Observations From Isolation: Ch.5 – Tiered Waterfalls, Up In The Hills…
We get to the
Top of the Bitumen Hill
And I pull onto the side
To lock the front wheels and then
Kick it into four-high and we turn
Off the scrappy blacktop onto dirt and head
Up and east.
There are houses at first,
Decent size and structure tucked
Into the dense rainforest
But we leave them behind quickly and
It’s nothing but green and swaying ferns and
Palms.
We wind the windows down and smell
The peat and the moisture coming up
Off the forest floor.
We catch glimpses of the
Ocean through the
Trees and the land falls away to our right
As we climb higher.
The road is fine, packed hard and almost
Pink gravel, running divots cut through in
Places from recent rain creating diagonal
Speed bumps. The truck
Shudders and bounces across them
And stabilises. I sip coffee
Carefully between bumps, quickly averting
My eyes from the road to tuck the
Cup back into its holder.
We find a spot, high up, to park,
Tucked against ferns and backed
Against a fallen log. We cross
The road, with the small stream running beneath
That then finds freedom on the other side
Through big concrete pipes that make you think
Of sewage, but the water is
Clear and clean and is colder than the air.
Adeline skips ahead on the
Slippery rock and we have to tell her to
Be careful but she doesn’t stop, just laughs
And keeps on skipping.
The rock tiers naturally, small steps
Downward, rivulets running and dropping
Then pooling before finding a gap
And gravity helps it along.
Birds call in the trees and there’s
No one about at all. You think
You hear a car somewhere further down one
Of the tracks but it turns out to be a lone,
Small, plane somewhere not too high above
Joyflighting over the emptiness of
It all.
Some parts are steep and you need
To find a way, a different way, off the
Track, somewhere easier to slide, to
Tumble, to step down to the next level
Where the water pools again, deeper this
Time under trees with dappled sun lighting
It in a way that makes the clear water gleam
Like nothing you’ve seen gleam before.
We race leaves down small runs to
See which will get there first. Mine
Always seem to end up caught under
Loose grass and Addy’s make it clear to the
Next pool.
We find the end, a proper drop to
Valley below, the view across Myocum
Towards Byron and the sea glittering in the
Middle distance. We sit
And eat mandarins and peanuts and sip
From the water bottle and find long grass
To make swords and we throw our fruit peel
Into the long scrub and sit and watch
The view.
