Look down

The mist turns into a sprinkle as I stride away from the door. By the time I’m at the top of the driveway it is rain. 

It has been raining in the mountains everyday since we arrived; the bush is thoroughly wet. The few cut stone steps that lead to the top of the path shimmer in the reduced light of the long evening. I’m walking fast and try a trot along the brief flat before the first stair section. I try to look up, the track grabs my attention back.  

The path is a pure descent from the ridge to the valley floor. Water is everywhere. Rock steps. Sodden bark. Bright ferns span the path in exuberant green, the fronds look like they are having the best week of their life.  

Every granite rock step is laden with leaves. They are thick and saturated. There have been few footprints in the last weeks and the leaves are king. I look down carefully. The top leaves are slick with the rain that is now dropping haphazardly though the canopy. The middle layer of leaves are stuck together in small clumps, ready to shift and slide as a block. The bottom leaves are breaking down, wet and hot and dense, packed together and beginning to think like dirt. I keep my eyes down as I descend. 

The steps beside the cliff finish and a dirt path takes over. Dirt and mud and water dance around the occasional boulders. I chance a look up into the trees, my ankle flips and I look down again immediately. “Look down Mike."

The light decreases as I move quickly down. The opposite valley wall rushes towards me as I approach the bottom. There is more brown at the bottom, the green becomes serious and heavy. I look down as I push through the leaves and branches reaching across the track. 

The creek at the valley floor is guarded by a massive granite turtle head. Its gigantic yawning jaw could swallow a small car. I stand still next to the rushing creek and look up. The world is above me, tangled trees and fat foliage, thick sky and cool rain. I stand still on a mossy rock and look up. There is light and air and space up there. The path home is that way, I look down.