Chapter 14: Time to go home

The following morning, the two lovers enjoyed another slow, passionate love making session. Now that she had given herself completely to him, Alice couldn't get enough of it. Despite her soreness from the previous evening, she went at it with fervor again and she even wore John down, for a change.

When they were both finally spent, they shared a romantic breakfast, watching how the sun rose higher and higher above the hills.

"I wish we could stay here for the rest of our lives," Alice softly remarked, "It would be great to wake up in such a beautiful environment every day, with you next to me."

"Yeah ... I'd really like that too," John replied, putting his arm around her.

After sitting like that for half an hour, Alice said, "Well, I guess we better break up camp and start moving again ... It's still a long trip down. Want to spend the night at the lake again? We can move to the waterfall tomorrow then."

"I think that would work out best yeah, the trip down the mountain should save us at least an hour, maybe two, compared to going up, but we won't be able to get really far after that and there aren't any good water places between the lake and the waterfall," John said in agreement, while he looked over the map.

Having that decided, they started on the long journey down the mountain. During the midday they had lunch at the same spot as yesterday and Alice was thankful that the temperature was heating up as they got lower. It had been a bit too chilly for her in the early morning, on top of the mountain, but she felt comfortable as long as her body got to soak in the warm rays of the sun.

After they set up camp that evening they had another swim in the lake and John caught them a couple more fishes for dinner. He seemed rather easy to persuade, when Alice suggested that they hit the sack early again that night. Perhaps her mischievous grin, which let him know that sleeping wasn't on her mind for a while, had something to do with that...

The following morning they slept in again, the hike to the waterfall would take them roughly six hours, so they had more than enough time to take things slow.

After their morning swim and a hearty breakfast, they quickly broke up camp and went on their way again.

When they were walking for an hour, John pointed to some place and said, "Hey ... Look over there ... Isn't that Ben and Marlene?"

Alice took a good look, in the distance she could indeed see two figures trudging towards the mountain.

"It looks like it's them yeah ... They don't look very happy and it sounds like Ben is getting another earful from Marlene," Alice smiled, with a grin of malicious delight.

The happily married couple was too far away from them to catch up any time soon, so Alice wasn't too worried. Not to mention, they didn't even seem to notice them, since they were walking away from her and John. They also didn't seem to pay a lot of attention to their surroundings, so Alice doubted that she'd have any more trouble from Marlene.

It looked like they were still hiking, but they were wearing minimal clothes now, it was almost indecent. Alice concluded that likely all their other clothes had become too wet to wear and the only things they could currently use was their sleepwear.

Even after a full day of being able to dry in the sun, they still haven't recovered from the ordeal I put them through ... I'm such an evil woman ... That hussy really got what she deserved though, I got to spend a wonderful time with John, but that wasn't thanks to her. She had almost ruined everything!

Alice lightly squeezed John's hand, while she was lost in her thoughts for a moment and when John looked up at her, he must have seen her smile, since he started to grin too.

"You seem to be enjoying their discomfort a bit too much, Alice..." John remarked, "Perhaps we should get moving again?"

"Ah," Alice blushed, "I guess you're right yes, let's get go."

When they reached the waterfall that evening, Alice found that it was really as lovely as the older woman had described to her. Since nobody was nearby, Alice even suggested that they go skinny dipping after dinner, much to John's delight.

They tenderly made love below the waterfall that evening, the moon and the stars illuminating the water and making it a very serene scene, one that you usually only read about in fairytales.

The rest of their days were spent pretty much alike. When they woke up they made slow and tenderly love, after which they took a swim to refresh and clean their bodies from sweat and other secretions.

Next they had a hearty breakfast, walked until lunch and then had a one hour break. If there were any berries nearby they'd scavenge them for lunch, but otherwise they just relaxed, while sitting on a fallen tree trunk or a rock. When lunch was over they continued walking until they reached their planned destination and then set up camp.

Like usual Alice would take care of the tent, while John gathered firewood and went fishing. After dinner they would have another swim and then quickly went in their tent for another round of passionate love making. During the evenings they mostly experimented with new techniques and exploring the boundaries of each other's bodies, while in the mornings their love making was more leisure and tender, since they were often still sore from the evening before.

Alice and John hated it when they left the reserve and saw the Bullfrog Hotel again, but they knew it had to end sometime.

Like the first day that they arrived, it was midday when they reached the hotel.

"What do you say about having one last meal here, before we head back to civilization?" Alice asked him.

John looked a bit depressed, he hated to see their camping trip come to an end already, two weeks of fun in the outdoors had literally flown by and he didn't want to go back to his old life.

Gloomily he said, "Yeah ... I'd like that. I'm not really hungry though, but if it keeps us here a little bit longer, then yeah ... Sure."

Alice's eyebrows frowned, when she replied, "Hey ... Cheer up, it's not easy for me either, but we had a wonderful time right? It doesn't have to end when we go back to our city..."

Alice's voice had sounded hopeful when she spoke these last words and John looked up at her, saying, "No, I don't want our relationship to end either, but it's gonna be so hard to keep it a secret ... After the summer vacation is over I can only spend my Saturdays with you, and my mom already wondered three weeks ago, if I wasn't spending too much time with you. I convinced her that we had a lot to plan and prepare for, but I can't use that excuse either anymore now. I don't know how I'll be able to sleep at night, without making love to you first..."