Soma
Tools of the Path => The Journey, the Adventure [Public] => Topic started by: erik on July 19, 2007, 09:45:31 PM
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I'll move my reflections on the journey to Australia here. It will help me to write it down better and keep it focused.
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Yes. Writing it all down. Easier said than done. The human nature is such it wants to keep things to itself so much! It does not want to open up, even under pressure of daily life and work obligations, it desperately tries to hold on to that extraordinary feeling that I came to know in Australia.
Michael's eyes, Julie's care. Mountains, the energies. Michael's eyes when we had coffee in airport. Their extraordinary colour. That warmth and the feeling of tremendous loss at the airplane. How to say it all so that it would make any sense?
Home found and left behind again. That extraordinary ease of being. Sun, the quiet sound of creek. Dreams and visions. 10 years of accumulated and concentrated intent burst into living intensively a few days. A few days that seemed to last forever!
Now - work, duties. Pressure of the daily life. Emptiness and the sense of displacement in the daily world.
I'll get to it.
I'll write.
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:-*
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The bus for airport was to leave at 3 am. We woke up at 1.30 am after an hour or so of deep sleep. There was no sleepiness, adrenalin was high. Everything, every fibre of our beingness was ready to go. We tried to get a taxi, but it was to no avail. No wonder – it was a summer solstice night and taxi drivers are human beings after all. I had a 100 litre-backpack; Tiina’s thing had wheels. Up and go! We made it to the bus station in about 15 minutes instead of usual 20.
Bus, breaking dawn, a bit of drizzle out there. Everyone sleeps. I’m sitting there, looking at sleeping people and thinking about nothing. Minute after minute. Eventually I had a brief nap as well.
Airport. 6 am. We have our backpack wrapped in plastic. Check-in, security control. We are in the international zone and looking at our plane. The thought about flying through two days and landing tomorrow at 9 pm is utterly unreal and has no content, no substance. Duty free shop opens. I’m thinking about buying 6-pack of beer to Michael, yet he warned me the day before over the phone that in Australia they would not allow to take any bottle over 100 ml into cabin. I’m hesitant, Tiina is firm – take it! To hell with it! If Aussie security personnel is going to have beer, so be it! Boarding, getting ready for flight. Off we go into cloudy sky. It has began!
Nothing really happens in our flight to Frankfurt. Adrenalin eases a bit, I read a book. It is ‘The Last Legion’, a fiction about how the last Roman legionnaires took their 16-year emperor under the guidance of an old druid to British isles. Rome was controlled by barbarians, empire was no more. It was time for a new beginning. They ran from barbarians fighting their way through collapsing pieces of what used to be a world-state.
Frankfurt. Two hours pass like 20 minutes. We board a Boeing 747. Christ, it is huge! 10 rows of seats! We sit in the centre. Blankets, pillows, head phones, socks, tooth brush and paste. LCD screen shows expected flight time: 11 hours 15 minutes. There is a map: we’ll fly over Germany, Poland, Belorussia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and China. It is bloody half the globe! Utterly surreal thought. Will this plane be really in the air for 11 hours?
We prepare for take-off. The plane is truly monumental, I wonder if it’s pre-take off run is longer than that of other planes. It begins – yes, it takes a bit longer to reach the lift-off speed. We are airborne. We are heading east.
I wake up in the middle of the night. Or is it a day? What time is it? Clock shows some numbers, but their relevance is questionable, as I cannot see what’s outside, except that there is dark. Right. I watch another movie. We still have 5 hours to go (damn! fly!) and Tiina sleeps deeply.
Dawn. We are approaching Hong Kong. Utter disbelief. Is it really Hong Kong? The place of Jackie Chan and martial arts movies? The legendary colony of Britain? There are mountains below. Houses like towers, bay full of all sorts of vessels. We land on a narrow strip. Pilot tells us that there are 31 degrees Celsius outside. Yes, while exiting, one can feel it. Our steps are unsure. We’ve sat for way too long! The overall feeling is that of numbness – it is supposed to be morning, but the body is not quite sure about it. I wash and shave and then lay down with my legs up. It feels good!!! Tiina walks around and then chooses also a more comfortable position. Pre-boarding security check did not mind the beer. Cool! At least it’ll reach Australia!
Another boarding. Flight to Sydney. Dream is coming true. During the flight I tell Tiina several times – we are flying to Sydney! We are flying to Australia! She smiles and laughs. We are flying to a continent I used to look at on the small model of globe I had at home when I was a kid. I used to read about Australia, I used to wonder how different Aboriginals were from Negroes in Africa. The land of kangaroos. I can’t get over that feeling of being unable to grasp reality. I never thought I’d reach that land.
I finish the book. The last Roman emperor reaches England. There is a decisive battle with chasing barbarians and by the end of it a new state is born on these isles. Empire is through, but the life goes on. A new king or former emperor strikes his sword into a big rock in the middle of a lake after the battle, and leaves it there for next generations to awe.
We reach Australia near Darwin. Indeed, the colours of Australia are primal. Scorched brown and green. I relax and go into half-dreaming. I feel warmth and comfort. Is it coming from that land? Is it talking to me already? We fly by not that far from where Michael lives. I’m thinking that we might be no further than a few hundred kilometres from him. Another boost of that surreal feeling of being disconnected from reality. Yet my senses are sharp and register precisely what’s happening around us. It is getting dark. It is dark. Sydney below! What a beauty! The lights on the coastline. Landing. Our steps are even more shaky than in Hong Kong. Customs officers are friendly. They inquire about the box of chocolates in our bags. We are through!
Taxi driver greets us with what came to be a frequently heard phrase: ‘No worries, mate!’ and drove us to our hotel at a lightning speed. We get our key and sit on the bed. Australian bed! I ring Michael and tell that we are in Sydney and will be flying to Ballina next morning. He is jolly…and maybe even surprised that we really are in Australia? We have a chat and I duly inform Michael that we’ve managed to fly beers half way around the globe. Laughs! We do a short walk on our moderately shaky feet and make sure we know where to go tomorrow to begin our adventure. I’m gobsmacked: it is a European city, but the nature!…the nature has nothing in common with Europe. There is a weird feeling of inappropriateness of that city in that nature. We sleep a dreamless and heavy sleep.
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Beautiful!
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We wake up on time, even a few minutes before the alarm set on the cell phone. Quick shower, sip of Coke, chips, we grab our bags that are unpacked and to another flight we walk. The plan is to check in and have something better to eat.
The weather is grey. It starts to rain and when we get into the airport the rain becomes torrential. The check in is laid-back as are many things in Australia. Nobody cares about beers…which is a good thing and ought to make Michael a happy man! We don’t manage to get anything to bite, though.
The flight is uneventful. Next to us sits a Spaniard who came to Australia quite some years ago for holidays and could not get himself to leave. What strikes us in the flight is the coastline. There are not simply dozens of kilometres of pure white sand, but apparently hundreds of kilometres, or so it seems from the air. The ocean (ocean!!!) is fairly peaceful.
Ballina is a small place and its airport could be a train station in any village in the world. Here we must get our rental car. We chose a small Hyundai Getz with manual gearbox. The chap who hands us the key is maybe 18-20 years old and his most frequently voiced phrase is ‘no worries!’ That’s a bit surprising as we are not so much worried about getting the car as driving it on the left side of the road! Eventually we get the keys and get acquainted with the little car that is to serve us for next few days.
It’s made to the US standards of comfort, and its brakes and steering wheel are amplified more than in European cars; there is also an air conditioner. Right. I sit on the right side and try gears with my left hand. It might actually work! The lights are under my right hand, though. I must get used to it. I also must get used to sticking to the left side of the road that for us usually is the lane of traffic going in the opposite direction. Feels a bit like kamikaze…
Tiina is already messing with maps and plotting our course to Byron Bay. Fortunately it is not that far away – some 30 km. Off we go! I totally concentrate on handling the car, Tiina navigates. The first 10 km pass without noticing – it all feels so alien that there is no time to look around or wonder. Next 10 km are more peaceful and during the last 10 km I feel that adrenalin is subsiding. Tiina does a perfect job and we find our motel in Byron’s Bay right away. I park the car, phew! Quite enough of that stuff for one day!
It still rains and is grey. Yet it is warm and our enthusiasm only grows! Rain clothes on and to the ocean, to the ocean! We can hear its noise! We start walking down the streets of Byron Bay and I’m in sheer wonder. Should I start taking photos of all that is alien to me? That would mean standing all day long and just taking photos. I decide to trust Tiina’s ideas about what’s worth photographing and walk along.
Byron Bay is one of these coastal towns that make living form being on the coast. One can imagine hordes of surfers and all sorts of holidaymakers crawling on the streets in the summer. Small houses, palms, huge number of shops, cafes, bars, etc. Some old hippies on the street. Unfortunately one can smell them from far away. They look worn and tired.
We decide to go to ocean. Pacific Ocean! My first ocean. There, there it is. Not much wind, drizzling rain. Waves roaring rhythmically on the beach. That is how Pacific Ocean greets us.
