Wilderness of Scene. And Mind. The Cathartic Displeasure of Effort.
Why is it that effort amplifies the taste?
The sweetness of concurring that burly long climb up into the mythical mountain tops, all the while our legs tramping and persisting with the heavy load. Or immersing into the pleasure of swimming underneath the blue mystical sea, playing with the deep-DNA urge of the body compelling us to rise to the surface and breathe.
They’re not tortures of the spirit, they’re choices to embark unto a passage into the mind and body that perhaps we wouldn’t otherwise desire. Particularly when a new series of our favourite TV show drops and the weekend cosy horizontal viewing platform could just as easily be sunken into, with an occasional lap of the loungeroom.
These vast wildernesses. Further than the eye can even perceive. Lost over the horizon, sprawling valley or beyond the bluer than blue.
Within the regularity of modern life, sometimes it’s a satisfying panacea to flick and scroll over the 100-million new photos that are uploaded to Instagram every day by the 1-billion active users, swirling around in the pool of 5% engagement that sustains the platform.
Out there in the online ether, we can be anyone, anywhere, anytime, adventuring into almost any world, place, colour, texture, thought, dream, persona, character or product that you can think of, and even the ones you haven’t thought of yet. It’s a type of crowd-sourced wilderness that adores to occupy your mind. But where’s the taste I wonder?
In and around Melbourne, we are totally spoiled by the opportunity to find wilderness. Sand between our toes, the salty waters of one of the largest inland bays in Australia, Port Phillip Bay exists right there, inviting us into its cool temperate waters to restore body, mind and spirit whilst peering into the eyes of sea creatures and marine lifer, 80% of which are not found in the warmer waters of the Earth.
To the East of Victoria lay the Australian Alps, Snowy River National Park and an ancient world named the land of Errinundra Plateau, a vast green wilderness. In this place 500 million years ago, simple life of snails and jellyfish lived in an ancient sea, until sea levels dropped and the sand hardened to create a base of sandstone rock. Over millions of years the earth’s crust folded, twisted, heated and compressed. Cracks and fissures formed. Wind and water eroded sedimentary rocks, and hard granite boulders stood stoically after them.
The mild and wet climate sustained the growth of tree ferns while creeks and streams cut away at valleys and gullies. The drying of the weather systems of the inland and southern regions over time urged plants to adapt to conserve water, and their form of leaves and needles changed, now seen as the Eucalypts, Banksias and Heaths. Fire soon began to intervene and the rainforests of Errinundra sought refuge in the remaining wet wilderness.
As our now current familiar milder and wetter climate took balance, the elevated Errinundra Plateau became wetter than its neighbouring areas, harbouring a wide range of plant communities, forests, cool temperate forests and incredible hundreds of years old tall trees that tower over the rainforest understory with their 11-metre diameter base.
And an adventure into this grand green wilderness is attainable, with a quick flick on your favourite Maps App, and a press of Destination – GO!
Alas, it’s going to take some effort. What you will love is the taste.
You will breathe it in. Deeply. The unmistakable scents of the Australian Bush. Sweet elixirs emanating from the rising warm air and descending from the top stories upon the cool miniscule droplets of moisture, those that perfume your nostrils and fill your chest with joy and delight. Oh how they soothe and pamper you from within.
The subtle changes in temperature as you move along the ridge, inside the broad shadows from the tall forest canopy, curving into the sunlight on a steeper open corner. Dipping into the undergrowth and rising over the rocky crests. Staring down the valleys and contours, the rippling brook and babbling stream tickles your nervous system with a zing and a trickle all over the tiny crevices of your body’s skin.
Moments earlier, heaving and complaining, muscles wanted to refuse to work. Each forward motion requiring the issue of orders, to keep going, to soldier on, to toil at the incline, to foster more energy for the certain extra pinch of altitude waiting with dark humour around the following bend.
A single sweat bead forms on the brow. Or is it cooling steam? Or a combination of the moist air gathering across the creases of the frowning forehead, only to quiver and drop in the same moment that the mind lets go to the rising sense of accomplishment and equally lets ripple a wanton smile across plump red oxygenated lips.
