11th December 2022

For some time now I have been feeling flat and that lack of energy is no more evident than when I take my walks with my camera. I have been failing to see the beauty that often I found as I strolled through the bush.

I decided on this day to take a walk to the above waterfall with the intention to not take photos but read a book there.

At that waterfall there are usually Eastern Water Dragons that swim, feed and sunbake. I was hoping to spend the day with them. I had half a book to finish reading.

The approach into this waterfall was well up past the bridge and the river is very low there at the moment and has been since November. You can see from the back rock wall in the above photo from the brown sediment how much higher the water gets.

Much like in the above photo this day was hot, sunny and windless when I made my way in but that would change once I started my way up the hillside.

There is no track up to this waterfall on the hillside so before I head into the rainforest I have to arrange my camera bag so that it catches less and put gloves on for protection from gympie gympie and wait a while.

While I was doing that I noticed a large parade of ants making their way across the rocks carrying something that looked like larvae. So many of them and they all seemed to know their purpose and work as a community for the community.

The waterfall I was heading up to on this day is not right at the top but still a 200 metre hike up a steep gradient. Clouds started to blow over so I was fortunately getting some shade.

As I made my way further up the hillside I could tell from the water flowing below that the waterfall would be flowing very slowly and the pool at the base almost dry. The clouds were also getting heavier and I started to hear thunder.

As the clouds got heavier it got darker on the hillside and spotting spiders webs got more difficult. They are everywhere on the hillside and often you are looking down as you climb up the hillside hanging onto fig trees or whatever you can. Then as you turn your head up to look forward you face plant a spiders web.

My instant reaction is to flick my hat and hope for the best. Most of these spiders are 1 to 2 inches like this one but some are nearly the size of your hand.

When I arrived at the waterfall my expectations were proven true, there was very little water flow and the Water Dragons were present. I sat and watched one try to reach out and grab a spider to eat for a few minutes before settling in for the task that day.

It was now about midday so I made noodles for lunch and a hot chocolate to sip whilst I spent the afternoon reading a book at the base of the waterfall with my Dragon friends.

The book I was reading was written by a man I had just made a wedding ring for. Delayed by covid and now 3 years in the planning I finished the ring this month ready for his return from overseas.

It is from this book I have taken the word “purposefulness” for the title of this post. Even despite having achieved so much so far in his life for the better of his fellow mankind, he still questions his “purposefulness”, which really left me wondering what the hell have I done with my life?

I do not read much but I started this book and fell asleep with it in my hands well past midnight the night before. The next day I could not wait to climb up to this waterfall and finish it. If you think of many Doctors as self absorbed money making machines, read this book, there are some that are really special .

In the reading you will also become more aware of some of the medical problems mankind has that you are going to hear more and more about. Such as antimircrobial resistant superbugs due to overuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture and a pharmaceutical industry that has very little financial interest in inventing new antibiotics.

By the time I finished the book it was late afternoon. There was still the odd splash of light through the rainforest canopy but the thunder was getting stronger.

As I watched a yabbie and tadpoles feed and move around a piece of fig tree fruit that had fallen into the base of the waterfall I thought of a quote that summed up people like Dr McIver’s lives. It was written by the much maligned Albert Pike, an American lawyer who advocated for universal education, womens and Native American’s rights in the 1800’s.