We stop and breathe the air. It is strange to think that that endless sea goes up to South America. It goes on for thousands of kilometres. It goes on and on. We cannot resist temptation to try the water, then take our boots off and walk in it. It is warm! It actually feels that we would feel warmer in the water than outside. A bunch of surfers seems to prove the point. We turn right and start to walk on the waterline.
Waves have washed up various shells and pieces of corals. They are beautiful! There are so many different varieties of them! Along the way some surfers come out of the water and it seems that it is not that warm after all – their lips are pale blue and some of them shake visibly despite their wet suits.
We reach a small island towering high above the sea. We go up there and see dolphins! That is a first time for me to see dolphins! They are full of joy and playful!
Two of them decide to teach surfers a lesson. They get inside one high wave and ride the wave inside it. While surfer is on his board on the surface they pass at high speed under him so that he must have felt it and…he also saw it. He looks shaken! We stay up there and simply watch the waves coming to beach. We could do that forever…
The next destination for us is the lighthouse. It is getting four o’clock and the dusk is setting in. We must get going. We climb the hill and are greeted by local birds in the bush on its slopes: oh-ooooh, oh-ooooh! The sound they make is that of utter surprise and it makes us laugh and laugh! We try to make it back to them and they go quiet for a while. So this is how Aussie birds see us! Rain is quite dense now, but we don’t care! We’ve come to explore!
We reach the lighthouse in the dusk. The light is on.
There is a magnificent view from the top of that hill. We are some 100 meters above sea level. It just happens that this is the easternmost extremity of the Australian mainland. I duly try to see South America.
It is getting dark and the rain is getting even stronger. It is soaking now. Fair enough for this day. We walk back in darkness and rain under surprised noises of these birds we cannot see in the bush. We laugh!
Later I ring Michael to let him know that we are fine, we have the car, and we will be going to Mt Warning next day. Michael is positively surprised about our choice of destination. He tells us that there are many sacred places of Aboriginals in the area around the mountain. He recommends us to visit a particular spot in the small town called Uki. We remember his words to a detail. Not surprisingly the mountain and sacred sites around it have a strong feminine energy.
We hang our wet clothes on the chairs and anything else we find and go to sleep. We are in Australia, on our way into unknown. We feel good and determined to see it all through and experience it all fully. We are so deeply exhilarated that it has become a permanent mind state.
Next morning we wake up early. We have a 100 km drive to make, and climb Mt Warning (1,100 meters above sea level). On our way out we are told by an extremely friendly woman who keeps the motel that whales have been spotted at the Byron Bay lighthouse. We decide to drive up there and see if we get lucky.
The weather is superb. The sun is shining, wind is a bit stronger and it is a bit cooler. We drive up there and I feel more comfortable in the driver’s seat. The view is amazing!
To the right of us is Wendigo beach
To the left is Byron Bay. We look and look and all of a sudden an older lady turns to us and says that there are two pairs of dolphins enjoying themselves and a pair of humpback whales passing the Byron Bay. We scan the sea relentlessly and there…! Something huge and incredibly majestic surfaces for a while and goes into waves again. After a while we see a fountain of air and water drops being blown with huge force from the waves! A huge and powerful dark back surfaces and moves forcefully forward. Whales! From the icy Southern Ocean they have come on their voyage to other waters. They move so peacefully and mysteriously on their path. They are huge.
Our time is up and we must move on.
Thank you, whales and dolphins!
We will remember you!
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((((((((((((((((Juhani)))))))))))))))))))))
I can feel the power behind your words, how wonderful!
I too have never seen dophins, once went whale watching and as you mention.. wow!
The veiws are incredible, your smile hidden within your words is stunning. Thanks so much for sharing!
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The Ocean ....... Yes!
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travel on, man. thank you for sharing!
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Beautiful pictures and great story! :-*
You know what I find kind of neat? That you were at the Pacific Ocean, thousand of miles away from Canada and the pacific is the Ocean I grew up around on the Coast of BC. Cool. Beautiful and magickal the Ocean is eh? Wow!
(V aren't you on the Pacific, too?)
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Beautiful pictures and great story! :-*
You know what I find kind of neat? That you were at the Pacific Ocean, thousand of miles away from Canada and the pacific is the Ocean I grew up around on the Coast of BC. Cool. Beautiful and magickal the Ocean is eh? Wow!
(V aren't you on the Pacific, too?)
Only at the moment on the Pacific ... the grey and stormy Atlantic is my usual beat. But I'd rather ... know the Indian Ocean, methinks. I think you're right, though, sug, I think there is a Pacific Rim connection here! :-*
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I could sit on that point forever ...
Yes, Vicki. It is one of these points...but our lives force us to move and act and experience, and create!
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Yes, Vicki. It is one of these points...but our lives force us to move and act and experience, and create!
No doubt!
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Our transit from Byron Bay to a small bed & breakfast place at the foot of the mountain is smooth as Tiina navigates with great precision. I’m getting used to sticking to the left side of the road and changing gears with my left hand. What I’m not used to is the road. It is curvy and goes up and down. Local people drive faster and I need to let them take over periodically.
Mount Warning…it is the name captain Cook gave to that mountain. It is the first spot in Australia that rays of the rising Sun touch upon. Aboriginals know that mountain by a very different name – Mount Wollumbin – Fighting Chief of Mountains. It really looks like Chief as it towers over surrounding mountains. The name is given because there are frequently thunder and lightning over the top of Mt Wollumbin. It is the heart of a huge and ancient volcano crater.
We arrive to our bed & breakfast place at 11.30 am and our hosts suggest that we start climbing quite soon as it takes about two hours to reach the top and two hours to get down again. The total distance of the walk/climb is some 8-9 kilometers. We drive to where the ascending path starts and begin ascent.
We find ourselves in a rainforest. Gigantic trees and all sorts of amazing plants surround us.
There are not many sounds – it is winter – nor smells. Yet the presence of a rainforest is so fundamentally different from what I have ever experienced in my life. You could feel life, energy all around you. It is open, bursting, nothing like our introvert forests here! At one stage I feel that I’m embraced by some incredibly soft energy. I would like to stop and simply be there. Stay there and forget about the rest of the world. It feels so good... I look at Tiina, but she does not show signs of feeling the same. So we continue. Gradually we rise above the rainforest. The first wider view opens to us.
A bit later I feel again that tremendous soft feeling as if something is embracing me. I would like to lie down. I would like it to not end, but we have to move on.
The last 20-30 meters are challenging. The slope goes steep and we have to use all our limbs to find a spot to pull or push. Wind is strong and very cold up there and it blows from east. Western slope is quiet and warm. We see that people descending from the summit are all feeling cold. Our hearts beat faster and stronger – no wonder as 1,100 meters is quite high for our flat butts! We rest and then keep climbing. At some point something kicks in me and I feel huge burst of energy. I become a cat – all of a sudden I am agile, flexible and powerful, I climb last meters with very high speed!
There! We have reached the summit! We catch the breath and put on clothes, as the wind is strong. We have a close encounter of the third kind with local fauna – brush turkey – that decides to come and see if we would like to feed it.
We do feed it a bit, eat ourselves and start our trip around the summit. When looking to northeast and east I feel something extraordinary. I look down at these sights
…and have a vision or rather a feeling of how Aboriginals used to walk down there doing their rituals at sacred sites. It is such a strong feeling that when I look towards Byron’s Bay and Brisbane, it seems as if they constitute a second floor in that land. At the first floor are natives and the land itself. At the second – white man with all his usual gadgetry and artificiality. Could it be so? Yes, it could. Even now, when I write these words, I feel the power of these places. It grabs my belly and holds it gently, but powerfully. Yes, I’m still in touch with all of you!
It is the first time as well when I try to focus my attention on Aboriginals who have been in these places and I get a strangely warm and soft feeling. Is it them? I don’t know. I get the sense of darkness, of somebody peeking from darkness, somebody warm, with good intent and being part of collective. Maybe I’m daydreaming or experiencing what I want to experience… The future must tell!
We also look down at Uki that is between two mountaintops. We definitely have to go there to find the power spot Michael spoke about!
Our descent is as steep as ascent (who could have expected that?!) and I struggle with my knee there. It really gets bloody cold there! I have to warm my hands for couple of times before the steep part is left behind!
On our walk down we are rewarded with some beautiful sights and discoveries. The dusk is approaching and light is becoming dim and soft. We see things in a different light. Is it a fairytale land?
Having completed our descent we get a beautiful sight at a pond on a creek at the foot of the mountain. It is breath taking in setting dusk, quiet and cooling air. What else could I say about such a sight? What could anybody say?
Later we drive to Murwillumbah to eat. Upon return we look at the starry sky…and the only thing we recognise is the Milky Way. There is nothing else familiar there. I know that there is no North Star, but Southern Cross must be up there somewhere, though…
That night I sleep restlessly. Wollumbin is there, its presence is palpable. I manage to fall asleep and see a dream.
I’m in a room with several people. One of them is a woman who immediately catches my attention. She is not beautiful, but she radiates energy. She is strongly built, with fit and trained body. She wears pale blue jeans, bright white tennis shoes and some shirt. Her eyes are pale blue, hair blond and short, she is tanned with bright white teeth. She is kind and energetic. She catches attention. I watch her with awe! She is somehow breath taking!
