Friday, September 9, 2016

Kondalila (Touched by an Eel)


Beloved has been working crazy hours recently (six weekends in a row - go figure) so when he finally had a weekend off we decided to do something special and see a waterfall. Beloved claims he's been trying to take me to see the Kondalila waterfalls since we started dating ten years ago - and I think he could be right - we mostly visited Queensland in the summer and I have a theory about trekking anywhere but the beach in the Queensland summer - pure madness.

Now, in the gentle weather of spring (long may it last) the walk was delightful. Green and shady for the most part, the gradient wasn't too bad - even for my lumbering seven month pregnant self. As we reached the pools the landscape suddenly became a lot drier, but it was still a pleasant temperature.

I sighed at my younger self who would have stripped to bra and undies without a thought to swim in the pool at the bottom of the falls - but present day mum-of-many considered the trek back in wet undies and thought not. All of my little Queensland kids also touched the water with their toes - and also felt they could live without being refreshed. In Summer, however (if you were mad enough to risk the sweat-bath and walk it) the pool must be irresistible.

Adventure Boy, who had not been a fan of the walk, fell headlong in love with an eel that was surprisingly sociable, and came to the edge and the surface to say hello many times. On the advice of a fellow trekker Adventure Boy touched the eel, and I did likewise - we were both surprised at how soft, silky and slimy it was.

Adventure Boy's new BFF, the eel, was lacking an eye and had quite a few chunks out of his/her fin so we were a little worried about it, but Friend-Eel had picked a lovely spot to live, and it appeared he did good trade encouraging walkers to feed him. I believe that most eels migrate to the sea to breed and we were all interested to think about Friend-Eel's long trek down river to the sea, and also wondered if Friend-Eel had also made the long trek up river from the sea - a truly stupendous journey.

We have promised to take Adventure Boy back to play with his BFF the Eel very soon.







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