Rainy days are here again

About an hours drive from where I live there's a place called the Promised Land. It's rolling green hills and rainforest backed farmland dotted with cows and houses and kids on bicycles and winding dirt tracks. And cutting away the valleys is the Never Never Creek. This is a burbling stream of water that gushes over grey stones and relaxes in deep clear pools. Here and there along its winding path there are beautiful swimming holes like this one, with a rope to play on and campfire sites here and there suggesting frequent use. Many of these spots are not accessible except by foot. A perfect place to spend a day with your friends or lovers.

I like to head up this way when I need to be alone. I find being out amongst the trees and birdsong replenishes the energy in some little part of me. If I'm stressed or tired or sick or angry, I can remember a particular tree or cascade or a winding trail from somewhere in this area, and it releases that little pod of energy and brings me back to the calmness of this place. I'd like to have people along with me too, but so far I haven't found the special someone to bring here.

I like it so much that the fact that it was looking a little overcast didn't deter me. I put on my backpack and "old man's" hat (a straw beach hat), grabbed the tripod and set out to capture the movement of the water and dappled light through the trees.

Then when I had trekked a few kilometers from my car, it started to bucket down. Luckily, I happened across the old bridge and took refuge.

It rained for quite a while, and I took to both finding photo opportunities, and trying to dodge rivulets of water that would leak through the old creaky wooden structure. There was a close shave with my macro lens: it got pretty wet, but it seems to be ok: it still captured this moss exactly as I had hoped:

I'll have to go back again one day when it's not so wet (though I do like the feeling of trudging along in the rain when it's not too cold or too warm). Sometimes things get a little slippery, and your shots go a little haywire: