Slowing Down

The weather on Tasmania’s west coast is often wet, wild and windy, but I managed to pull three fantastic days out of the hat for my mini-break during this week. With no intention of taking part in the tourist ventures Strahan is famous for, namely the Macquarie Harbour cruise and Abt Railway trip, I walk, read, write, take photos, collect rocks and leaves, and eat.

The process of a long walk is an interesting one. I start out just walking, intending to go from here to there, but partway in there is a shift from simply admiring the surroundings, the bigger picture, as smaller details catch my attention and cry out to be noticed. My eyes change their focus, my pace slows, and I stop. I enjoy the spectacle of a grand vista, a stunning view, but it’s the finer details that always fascinate me. Since I was a little tacker, the seemingly infinite varieties of moss, lichen and fungi have been a source of much delight, so to find a fungi wonderland on the Hogarth Falls track makes the whole trip particularly rewarding.

My amateur photographic attempts are rewarded with ducks mid-flight over the water, fungi I’ve never seen before, water dripping off feathery moss, lichen on gravestones which have been standing for a hundred and sixty years, clear tannin stained water, mirror images in the harbour so clear the waterline disappears, smooth pebbles with markings both bold and so fine I marvel at how they came to be.

The seabirds busy themselves near the water’s edge, the trails of their footprints crisscrossing the sand patterns on the beach lashed by the waters of the Southern Ocean. A massive lump of bull kelp, stem still intact, stretches out like the entrails of some marooned monster, twisted strands of dark chocolate brown rubber, with folds of translucent orange where it catches the sunlight. 

 The longer I wander, and wonder, the more I see. Not just because of time spent observing, but in focussing on what is directly in front of me, details stand out. Intricacies of texture, size, shape and colour delight the senses, highlighting the cycle of life of each organism, the importance of these little things which make up the whole, and the crucial link between them.

By slowing my pace, I don’t just look, I see. I don’t just hear, I listen.