Feb 16, 2007

The Side Effects of Rain

Rain in the Forest "Showers in Brisbane," the forecast said. A slight overcast first thing didn't lead one to believe that they would be arriving too soon.

As ever on Nursery Day, the dogs and I carried on to Mount Coot-tha and wandered down the path... the dry path. The going down this path is quite tough at the best of times, it is punctuated by rocky staircases and steep inclines. As we picked our way down carefully to Simpson Falls, I began to hear quite an unexpected sound. I couldn't quite believe it, but it was definitely, unequivocally, running water.

I've seen water trickling over the so-called Falls once in the time we've been here. I was quite intrigued to see what vista would greet me. As we got down there, I was a little disappointed to see that whilst it was more than a trickle it was hardly a flood. There are two levels to the falls where we were, where a stream feeds a pool which drains over some rocks a couple of feet tall into a large pool which at this time was sending a stream down a small section of a large rock face which slopes about fifty feet I suppose to the bottom.

We wandered around over it for a while, drank the water, cooled down and all that.

I was walking around over the top section looking at a dragonfly dipping into the water when I heard a scrabbling from where the rock face is. I turned around to see Matilda looking at me as her head disappeared over the edge.... then the sound of claws scrabbling on rock, receding... then a large splash, reminiscent of a large rock falling into a well.

I rushed over to the edge to see the rock pool at the bottom of the falls filled with large ripples and Matilda wading to the edge as casually as she could. She climbed back up to the top, a little tentatively, and looked at me as if to say "Did you see that? I meant to do that actually."

I had a quick look at her. She wasn't limping and didn't seem to have much wrong with her. She had a cut on her... reverse... so I assume that the scrabbling noises were her orientating herself to slide down the stream sitting down, toboggan style.

So, given her apparent lack of real injury, we pressed on up the other side of the valley which was steep climbing. After a while it began to drizzle. I'll be all right I thought, it's only a spot of rain. Besides it would take me half an hour to get back to the car. Then the drizzle became rain. Then the rain became, erm, worse rain.

I trudged on but soon was dripping wet. I couldn't see where I was going because my glasses were dripping with water. I couldn't dry my glasses because my T-shirt was saturated. My shorts were wet through. My boxer shirts were wet through. My trainers were squeaking. My socks were drenched. There was no article of clothing or square inch of my body that wasn't wet.

When I got back to the car I had to take my clothes off to prevent consdensation in the car, and I had to use a hat of Eloise's that I found in the boot to dry my glasses.

So the side effects of rain are a) slippery rocks and b) drenched Neil.

Which only leaves c) knackered camera. Oh No!

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