And then…I’m lifted up…by myself. I’m face to face with utterly raging mad me, I hold my arms around me and hold me in the air. My right hand holds a knife around me under my right shoulder blade and pushes it against my skin powerfully. It is incredibly painful and I feel the pain in my sleep! That me who holds the knife on my back and holds me in the air is incredibly jealous, he is raging mad and jealous because I looked at that woman. He/me accuses me of having an affair with her. I deny and say that it simply isn’t true. He/me becomes even more raging mad, loses it totally, lets me go and out of utter unmitigated rage stabs himself in the heart, and dies.
I wake up still feeling the pain of the knife tip under my shoulder blade. It was pushed there with force! Yet is only 3 am, I read National Geographic about pollution and ecological disaster in China, and fall asleep again…Wollumbin is still there, in the darkness.
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Wow .... in that pond, I'm sure it 'must be' the reflection of the sky between the treetops, but ... my first thought was that it was you and Tiina -- or your spirits, swimming underwater.
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Wow .... in that pond, I'm sure it 'must be' the reflection of the sky between the treetops, but ... my first thought was that it was you and Tiina -- or your spirits, swimming underwater.
Sun lit two or three clouds very brightly when we were next to that pond. I guess they are reflected in the pond.
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What an awesome journey Juhani! Can hardly wait as it unfolds, piece by piece! It's like I want it all in one fell swoop! Learning patience! :)
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Juhani - Thank you so much for sharing your amazing journey!!
The mountains, ocean, and that pond with the reflection of sunset - beautifully touching!
:D
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Interesting question, why is the horizon curvy? Here is another one:
(http://buriedshiva.com.au/Juhani/BBay8.JPG)
Initially I thought that it was because the camera was not quite horizontal, but the horizon actually is curvy and not flat. We were some 100 meters above sea level, too. Maybe it is really the Earth itself? I don't know the right answer.
Landcrabs, as we say here about people that haven't been on the sea ;D. You do not even need to be high up to see the curvature of earth when out on the sea.
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Wow .... in that pond, I'm sure it 'must be' the reflection of the sky between the treetops, but ... my first thought was that it was you and Tiina -- or your spirits, swimming underwater.
Exactly my interpretation of what i saw too! Tina to the left.
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Visiting rainforest in Border Ranges National Park is the plan for our third day in Australia. Yes, it is only our third day. We intend to make moderate walk and take a look at waterfalls in the rainforest.
We start driving quite early and our first stop is in Uki. We find the power spot Michael talked about right away. The feeling, the energy is the same soft embrace that was up there at Wollumbin. These places seem to be connected. It is stunning that such a place is actually in the town and, perhaps, it is no wonder that a war memorial has been erected there. Staying there is thoroughly enjoyable!
Driving is quite a challenge. The road is narrow, curvy and spirals up and down on the slopes. Local drivers seem to quite enjoy the drive there. We feel changing altitude in our ears and parts of our brains responsible for balance have some adjusting to do! We miss our turn into the National Park and have to drive a longer road through Kyogle. Our efforts are rewarded as we see kookaburra sitting right next to the road on a fence. We pull over and look at that bird with sheer joy! It is such a wonderful creature who, unfortunately, is not fascinated by the modelling career and resolutely declines the photo opportunity! What a pity!
The drive is quite long and the gravel road we drive makes it even longer. It is compensated by the views that open to us here and there. Eventually we reach our destination. The green wall of forest starts a few meters ahead of us.
We dive into forest and this time it is denser than at Wollumbin. Sometimes we can see only a few meters ahead. It is all green, full of life (though no bugs are visible, and only a few birds make noise), and ruthless competition for light. We have literally dived into that green bush. Our walk becomes softer, we make less and less noise and move like two shadows – quietly and sensing the forest around us.
Then we hear falling water. These must be Selva Falls – our destination. We get closer, and all of a sudden they pop out of the green: initially a smaller one, then the larger one. They are a very peaceful sight. I wonder if they have had any significance for Aboriginals. It is easy to imagine Aboriginals having a drink and taking a swim there in scorching summer day – in the endless forest. Well, not that endless any more.
Our way back is as quiet as coming. We watch huge trees, all sorts of crawling plants, intricate patterns. We whisper and point to each other interesting sights. Exiting the forest is a sort of surprise, as it felt that we went much deeper into it.
Our drive back takes place in an arriving dusk. We wonder if we should be careful because of kangaroos. We have not seen any yet…but right there it is, and really having no hurry to cross the road! When this chap finally decides to move and jump, it is an unreal sight! Such an ease and grace with which they move!
I slow down and we look around very carefully. We reach asphalt again and drive that narrow spiralling road all the way back again. We are very careful (these buggers can move out of the bush with lightning speed!) and it pays off. Behind one curve with extremely limited visibility there are two kangaroos also in no hurry to cross the road. When we finally reach Murwillumbah and stop, I’m knackered. Tiina goes to buy food, I stay out and simply look at the stars. In about 15 minutes I’m getting relaxed and willing to talk again.
Our way back to our bed & breakfast place goes quickly. We eat, take shower and read. Sleep comes quickly...tomorrow…tomorrow we’ll drive to Michael…
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We get up at 8 am, get things packed and have breakfast at 9 am. The weather is kind to us – it is sunny and clear. We sit on the balcony and enjoy the view. Unusually high ferns surround the house, and Tiina calls them fern trees. Their leaves are large and Tiina does not want to miss the opportunity to take a few photos of them.
We thank our hosts, pay and get moving. We have to cover some 400 kilometers and at least part of the road is in mountains. We drive again through Uki, take a last glance at it and continue. At one point there is a beautiful view of Wollumbin and we say our good-byes.
Soon we are out of mountains and we see a different kind of Australia. It is more flat with more primal colours.
It is a long drive and at some stage Tiina starts to experiment with camera. Our road goes through various forests. There are some consisting of eucalypts, others are more of mixed trees. They are all very different form what we are used to see. A thought comes to us that we would be in trouble navigating these bushes as we’d have difficulties in spotting various marks and differences in trees and bush to mark our road. Our eyes just don’t see all the details there. Fortunately, there are no kangaroos jumping on the road.
We pass some places associated with dark pages of Australian history. During a brief stop we read that Aboriginals were surrounded after some quarrel with farmers on that cliff and forced to plunge into their deaths.
On the brighter side we see a place has become so very much associated with crocodiles and Australia!
But it all is only secondary. Today I have only one eye for all that surrounds us. The other eye looks into what is ahead.
I count kilometres to our destination…300, 200, 120, 90, 36, 20…we are almost there. My mind is focused on Michael and he seems to be focused on us. We miss one intersection, make a circle, come back and there…we stop in front of a house that fits the description given to us. I take a phone and ring.
‘We are here – right in front of the house!’
‘In the blue car?’ There is a smile in Michael’s voice.
‘Yes’
‘Come in, let’s have a cup of tea!’
We get out of a car on a bit wobbly legs after long sitting, and Michael opens the door. We step in. He is a strongly-built man with high forehead and grey hair. He is taller than me and he has wide shoulders. He smiles warmly, his voice is very clear when we say hello and shake hands. In the electric light of the room I see that his eyes are bright and are not nearly as dark as I thought.
Through my mind goes a thought – ‘so this is how he looks!’ So this is how the man with whom I have been interacting over the Internet for 10 years looks. He looks quite human after all. Am I surprised or disappointed?
We are at Julie’s mother’s place. We sit and drink tea. Discussion takes off easily – we are first time in Australia, we’ve seen coastline and whales. Then we switch to current affairs and politics. Discussion rolls easily and fluently.
Weather is getting cooler and fire has to be lit in a stove. Michael explains that they live a bit further away with Julie – it is a half an hour drive on a gravel road with considerable potholes. Michael drives a van and takes the lead; we follow with our small car.
It is dark outside and Michael drives fast. We try to stay on board. On the gravel we can’t keep up, though, as we have to dodge potholes and slow down. Michael waits. We reach him – by now the only lights around are these of our vehicles. It is total darkness and we haven’t got a clue of what sort of landscape we are driving through, except that the road is curvy and goes up and down. We drive over a bridge that is so low that creek flows over it and stop under a large tree. There!
Now we get a sense that we are surrounded by hills, but it is very dark and we do not see much. We go inside. The house is not a big one. Julie comes to greet us – she is a tall woman and she looks with such a warmth in the eyes when she greets us. Julie has been cooking a dinner for us.
Now it is time to hand over the most aerodynamic beer, the stone, a book for Julie and a box of chocolates. Michael and Julie look a bit puzzled while we do it. But the beer gets opened and Michael goes and puts on his Indian clothes.
Michael shows us the way to the caravan where we’ll be sleeping. The heater is on and it looks quite cosy. We took our stuff in there and return to a house.
When I enter the living room with a large fireplace and see Michael standing there, I have a distinct feeling that it is not just a house I have entered and it is not just a human being that stands in front of me. That is the very moment I realise that I have put myself into a highly challenging situation.