Under the duress of the activity the mind argues. Was this adventure into the unknown such a good idea? Is there ample food? Water? Am I too hot? Or maybe I’ll wait a little longer before pausing to change my upper layers. Oh that’s an incredible view!
Ping ponging left and right, up and down, zig and zag, the thoughts they want to keep coming. And clawing.
Outside. Peace. The pong of a nearby bellbird. The pang of a screeching parrot, followed by the whoosh of leaves in faraway branches. Laughing merrily the Kookaburra shares the ease of a day well spent in clean, clear fresh air, bonded under fair blue sky.
Eyes casting across the ground, sweeping this way and that, evaluating the minuscules of the terrain, considering and choosing ceaselessly the myriad of contours with which to progress forward. Detecting a hint of colour and misadventuring texture that doesn’t belong, keen pupils zero in on the mottled browns and creamy white of one fallen Kookaburra feather. A trophy to admire for long after the memories of this temporary squalor into the wilderness has moved on.
Finding these little treasures during an otherwise lostness on a meandering trail, the ease with which our mind begins to travel between the outside world and the inside world, both meshing together in an endless emergence of freedom. Free to choose where the attention goes, safe to peer out into the smallness and the vastness of the ruggedness disguised by velvety green textures that disappear far into the bluey-hazed mountainous distance.
It’s here in the changing rhythms and tempos of the exploration that subtly break down our own inner tensions. Smoothing out the prattling self-speak going on behind foreheads, allowing the mind to listen and watch for the real hidden truths that arise between breaths and the noticing of the changes in the environment abounding outside.
Within this realm, the sweetness of the toils begins to be seen. Loosening up the darker areas of the mind and soul, rattling a few closed and locked mind cages that have long resisted visitation, but seek the light of your new consciousness and readiness to invite and accept them in a new potential, observing from a fresh developing perspective. An openness that is happier to reserve former judgements and opinions, merely watching them appear, just as easily as the eye that casts about for more trophy Kookaburra feathers.
And so begins to be revealed, the cathartic displeasure of effort.
There’s a beauty to being in the middle of nowhere, or the middle of everywhere that it is too. Kind of far from the pulls of regular life. The relief of nothingness, but everything there, just not the things we’re used to allowing our attention to be put to.
Wandering through remote alpine bush, how can you not be in awe of the green magic carpet it has thrown across the lands. The sprawling corrugations of valleys, gullies, mountains, peaks and troughs. Just like our daily lives that journey through the pits of difficulties and the highs of gorgeous times spent gazing through loving eyes.
There are no simple flat lands of the mind that life delivers with a metronome like consistency, stability and predictability, affording the simplicity of nil to worry, nor problems parried. What a muted existence that might be, though oft we long for the extended calm of a breezeless day soaked in sunshine.
If only we may find the wilderness within, search it, explore it. Gaze around and be awe struck by the corrugations of life, the missteps, the trips, the follies, the triumphs and the little trophies we accepted along the way.
To savour the taste of the efforts and displeasures amplified by explorations into the broad green valleys and deep blue seas of our selves. The efforts that earned us the fulfilling appearance of all the mixed emotions that run shallow and deep. The ones that feel like oozing dispensing relief. The ones that we curse and try to stomp out and the ones that warm our heart, that put faith back into ourselves. The ones that we long to share in personal expression, big and small.
Oh what a tasty adventure it is to allow ourselves to step forth into our wilderness and have our toiling and efforts rewarded.
Images & Words by Marlon Quinn
*Disclosure: Appearing below are a few links and recommendations that I’ve curated specifically for you. Many of them are free to engage with, and you’ll see that some have price tags associated with them. Of the ones that you might pay for, I have used affiliate links, which sometimes give you discounts and sometimes send a few dollars my way, at zero cost to you. The publishing of this site wholly depends on your support through using the affiliate links that have been tailored specifically. If you click on the affiliate/advertiser links and even purchase sometimes, it may generate a tiny commission but at no additional cost for you. The products and services listed are only ones that I believe in and like, and are selected independently and without influence, so if you like it too, then I’ve done my job well, and for you, it’s a bonus!
Thanks for reading this post and I hope your next adventure into the wilderness is as mind opening as my experience.
Marlon Quinn