Ink Shadows
We floated down the river a couple of days ago, Brent and I drove out through crown country to Long Point which comes down onto the Macquarie River, we parked the car and went into the water, we found an enormous tree that had fallen into the river, it must have been there for years as it was perfectly smooth and entirely submerged, we worked our away along it and found inclination in the wood which we used as backrests, feet underwater against big stones, Brent said it was like nature’s massage chair. The water was cold but in that good crisp way, it felt nice.
We decided to just float along the river for a while to see what was around the next few turns, we got carried away and by the time we decided to leave the water we had travelled about 15km, which meant we had a 3 hour walk back to the car, there were no roads or anything like that, not even normal walking tracks, we just followed animal tracks and stayed close to the river.
The riverbed was interesting, it was filled with basalt, sandstone and beautiful white quartz as well as a lot of fine grains of iron. As the river was fairly shallow we were just being pushed along by the current, I could reach down onto the water and get a handful of rocks to inspect and admire whilst the current pushed me along, I found a few nice stones. We met a platypus but Brent warned me against going too close as apparently the males in mating season carry a venom that can kill small animals but in human sized creatures it makes you hypersensitive to pain and generally unwell. Australia is fairly devoid of apex predators, we have a bad reputation but for the most part the most dangerous thing in the bush is a feral cat or dingo. Snakes rarely attack unless provoked, crocodiles are specific to some areas and mostly ineffectual on land, spiders are tricky but they’re not as prevalent as one is led to believe.
The whole trip to Orange was nice if a little, difficult, at times. Our first night we drove out to the hills away from the town, put the roof down on the car and flattened the front seats to watch the sky, it’s amazing how much you can see when you’re isolated from cities, you can see satellites moving across the sky for instance, lots of them, plenty of shooting stars as well and the milky way. Another night we drove out to a national park and followed the trail, I parked in a field of Wallabies and Grey Kangaroos and we talked and watched the animals.
Drove to the old gold mines in Ophir and I explored the river banks for a while and then we went into a few old mine shafts, we didn’t have a torchlight and because it was daytime the disparity of light coming in made us basically blind to what was in front of us, we met a few nervous bats that would sweep down onto us now and then, quite the surprise when you’re basically blind. Brent and I explored further into the hills of the forest. We found a huge Gumtree that had been struck by lightning, the tree was so big it had a clearing around it of about 5 meters, which means it must have been gigantic when upright, the big shards of the tree were scattered about the clearing but the stump of the tree was still in the ground mostly, it probably doesn’t sound much but it was quite amazing to see, the force in a lightning bolt is just astounding.
We continued our exploration on too long and we ended up lost when night came, well, not lost but we had walked so far that walking back the way we had come would take us a couple of hours and we thought we were fairly close to where we started. The sky was overcast so it was particularly dark, after about an hour or so we finally found our way back to the ravine which we had been following for a while at the start of our walk, except we were on the wrong side. The ravine was about 7 meters deep which is enough to make one think but still achievable for a crossing, however when in low light conditions with no good foot or hand holds that difficulty is multiplied a few times, we crossed at the best opportunity which was a fallen tree that had fallen into the middle of it, we climbed down only to find a giant collection of blackberry vine covered in thorns on the other side of it, we didn’t have a choice so we just had to endure the pain of the thorns as we climbed up, my hands were covered in blood when we got up to the other side but that was still the best option in the end, the edges of the ravine were just crumbling dirt which couldn’t support weight properly so Brent and I had to sort of disperse our weight by sort of crawling vertically and at times just hope that the foot holds would support us for just long enough to get to the next foot hold. Two times they didn’t and I lost a couple of meters each time.
Still, even the hard parts were fun in their own way. Brent often intentionally leads me into catastrophe because he thinks it will be entertaining, I’ve become accustomed to it, I don’t even mind anymore it’s part of the adventure I suppose. In his mind he’s doing me a favour, he thinks I’m a bit precious, which I am I suppose, compared to him certainly, spending time with Brent trains me to let go of my sense of shame, sense of safety, it’s difficult but rewarding… I learn a lot about myself, and I find that I can do things I never thought I could, or perhaps another way of phrasing it is, things I never thought I’d have to do.
Even just small things, we were doing the drive-through for McDonald’s and as I pulled up to order I saw Brent stirring in his seat, I looked across at him to see what it was he was planning to do, he has obvious tell signs when he’s about to do something vulgar/mischievous, I glared him at him and I thought I got him to back down, to change his mind, the lad on the speakerphone said "Can I take your order?" Before I could say anything Brent leaned across me and let out a howling scream that went for about 10 seconds… He then burst into hysterical laughter and said "You can’t do anything, you can’t just leave the drive-through, you’ve got cars in front and behind, you’ve got to order and wait, you have to live with what I’ve done!" The speakerphone went quiet for about a minute and he said "Sorry for the wait, can I take your order." The annoying bit though, the really annoying bit Brent fucking knew would happen, was that I was also in hysterics, I was crying with laughter and I couldn’t order properly or pay properly, I could only mumble my order between gasps of air… That’s the annoying bit, they would’ve have thought it was me who screamed, almost without doubt in their mind, I was the idiot weirdo.