Has something changed in Michael’s eyes? Do they look different? Has their expression changed? I don’t know, but I realise clearly that even being inside that house is a challenge to a part of me. Part of me rejoices being there, the other part is already under fire. Something in there, in that house is coming after me. Michael is not just a man, but there is something unfathomable connected to him, actually – behind him. He is a human-looking front, façade for it. All these realisations and feelings go through me in a fraction of a second.
Michael seems to realise clearly what is going on with me and switches back to a worldly discussion about driving, Wollumbin, what is going on in local university, politics and so on. Meanwhile we eat an extremely tasty Indian food cooked by Julie. She is an amazing cook! We sit in front of fire and talk, talk, and talk more. We could probably talk forever! Periodically I become aware that part of me is being challenged energetically. We go and wash the dishes with Michael. He washes, I dry them up. That goes smoothly!
Julie and Tiina become sleepy and leave, I cannot go yet. I’m here with Michael! I want to talk just about anything with him. I’m so curious, but I don’t ask questions – 10 years of interacting over the web have developed a habit in me of catching all bits of information Michael spares, then collating them and looking for an answer myself.
I feel tremendous attraction, and simultaneously there is that unfathomable quality there about him. He talks with me about all sorts of earthly things, but I know that another part of him communicates with me simultaneously at a very different level. My attention is split. All sorts of thoughts run through my head simultaneously. Part of me is restless and wonders why the hell did I come here – in the middle of nowhere. The other part knows that something big is afoot. I want to run and stay simultaneously. Yet I want to stay much more.
We sit in twilight, and talk. Michael is struggling with his computer. Time goes, I get sleepy, too. Time to go to sleep. I walk out and see some kangaroos or wallabies no more than 10 meters from the house. One of them must be the bugger who’s been eating Michael’s fence! They run after seeing me. I get into the caravan and fall immediately asleep.
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This is such a wonderful sharing Juhani! Thank you so much for taking us along with you to Australia!
What a heart felt adventure :-*
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“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.”
Helen Keller
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Connection
Alignment
Excitement
and Rest.
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Awesome! :-*
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the beer was good!
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Michael selected Aboriginal sacred place at Mount Yarrowyck as a place we are going to visit today. Interestingly, it is a place he has not visited himself. The weather is grey and there are occasional downpours. We drive off in the van. Michael drives quite fast and splashes water quite a bit. He definitely likes it when the fountains of water are higher than the van!
We get to the beginning of path and begin to walk.
Michael lets spirits know that we are coming. The place is breath taking! There are countless huge boulders scattered among the trees and the overall feeling is of immense power of nature.
A fallen tree strikes us with its colour.
We walk under the mountain and we take a look up. The sight is quite unusual. Is it only us who see many faces there? Beings looking at us curiously? Or are they there? Spirits of Aboriginals merged with the mountain over dozens of millennia?
At some moment along the walk, I happen to be next to Michael when he looks intently at surroundings. I’m taken aback by his eyes and the whole expression. The colour of Michael’s eyes struck me earlier, but now I realise that it matches perfectly the scorched primal colour of Australian bush. It is as if they are two windows through which that untamed oldest continent looks. The eyes are not the kind and smiling eyes of Michael of yesterday. They are so fierce and tense with intent that they look like eyes of a bird. Unblinking, all-seeing eyes. The whole face has changed. That is a sight that still makes me just go quiet…
With Tiina we tail the party. As the weather is pretty grey, I’m the one responsible for taking photos. I’m torn between that and desire to focus on what’s transpiring. Somehow I manage to stay in one piece.
We arrive at the place. There are drawings on the rocks. They are a few centuries old.
It is a brush turkey dreaming place. Remember that chap?
Michael climbs somewhere up between the boulders. Julie and Tiina sit, I’m not quite sure what is happening and look around. Michael calls me, I climb up and find him sitting in a shelter between huge boulders. We sit side by side. I try to relax and shift my attention to the old times, to when Aboriginals did their dreaming there. Michael says that that shelter was a place where they left their gifts to spirits. I manage to relax a bit and close my eyes. I feel darkness and somebody’s warm and kind presence – as it seems to happen every time I try focus my attention on Aboriginals. We climb out of the shelter and Michael makes a long piercing sound and gives some water to spirits.
I try to focus on the shelter and get a vision of two Aboriginals sitting there side by side. One is an older man with painting on his forehead; next to him is a 12-year old boy. I check myself for wishful thinking and ask Michael if he sees the same, but no, he does not.
We climb higher. Michael reads the place like an open book.
I notice that the weather is clearing up. From that spot we get an amazing view of an endless landscape. Sitting on one of these boulders, you could feel yourself living in eternity. Living in a world that is endless. Michael says that I should show these places to Tiina and we sit with her in the shelter and walk around between the boulders. Tiina is taken by the place, too.
We start to walk back and I take the last look at the brush turkey dreaming place
The sun is smiling at us.
Now Tiina has a camera and enthusiastically takes pictures of everything of interest. The sights are truly amazing. I’m walking and letting all that has happened simply sink in. I do not even try to realise or understand why I feel like I have been connected (or reconnected?) to something. Is it co-incidence that the first creature that came close to us in Australia was brush turkey, and now we visited brush turkey dreaming place? Time will tell.
We reach the van and see that Michael and Julie are there already. Michael is smiling and he’s in a jolly mood. He liked the place and walk. It was a good walk!
We drive off and visit Michael’s and Julie’s friends. Carl is a metal artist and when we greet his hands really impress me. Jesus, these are not hands, but tongs! They can bend and twist metal as ever they like!
Carl is busy fixing the front of his car damaged by crash with a kangaroo. We get to chat and it is naturally about kangaroos and hunting them. Carl starts to talk about the city heroes who hunt kangaroos with their 4x4 vehicles, rifles with optical sights, search lights and so on. Somehow talk shifts to hunting pigs and Michael says that hunting pigs is much more dangerous because they can get aggressive, but nevertheless, there have been men who have killed them with knives. It is rare, though, nowadays. I comment that these pigs must be as wild as boars are in Europe (that can be pretty dangerous if agitated), and ask Michael about the size of these things. Without blinking his eye he points at a tree some 10 meters away and says ‘well, in average’. Then it starts to dawn on me that Carl and Michael truly love to have a good laugh…
Then we have a tea and talk about various things. Mostly about the situation of Aboriginals, their art and government’s new initiative aimed at stopping child abuse at Aboriginal settlements. Carl gives us quite a talk on that one!
It is time to leave and we drive back to Michael’s place. Julie treats us with another fantastic Indian meal and we have another chat in twilight in front of a fireplace. Today we talk about how universities are changing, how they are producing homo faber (faber means smith) instead of homo sapiens. How thinking is being substituted with doing. How the ability to think creatively is being eroded, how the sense of history (and learning from previous experience, in particular) is being undermined and educational system produces people who have no sense of the evolution of human civilisation and mistakes made previously.
We switch to talking about Soma and Michael expresses tremendous regret over limitations of Internet. So little could be done over the web! If only we could meet in flesh! Soma is a database and reservoir of fine energy, but there could be so much more done!
We talk about how human life would look like if dreamers and stalkers could arrange themselves so that dreamers would dream and stalkers protect and provide for them.
We talk about tomorrow. Tiina has to leave for conference in Melbourne tomorrow. I have to drive her to Coffs Coast where she’ll board the plane. We’ll return our car and I’ll take the bus back. We have to drive a couple of hundred kilometres. Michael and Julie recommend stops at places like Dorrigo and Bellingen along the way. It will be a long day and we have to be at Coffs Coast before noon already. We go to sleep.
That night I see a dream of working in a company run by my friend. He is a nice and loyal man. Very honest, very kind. But he is limited. He does not perceive many dimensions, many aspects of the things he is supposed to do. He is just too limited for the task. That’s what I feel: there is so much more to it and he just does not see it. Working for him, implementing his orders is like being in straightjacket.
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We wake up early, and pack Tiina’s stuff right away. Michael and Julie are already up. It is farewell time for Tiina. Hugs. There is a sadness of farewell in the air. Will we meet again? I hopefully will manage to come back today, but Tiina will not be coming back (this time, at least…but will there ever be another time…?).
Michael makes again that piercing call and asks Tiina to do the same. She manages something like a whisper. My achievement is louder, but it rather reminds of an elephant outraged by chronic diarrhoea. Hopefully it was heard!
We drive off. It is cool and grey morning. We have our jerseys on. Our little car is covered with red mud and Michael has given us a rag to clean it up a bit before handing it back. That way we wouldn’t have to pay extra.
The first hour goes uneventfully. The road is empty, but the weather seems to be clearing up. We see some kangaroos, but they do not show any suicidal tendencies despite some of them sitting right next to road. We drive through various landscapes and the closer we get to the ocean the clearer the weather becomes. Tiina navigates perfectly again.
We make a small break at a place called Ebor Falls. We can only sigh and say that Australia is really-really incredibly beautiful land! What words could describe this sight in the morning sun?
