

After the zipline, we floated down the lazy river, not without lots of laughter from bumping into each other, and arrived at our next challenge: a natural waterslide.

From the outside, the waterslide looks like a piece of cake. A gently sloping rock leads into a somewhat enclosed rockpool.

What you don’t see is the current that sweeps you at speed down the slide and thrusts you into the whirling water of the pool below. Each of us was positively thrown off the end of the waterslide and into the depths of the pool. It was fun!

Our arrival at the largest waterfall drop of the day commenced with a lunch feast. Fresh fruit, build your own banh mi’s and snacks to fuel us up for the biggest challenge of the day; a 25m abseil.

Now, I’ve got to admit: Standing atop a 25m drop, which involves a slippery waterfall and spray to the face wasn’t so appealing to me. I had bashed my knee earlier in the day climbing out of the water and it was aching. Between the pain in my knee and the daunting task of a 25m abseil, I decided it best to sit this one out, and instead watched from the trail and cheered on the members of our group as they nailed the abseil.

As we hiked along the trails to the final portion of the waterfall, we passed our 6th challenge; cliff jumping. With a variety of levels to choose from, we launched ourselves off the cliff and into the icy pool of water below.

A few failed flips and somersaults later our group was sufficiently freezing and beaten up by the cold water, so we continued our trek towards the end.

As we moved on to the finale of the canyoning tour, we were apprehensive. Nicknamed “The Washing Machine”, the final waterfall abseil fills your mind with images of being plunged into swirling water. And well, that’s exactly what happens.

Starting at the top of an overhang, you actually can’t see the waterfall from the launch site. A quick abseil over the edge finds you hanging inside the weight of the waterfall, from where you continue abseiling until you hit the river below, being swirled through a quick whirlpool, only to reemerge in the midst of the calm lazy river. The perfect combination of challenge and thrill after a fun day in the water.