We reach Dorrigo and we must fill the tank. As the petrol station is empty, we decide to wipe the car clean. Tiina gets water from somewhere and I keep working with the rag. Couple locals look at us with certain amazement – we must look exotic in our jerseys and wiping the car. Eventually it is done and we keep going. We cross the mountains again and reach Bellingen. We have time and we decide to have our morning coffee and some cheese-vegetable muffins. It’s warm there. Sun is high and we feel how warmth flows into us and makes us sleepy and relaxed. Half hour passes like 5 minutes. More coffee and we are on our way!
We reach Coffs Coast airport at 11.30 am. We sweep the car one last time; take our things and hand over the keys. Bye, little blue car! You did a great job!
We take a taxi to the town centre. It is another beautiful coastal town. It is warm – people walk in shorts and T-shirts. We take off our jerseys, sit in the open-air café and have lunch. It is nice to sit in the sun! Then we make a short walk and go to a park nearby. The views are enjoyable.
We sit and talk occasionally, there is some time left, before Tiina flies some 2000 km southwest and I will take the bus back. There is not much to talk, so we just daydream in the sun…Well, time is up! We go to a taxi stop and Tiina drives away to the airport. I walk to the bus station.
I walk down a beautiful street. There are many motels, people dressed in summer clothes walk by. I look a bit like a polar bear among them.
It’s time to reflect. My thought goes to the questions why am I leaving all this beauty for cool and wintry mountains? I know the answer – there is no other way for me. That rosy existence around me is a façade that I find little behind. I also know that it always must be a hard choice – price must be paid, determination shown, one more straw carried. I know that I’m going in the direction of no return. Not physically, but spiritually. I know that I’ll be challenged in Michael’s house again and again, and this time I go there with full awareness and willingness. I’ll see it through – come what may. That’s why came to Australia. Everything else is bonus. Just bonus.
I board the bus with certainty and firmness in my mind. I look at the colours of Coffs Coast, I admire them, I love warmth, but I cannot stay.
Of all the movies they show ‘Da Vinci Code’ during the trip. The new rise of feminine aspect, female energy. It all clicks together – place called Mary Magdalene the night before departure, Mount Wollumbin and Uki with the immensely soft female energy, and now the ‘Da Vinci Code’. So this is what is my task and lesson here! Percpetive flow, feminine energy. Further development of my feminine side!
…The bus goes back through Bellingen and Dorrigo. It makes a longer stop at Dorrigo and I use the time to take a few photos. It is twilight.
The bus arrives a few minutes early. I wait a bit and then Michael flies in with his van. We laugh and I crawl in. A brief stop at Julie’s mother and back to Michael’s and Julie’s place. Delicious food, and time for day’s impressions and thoughts in front of the fireplace.
Michael and Julie are genuinely happy that we made it in good time and everything went smoothly. Then our discussion shifts to working in university and doing an academic’s job. Julie tells how she did her PhD and I tell how I did mine. How I tried to find the reason for doing it and did not eventually. I did just because I did it. Now I work where I work and I see why it might be useful in the bigger scheme of things. Why would I be in correct position from Eagle’s perspective. Yet it remains just a job. An image I prop up. Juhani-the-Academic. Julie seems to be interested in such an approach and tells her views on academic life.
Hours pass flying and soon it is time to go sleep. While under the blanket I stretch myself and prepare for sleep. I suddenly feel heat streaming down my spine and feeling unexpectedly warm under the blanket inside the thin walls of caravan. It is as if warmth from somewhere below has reached me and keeps me warm. I relax and float into dreamland…
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So this is what is my task and lesson here! Percpetive flow, feminine energy. Further development of my feminine side!
While under the blanket I stretch myself and prepare for sleep. I suddenly feel heat streaming down my spine and feeling unexpectedly warm under the blanket inside the thin walls of caravan. It is as if warmth from somewhere below has reached me and keeps me warm. I relax and float into dreamland…
:)
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This Mount Yarrowick is totally great :)
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Michael has planned a visit to Lizard’s Dreaming Place for today. He says it is quite far away and as we do not get moving right away, he decides to drive part of the way. We are not taking the newer van, but a ‘Crazy Horse’ – yellow-orange (almost) a hippie van. Its exhaust stinks badly, it has seen better days, but it takes us right where we want to. We drive through paddocks and see quite a few calfs. There are also some kangaroos jumping around and it still is an unearthly view for me as there’s such an elegance, ease and speed in their movements.
We stop and continue on foot. We reach a creek we need to cross, but it is full of water because it is winter and there has been quite a lot of rain.
With the help of a pine we manage to get across.
Before crossing I look up and see a big black bird of prey flying. I ask Michael if this is a hawk and he replies that it is an eagle and it flies in right direction as well. A good sign!
We start walking on the bank of a creek. We talk about various things. I tell Michael about my dream about working for a friend who had such a limited view of his work and tasks. Then we switch to talking about work and changing the work in general. I find with tremendous boost of joy how similarly we see it: even a thought ‘is this all I’m ever going to do and ever going to be?’ makes us jump and seek change, seek a new challenge! ‘Juhani-the-Academic’ is not the last stop on this route!
Along the way we reach a magnificent tree that we greet and feel. It is a guardian of the path and feels so good! I try to take pictures occasionally.
I notice that the ground is covered with bones of sheep and kangaroos. We stop at one kangaroo scull and Michael says with a sigh: ‘Poor Yorik!’ Then he continues: ‘Now you see that not everyone I take to that place makes it there!’
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The path becomes increasingly rugged, the creek is high and we crawl though thorny bush. Up and down, over rocks, from one bank to another. It is becoming harder and harder. I sweat and gradually all my thoughts focus on walking and crawling. I look carefully in front of my legs, as I don’t want break my leg or twist it. Michael says also that he is not that enthusiastic about carrying me back. I joke that that would be a sight if we both broke our legs and limped back leaning on each other – Julie would be pretty fascinated upon seeing us!
I sweat and we continue in silence. At some point it gets really steep and I use my all four limbs to get higher. I wonder how I’m ever going to get back down on that slope with my knee. I sweep the doubts away by reminding myself that the destination point is why I came here. ‘I’ll bloody crawl down on my belly if I have to, but I’m gonna get there!’, I swear to myself in my mind. After that I go into silence and just keep going.
So it comes as a bit of surprise when we reach the place. At that stage that cat-climber in me has kicked in again and I move with ease and flexibility.
We sit on a large rock and look around.
Michael asks me to sit closer to him and explains me how Aboriginals showed the place to him in dream and how he wondered and searched where it might be. The nature of the place – that of lizard dreaming – became clear when he saw a large black and white lizard hanging on a tree upon arriving. We sit and Michael explains the place to me.
My breathing slows down, I dry up and wash my face. I see Michael is sweating too. I admire his fitness! He is older man than me, but he moves effortlessly!
Michael wonders away and I move around a bit. I notice Michael lying down and enjoying himself in the sun. I walk up to him and suggest that we do a meditation. He thinks it is a good idea. He suggests that I find myself a good spot.
I look around and see a small shelter maybe only 10-15 cm above the creek between two boulders. I crawl in there and try to find myself a good position.
I lie on my back and gradually my thoughts pacify. I get a vision of rocky place, lizard that comes from the left and stops half of its body in my sphere of vision. It turns its head and looks at me with its unblinking eyes. Its head is black with wide white stripe gong from nose to nape.
I get uncomfortable and take another position: I sit with my head between knees and put my hands around knees. I go into dreaming right away. I see a hill with rails of a streetcar going up there – right into bright white sky. There is a streetcar stop down there and then the streetcar goes up there – into the bright white sky. The mood is of tremendous ease and happiness! There are no problems!
I feel that something has changed around me, and discover Michael above me looking at me. We should go. Right. I wonder about the meaning of a streetcar, but decide that it might have some long-term meaning.
We start slowly as we both have cooled down and need to warm up again. The terrain is rugged and hard. We cross the creek and keep struggling. Then I suddenly suggest – lets get to the top of the hill and see if we can walk easier there. As we ascend, it gets easier and when we have reached the top, it becomes an easy stroll! No problems! I recall the dream and tell Michael that the place is taking care of us! We do walk back so easily! It is like walking on the street! The feeling is of tremendous ease!
We only struggle in getting back across the creek again, but the pine is there and helps us to get back.
Kangaroos are still there and we get into the ‘Crazy Horse’. While driving, the calfs start running and Michael calls them laconically ‘buffalos’. We get back to Michael’s place and tell Julie of our adventures. That good and easy feeling persists!
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After dinner we discuss in front of the fireplace the plans for tomorrow. Michael and Julie have to get to work and they wonder what I would like to do. I’m undecided – I could go with them or I could stay. Michael looks at me, thinks, and suggests staying. He says; ‘It’ll help you to solidify.’ Yes, I feel now that being in the house is not challenging me any more. I feel as if I have always been there. I’m so tremendously attracted to it! I have known Michael and Julie always and it does not matter that I have been there only for some 72 hours! Always!
Michael takes me out – the skies are clear and full of stars – and shows me the Southern Cross. He then shows the Milky Way and a dark zig-zagging line in it. It is the Rainbow Serpent. In that darkness is the black hole that is the centre of our galaxy. I look at it trying to reach up with mind. The sky is so full of stars!
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We got up early as Michael and Julie had to go to work. We have a quick breakfast and make a short walk to the creek. Michael and Julie give me ideas about what I could do or where I could go during the day. Then they drive away.
It is a beautiful sunny day. Currawongs (magpie-looking and pretty vicious looking birds) are making their ethereal sounds. It is getting warmer.
I go to a garden behind the house and sit there with the Siamese cats. I look around and enjoy the sun. A thought comes to me to read something, but when I pick up a book, I lose any interest in it immediately. The sun shines and a weak breeze moves the branches of trees.
…I look at the distant hills, colours, listen to the breeze and feel like singing. I don’t really know any songs, and any song just wouldn’t do. Neither do I have my own chant yet. So I start singing four-line Migtsema prayer. I sing it until my throat grows tired. I daydream for a while more.
Then it is time to go and add some logs to fires in the house. As I do it, it comes to me that I wanted to try to chop eucalypt logs. Well, I manage to crack up some older logs, but the fresher ones are like thick rubber from which the axe simply bounces back. I manage to break up one of these, but the pieces are too small – Michael suggested that larger pieces are needed. I leave it there – it would be a waste to produce a pile of sawdust. Later Michael tells me that he has been chopping these eucalypts since he was a ki d…
I go into a house, lie down on the couch next to a fireplace, close my eyes and try to reach the spirit of the house with my mind. I attempt to contact directly the energy that has challenged me. Then I relax and simply lie there without much thought. I feel sunrays on my face. I hear some distant noises, birds outside. One Siamese cat comes to me and crawls on me. I dissolve and doze off for a while.
After a while I get up, check the fires and decide to walk around. I head for the creek. It is a powerful place. The primal nature of the land appears only a few hundred meters from the house.
I see a wonderful spot on the other side of a creek. Michael said in the morning that he has been there and enjoyed the spot. After some hesitation I jump on the rocks and cross the creek. The sun is getting warmer; I take off my clothes and lie down on these rocks.
It feels good – the sun, wind, the sounds of creek. Sense of time disappears. I’m here and even a thought of going back to the big world is strangely unreal. The whole world has become unreal. Continuity is broken. I have always been here, known Michael and Julie. I have always bathed in their warmth and unconditional love and care. The other world exists not. The other world is lifeless, dull, and grey. It is somewhere out there – thousand miles away… There, far away, is also Tiina and I feel she is a bit lonely and reaches out for me.
Sun becomes scorching and I feel the burn on my skin (I cannot imagine how the summer sun would look like!). I open my eyes reluctantly and get dressed. I talk to Sun and thank it for its warmth. I repeat my willingness to always follow its command and my gratitude for its guidance. I’m grateful for the possibility to be here, in Australia, and to live this moment.
…Time to move on. I feel the pressure of change clearer than ever. The magic is ending, and I’ll have to move on soon. Tomorrow at the same time I’ll be 1,000 kilometers away from here…
I climb the hill and look down at the creek.
I sit there and look around sucking the feeling into myself and dissolving in it. Will I ever see it all again? I feel clearer than ever just how far away I am from the place I live in and how long a journey it has been to get here. So very-very long. Yet it is my second home. This untamed land. I feel it and feel the Aboriginals that have become one with it.
I walk back to a house and get some good shots of birds that come to eat seeds Julie puts out there.
I also take a shot of a most amazing place anybody could ever stay in.
Then I go into a house, pick up a book and read for a while. Again, I doze off, but this time I see a dream where I walk on the side of a road and Julie drives by in a car. She’s going to a conference. She stops smiles at me asks if she could take me further? Yet I know that our roads split at some stage and she has to go left and I to the right from the parting. Julie smiles and drives away. She is confident and focussed.
Hours pass and it gets darker. Michael and Julie return and I tell them about my dream. They seem to enjoy it. We eat and talk in front of the fireplace. I feel more than ever just how strongly I’m connected to Julie and Michael. I find no words to express it.
Later Michael tells a bit about himself. How he walked the path for years and decades never telling about it to anybody, and how the Spirit whispered to him to engage with others. Yet this is Spirit’s command and I feel how much of a temporal aspect there is to it. Will it last? A new command comes, and regardless of anything one feels, the only thing available will be following it.
Times and ages, millennia or aeons matter non when Spirit commands us to get together. Connections made in time immemorial are refreshed, but it all is for some purpose and the next command will drive us farther – through lives and places. These thoughts float in the twilight of the fireplace.
…what time do I have to leave tomorrow? 9 am. That is a good time. Michael makes it to work in good time. We leave at 9 then? Yep. Lets go to bed then. Good night!
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Here is a Link to an article about Inner Passages Outer Journeys.
Treks into some of the most remote areas on earth can be the best prescriptions for
counteracting the burnout of modern life. Evidence suggests that time spent in the wilderness
may be one of the most powerful ways to promote overall health and wellbeing. The book will
tell you how to get the stress-reducing benefits of nature even if you cannot afford a major trip –
just working in your backyard garden can help! “Wilderness rapture,” a consequence of “being”
in nature in the right way is readily attainable by us all and this state can be profoundly healing
for the psyche. Few of us will attain samadhi, sartori, nirvana or similar enlightened states but we
can achieve experiences of bliss if we immerse ourselves in the wild outdoors in the right way.
http://www.davidcumes.com/Inner_Passages.pdf
“The spirit of man is nomad, his blood Bedouin, and love is the Aboriginal tracker on the faded desert
spoor of his lost self; and so I came to live my life not by conscious plan or prearranged design but as
someone following the flight of a bird.”
…Laurens van der Post
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I wake up early and lie for a few moments in bed. I listen to the sounds from outside. Time. I get up, do my bed and pack. At some stage I hear kookaburras starting their laughter quite nearby. I look out and see a whole three of them sitting high up side-by-side and doing their amazing laughing sound. They are such a lovely creatures!
Michael and Julie are up and preparing breakfast. We talk about weather and kookaburras. They are a good sign! Their appearance before a trip suggests smooth ride. We go for a short walk to nearby hill. While returning, Michael does circles with his hands in opposite directions. Julie and I try it, too, and get confused. Laugh!
…the moment inevitably comes. My stuff is in the van and part of my mind already reaches out to airport, planes and Melbourne. Michael gives me a present that removes obstructions and obstacles from the path. I look at the number plate and see that letters on it constitute a word ‘mermaid’. Julie says she quite likes it – being carried by mermaid!
Farewell with Julie. She says with tremendous regret in her voice that she has not much to give me and gives me a book, a black-and-white postcard with a small Aboriginal girl holding emu hatchling, and box of chocolates. Oh, Julie! You’ve given us…me…your uninhibited openness, caring, warmth, love! How could anybody ever measure that? It is more than some people ever get…! We hug. What a feeling! Wave of warmth and kindness flushes way over my head. I still feel it so clearly!
Into the van, and off we go. I’m a bit nervous about making it in time, Michael is at ease. We get to an airport without a hitch. The plane from Sydney has not arrived yet and we have a coffee. Michael draws me a scheme on how to move from one terminal to another in Sydney to get a flight to Melbourne. Then we talk about Soma, about how amazing it would be to get together in flesh. Michael expresses again such a tremendous regret over limitations of the web!
He sits in front of me and this is the kind and gentle Michael. Sunray falls onto his (a bit narrowed) eyes and they obtain golden-amber colour. There is a smile in them. Michael asks me to certainly write at Soma about our/my journey in Australia. I promise to do it. We keep talking and I look periodically over my shoulder to see if the boarding has begun. Then the boarding is announced and we hug.
We are not disembodied spirits any more, and will never again be ones! We part and do not part at the same time. I leave, but I do not feel like it!
…seat belt, table, chair and up we go. I look at the now so familiar colours of Australia. Should I take a pic? No, better just look in silence. We rise over the clouds and settle on course. I read a book, and periodically my mind reaches back to Michael’s and Julie’s place. I can’t quite put in words, as I feel like part of me has grown into that place. I’m leaving, but a huge part of me is not. I feel empty as if I have strangely expanded, but I have not yet filled the newly-grown space.
Sydney. I walk from one terminal to another. Music is playing, it is some classic thing and it is joyous. I’m somewhere undetermined. Part of me never left, so my perception is only partially in Melbourne. Another flight. Baggage. Bus. South Cross station in Melbourne. My perception has caught up with me and now I’m 80% in Melbourne.
I lift the backpack and start to walk to our hotel. I have misunderstood Tiina and it is not 30-minute walk, but 30- and 20-minute walks.
I get a bit tired and start to think about shifting in time and space. I reach out to Sugilite and contact her. Visions of astral space and tremendous lightness go through my mind. I walk, but suddenly there is that strange feeling as if a cadre has been cut out of the film, and the ends are not properly glued together – a boost of greyness, and I find myself farther along the road that I remembered. Cheers!
I keep walking and reach the hotel in darkness. The owner has been expecting me. I get the key and walk up. I sit on the bed with my naked toes on the carpet when the door opens and Tiina walks in.
That night I see a dream where my two female colleagues ask my help because something abnormal has invaded their living quarters. They are beautiful women, one is earthly and full of desire to live life to the fullest (which she actually does), the other is older and more considerate. I go to their apartment and discover that one of the walls has disappeared. There is a dark endless space there and it is not passive, but it is utterly inhuman and tries to grab my beingness. It is so inhuman that it threatens my existence. I know that that wall cannot be rebuilt. So I use magic (that was taught to me by my friend sorcerer) – from the centre of my chest (my heart) I generate a colourful (pale blue and a bit of rainbow colours) energy cocoon that embraces first them and after expanding – their flat. That is the only thing that separates them from that darkness. They smile, compliment me on my skills, and I leave.
(In hindsight, this dream might have had some practical reflections. These two colleagues of mine were in the UK when these tremendous floods occurred. Their town was given a flood warning, and floods missed their town by sheer chance)
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So very good, these words. Touching. Thank you. T2 and WJ
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Juhani, I'm so awed and moved by your entire thread, from the excitement of the journey to the feelings with michael and julie, to the visions and dreams and commands of spirit.
I feel like you've grown so much -- for one thing, to have taken the journey at all, and for another, to have shared so much of your heart with us all. It could be that one would have to have known you for a while to know how precious and how momentous this sharing was -- I don't know. I hope it will be the inspiration for others, at any rate, that it has been for me!
Thank-you!
((((((((((you)))))))))))
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Juhani, I'm so awed and moved by your entire thread, from the excitement of the journey to the feelings with michael and julie, to the visions and dreams and commands of spirit.
I feel like you've grown so much -- for one thing, to have taken the journey at all, and for another, to have shared so much of your heart with us all. It could be that one would have to have known you for a while to know how precious and how momentous this sharing was -- I don't know. I hope it will be the inspiration for others, at any rate, that it has been for me!
Thank-you!
((((((((((you)))))))))))
This comment from N could be my words and comments too. Thank you Juhani!
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I hear with one ear when Tiina runs away to her conference and I sleep quite late. Today I want to walk around the city and see if I find an Indian shop where they’d sell statue of Garuda. Julie had discouraged me a bit by saying that Garuda is not that popular in India, but is rather a deity of Indonesians, and that there are not so many Indian shops in Melbourne. Well, we will see what is to be found there in the city.
Melbourne is quite cool – maybe 12 degrees Celsius. I walk towards the city centre and the very first thing along the road reminds passers-by about the very British roots of the city.
As a city, Melbourne is beautiful. One could call it even designer city (Gucci or Armani city among the cities). It is incredibly clean city. You would not see a piece of paper on a street. Very unusual sight after rubbish-ladden British cities.
However, a bit farther one could see houses that are so common in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool or in any other northern industrial city of England.
But…the river flowing through the city is called Yarra and that is reminder of the fact, that this city is a transplant of somebody else’s culture to this land. It also contributes to me feeling very strongly being surrounded by stone walls and wanting to get back to bush and forest. Today the city really exerts pressure on me, although it is beautiful and extraordinarily clean…
I see older buildings in harmony with modern glass and concrete wonders. It is actually an art to achieve such a co-existence of old and new.
Apparently, Julie was right. I cannot find any Indian shops and so I go to the market. It is huge. There is one Indian woman selling all sorts statues and pendants. I ask for Garuda and she gives me a really strange-looking one: it has elephant’s head and eagle’s body. Too strange for me! She also has some Phurbas, but I need to achieve clarity about them.
It is 3.30 pm and I have to meet Tiina. Her conference is finishing today and we’ll walk around a bit and then we’ll have a dinner.
...
...
It is twilight over the city, a bit of rain is coming down over this cramped concrete jungle…Yarra flows…
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:) Another huge thank you for sharing!!!!
:-*
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Alarm clock. What? Already?! Ah…right! We are going for a two-day tour on the Great Ocean Road.
It is a narrow road that runs west from Melbourne on the coast of Indian Ocean. 3,000 Australian World War I veterans constructed it in 15 years. That seems to be a better way to channel the post-war stress than to establish Hells Angels (World War II veterans) or Bandidos (Korean veterans). Though…who knows?
It is one of the most spectacular coastal roads in the world…or so the brochure says.
Quick breakfast and we are on the street. Bus arrives in a minute and off we drive. We must pick up a few more members of the group. There is one Chinese couple, one Italian couple (who almost don’t speak English), one Irish guy Ryan, young American girl (Yale, first time travelling the world on her own), Irish couple that is touring the world (South America and New Zealand behind, Australia at hand, and India on the horizon), 60-odd years old hippie George from the US (who speaks lingo I’ve thought is only possible to hear in the movies, and on whose hat is a writing ‘Incredible’), one Geordie (who has apparently had strange encounter with transvestites in Melbourne and is very impressed by that), and then we pick up Nele who is fairly young German girl and has an unusual aura about her.
Her beingness brings to my mind Nele from the book ‘The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak’ by Charles de Coster. Nele was there the eternally young embodiment of Love of Flanders and partner of Thjl Ulenspiegel, a prankster (also eternally young embodiment of Spirit of Flanders) who led the Dutch/Flanders' fight for independence against Spain.
The road is spectacular. One can only imagine what efforts it took to hack it into the rocky slopes of hills on the coast. At some places the road is so close to the ocean that during high tides and storms, waves may well wash over it.
When you look south at the coast there is the nearest continent to Australia – 4000 km away is Antarctica.
We take a brief stop near eucalypt forest and see immediately some koalas.
We are told that they are very energetic animals and sleep whole 22 hours a day. They are very territorial and fight fiercely for their territory for 20 minutes a day, go to sleep, eat and continue the next day. Their fights last looooooong…as does mating. They are able and do fall asleep during sex, wake up and go on from where they left it. Fierce creatures they are!
The next stop is at the rainforest. It is a bit different from the forests we’ve seen before. It feels moister. Our guide and driver (Bill) is very knowledgeable guy. He tells that eucalypts my well grow over 100 meters high and their roots go into ground also for 100 meters (200 meters tall plant!) Bill says that one can build two houses from one roughly 1,000 years old eucalypt.
But the stunning revelation for us is the fact that these ferns or ‘fern trees’, as Tiina calls them, grow only a millimeter a year. Hence, that 10-meter tall fern here…is 10,000 years old…! It almost remembers the last ice age; human lives with their 70-year spans are like short flashes for this plant. Our visit is even shorter…less than a fraction of a second for it…
It is at that moment something tells me to look up and through a narrow gap in the green canopy I see a big eagle flying. I start to get a feeling that there might be something extraordinary coming our way on this trip and that it is not just a typical tourist stuff we are going to get here.
While exiting the forest, Bill tells us that there was a crime committed in that national park. Somebody holding a grudge cut with a chain saw deeply into some 60 huge eucalypts that consequently dehydrated and died. 20 minutes of barbarism destroyed 55,000 years of growth. It took two years to gradually cut down and remove these giant trees…
We drive on and stop at the place called 12 Apostles. They are sandstone cliffs in the ocean. Actually, there were 18 apostles initially, but the ocean washed six apostles away. The expectation is that there will be pretty soon only 11 apostles there…
Bill tells us that there have been hundreds of shipwrecks on the southern coast of Australia. Perhaps it is no wonder that this place is called Bay of Martyrs…
…and there is this cloud hanging over it?
We keep driving to reach our stop for a night. It is in Grampians (Gariwerd in Aboriginal) – mountains discovered by a man called Mitchell. We drive the last part of the road in darkness and it is a region full of kangaroos. Some of them jump on the road, some sit next to it. Bill seems to be a bit tired. No wonder, as we have covered about 700-800 kilometers.
Finally we stop in a small village. We have a quick dinner and then Bill takes us to see kangaroos.
It’s a cold night. The sky is absolutely clear and full of bright stars. We walk in silence…around the corner. There they are. About half dozen of them. Grazing.
I walk in the end of our group and look more in the sky than at the kangaroos. It is so bright! One moment Nele stands nearby and looks also up. I remember the eagle flying, and ask her if she knows what the Rainbow Serpent is? She doesn’t. I show her and give the explanation given to me by Michael. I do not really know why I do it, but maybe it matters?
…meanwhile, the kangaroos are becoming agitated. There are male and female who clearly want to get on with it, but two other males are against it. Bill takes us closer and we hear how kangaroos growl at each other, then jump up and kick each other. Apparently one opposing male is hurt, he tries to jump over a fence, but stumbles and falls on his side. Ouch! Then gets up and boink…boink…boink goes off into darkness. The other opposing male challenges the fiancée, but gets hit hard, runs into fence, bounces back and passes no farther than half a meter from me. I start to get a sense of nuances of a bullfighter profession. We watch that kangaroo drama a bit more and go to sleep.
Next morning we are up early, have coffee and got for a walk. Kookaburras sing in the morning quiet and we see couple of them flying around. There has been a night frost and the grass is white. The mountains around us look quite wild.
We get into bus and start driving. We go up into mountains and what we see is amazing! Bill says that only one-two days are so clear each winter. In his opinion we have been truly blessed. We are in awe!
I ask him whether Aboriginals still do anything in these mountains and Bill replies that no, there are very few of them left there. However, he says, these places used to be important for them.
This place is called Jaws of Death.
I try to make contact with the spirits of the place and they feel different. They are cold, not unfriendly, but inhuman. Different.
We keep going. Our next stop is at MacKenzie falls.
There is about 20-30 meter walk on stairs to the bottom of falls. Bill sends us off and Tiina says jokingly that Bill wants to save his energy and see how we come up sweating and wheezing. Bill gets serious and says that he would really like to come with us and tell about the place, but he cannot. Disks in his back have been dislodged and some nerves in his foot have died. The back also aches. It is a stunning news – he is doing 1,200 km drive in two days in such a condition?! Bill says he does it out of love for his job. He likes to show people Australia and tell about it. I get the feeling that we have been given one extraordinary man to drive us around.
In Aboriginal language the name of falls means Black Fish in the River (or something along these lines). There is a distinct feeling of presence. What do these cliffs tell? Who is there? Again the feeling was different from previous places. Colder? Somber?
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:) :) :)
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Sometime after midday we put most of our group on the bus going to Adelaide, the rest of us are going to return to Melbourne. Before that we have some lunch. We sit in the same table with Bill and our talk takes off easily. We discuss the bushfires that damaged Grampians badly last year, we switch to respective government policies and soon we discover ourselves discussing social policies of the Australian government.
Bill is deeply unhappy about these policies. I look into his eyes and that is the moment of recognition. I sit next to him in the bus and we talk all the way to Melbourne.
He tells about his parents who died and whom he could not provide with a decent life last months. He promised his father to let him die at home (cancer), but as the illness got worse and he had to spend more and more time next to father’s bed injecting him morphine, Bill’s working days went 22-23 hours long. Eventually he was physically unable to do his work and care for his father. The only remaining option was a nursing home that turned out to be something of a disaster.
It occurred, that the nursing home was badly understaffed, people weren’t cared properly for, and sometimes people unable to use their hands were left with full plates in front of and nobody feeding them. Bill said that his father did not speak to him for three months, but was able to forgive him just before dying. Bill looked into my eyes and said: ‘But what else could have I done? Nothing, just nothing.’
Then Bill says that he is not just a driver and a tour guide, but he spends all his free time doing all sorts of volunteer work. He says he has been once the volunteer worker of the year of Victoria and once of Australia. He met lately with Victoria’s prime minister and he has a full project set up to establish a new type of nursing homes, ‘community nursing homes’ he calls them. ‘These titles help me to open doors and get to important people!’
Bill’s motto is: ‘In this life, when you see that something is wrong, you can either sit and let it go by, or you can get up and DO something about it!’ Bill says that in his life there are three things: love for Australia and its nature, doing something about things that are not right, and always giving something back to society.
His nursing home project aims at involving in running these homes local communities and relatives of elderly people cared for. He says it is surprising how much more can be done with the same money when people really invest themselves into project. Local communities also understand how important such nursing homes are, ‘for if people have given all their lives, they must have something in return when they are old!’
There’ such a fire and passion in Bill that I feel sheer admiration for him. He’s doing hard job already (considering his health), but it is not nearly enough for him, for he really wants to DO something!
He is highly critical of the central government that has shut down many social programmes, raised interest rates no less than six times, reorganised labour market so that there are less guarantees for workers, and most importantly – does not do anything about the drought and the need for fresh water.
Bill tells me that he just returned from the northern areas, and he is very, very concerned about what is going on there. He says that Australia has water left for only 10 months and all talks about building desalination plants are desperately late. There will be 25 dry months between the water running out (if miracle does not happen and massive rainfall will fill the reservoirs) and the first fresh water being produced in these plants. The situation in northern farmlands is getting desperate. In many areas 6 years of drought have dried the land to the extent that even massive rain wouldn’t help it – it is plain dead, cracked and blown away. Sheep cost maximum 5 dollars per piece and usually they are just given for free as nobody wants them anyway. In some regions the suicide rate among farmers has been as high as 25%. Water shortages are so severe that one man who used it for watering his garden was punished by closing all water for one week!
These figures and facts are stunning! Bill agrees. He shows sheep grazing around us and says that they have been brought there from north. I say that it looks as if the white man is becoming as nomadic as Aboriginals, and Bill finds that parallel fitting. I ask about winter rain that is coming down and in Bill’s mind it will all come to naught in two weeks of 40 C in summer. He says that all green grasslands around us will be brown and dry in summer. The only hope is extraordinarily strong rainfall.
I thank Bill for showing me what is happening behind that nice façade of Australia, and he smiles – he likes that somebody is interested in it. He asks what do I do for living and I tell him that I’m academic. I try to make people think a bit more, try to show them that world is not black and white and all that seems black or white is not necessarily black and white. He likes that. Yes, thinking, the ability to see things for oneself is important.
I wonder about Australia’s social polices and draw a parallel with Scandinavian countries where the strategy of governments has been to create conditions for developing a high-quality and sustainable labour for states’ economies. Investment into social policies has been a part of normal running of state. Yes, he agrees, that sounds like a normal thing to do, but it is not done.
Another project Bill has been working on is drug addicts’ rehabilitation centres. Bill’s own daughter is an addict and he says that he has been unable to help her. ‘Streets are so full of that stuff…They bloody don’t even ask money for every shot…It is just so very different world they live in…’ In Bill’s mind the centre he wants to establish must be run by reformed addicts. ‘No textbook heroes there! They haven’t got a clue what it all means and is!’ Bill says that he can only be on the background, but people who have come through that hell, must have freedom to run things. That is the project he is going to spend the next day – his day off.
What a man!
We also talk about ships, maritime disasters and all things that come to mind. Bill has read a huge amount of books!
When we say farewells at our hotel, he wishes us all the best and hopes he managed to show us the beauty of Australia. I say that he also showed what’s behind the façade and that is a precious gift!
He smiles.
‘We had a good talk, eh, mate?’
‘Yes, we did! You take care of your back, Bill, would you? You have so much to give!’
We look into each other’s eyes, shake hands, and part.
I’m so very grateful to have met this man on the other side of the globe.
Take care, Bill, wherever you are now! I really wish your projects will succeed!
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Our last trip is to Phillip Island. Every night some 400 penguins come out of the ocean and go to their nests. It is said to be quite a scene, and we will take a look at it.
On our way to island (that is quite large, actually: 27 km from east to west, and 9 km from south to north) we stop at animal sanctuary (where they heal wounded animals).
There are all sorts of creatures there, including my favourite – WOMBAT! It is an amazing creature. We are told that there is no chance of it getting too used to people. At the age of two it gets aggressive and must be released into nature. This chap here did not react in any way to pats nor other attempts to communicate!
Wombat’s closest relative is koala. It is truly ancient species and we were warned not to touch them (they have impressive claws!).
The island was beautiful. The penguins usually come out right after the sunset. They return from as far as 100-120 km. We are seated on the sand and photographing is strictly prohibited – the flashes scare penguins and damage their widely open eyes.
The darkness sets in. Nothing happens. We sit maybe 7-8 meters from the waterline. Suddenly we see a tiny figure getting up in receding wave. It stands there and does not dare to move ashore. Then another one gets up. And another. Suddenly the first gets scared and runs back to water, the others follow. 20 meters away another group is gathering. Nearby are some seagulls. On the dry land penguin’s most feared enemy is eagle. Seagulls seem to know that penguins are afraid of flying birds, and repeatedly rise in the air to watch with curiosity how penguins run back to sea. Seagulls repeat that joke for 7-8 times until they get bored and walk away. Only then dare penguins to walk ashore. We see several groups of 5-10 little penguins walking ashore. They are so cute – despite all their fears and uncertainty they follow the call of nature and walk bravely to their nests.
We start to walk back as well. Next to our walkway made of planks we hear penguins calling each other and see them climbing up small hills. There are many people and it is a true Babel – we are able to identify 7-8 different languages.
We get on bus and start driving back. The rain turns torrential. Suddenly we stop and see how rescue workers are trying to cut up a crumpled piece of metal that only vaguely reminds car. They extract bodies and drive away; we are allowed to pass.
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We spend it walking around and saying farewell to the city. We have got so very used to Australia, to its fierce energies, that going back does not feel like anything. We have grown into Australia.
We discuss the possibility of moving here. Would we survive the summer heat? Tiina says we would need to use some Asian clothes – long linen stuff to shelter from sun and not get too hot. Tiina thinks that moving to Australia for a while could be possibility. We’ll see.
Last glances at the Gucci city. Yarra is so dark and quiet.
(http://buriedshiva.com.au/Juhani/Last1.JPG)
There are six concrete columns of the banks of river Yarra that start to blow gas at 18.00 every evening, that is then ignited at different intervals. There are small flashes in the beginning and really large torches at the end.
(http://buriedshiva.com.au/Juhani/Last2.JPG)
Farewell, Melbourne, and thank you for everything!
At the hotel we make a call to Michael.
Thank you so much for everything! We have had extraordinary time! We saw so much, and we’ve seen the true and untamed Australia! It is priceless!
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i appreciate that wish and hope to one day soon dip my spoon in such a journey. thank you, thank you, ......thank you for your sharing.
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That was great Juhani!
I enjoyed it all. You were very luck to have covered so much in so short a time.
the energy of another adventure goes into our potent pool of shakti.