Back from my trip away and there was the sense of the changing of seasons – Summer passing into Autumn. I had one last walk to make.
Arrived home on the train late on Friday evening with a lingering flu. Showers from Sydney down to Wollongong and the air much cooler than a week ago. By Sunday, however, it was fine. No chance, however, to get away until 3:30. Day light saving time had finished that morning, so it felt later in the day. Long shadows and ominous clouds on the Western horizon. I hurried up the hill as quickly as possible. Despite the flu, I felt much better climbing today than I had a week ago. I was heading up to the long slide on Harry Graham Drive – the one that I’d seen on my last trip, but not explored.
I walked swiftly up to the Jumpers and then across to Robertson Lookout. I thought of my trip away – the all night drives, the hotel rooms, the volcanoes, the people that I met, the films that I watched on the plane. All of this made the walk go more quickly.
The piles of rubbish had disappeared from Robertson Lookout. Instead there was a nice, shiny Mercedes. No sign of the owner. They must have been enjoying the view. I half expected to see the earlier trash tucked into the bush somewhere nearby, but it had been scrupulously cleared away.
The Sun passed behind clouds and late afternoon grew dark and gloomy.
I approached the slide with a sense of trepidation. Once again I’d have to find some awkward way down through the adjacent jungle to the pile of wrecked cars. This time the bush was wet, so I was expecting leeches. I descended through a section of thick vines into the forest below and traversed across towards the cars. There were many more than I expected. It was a cathedral of dumped vehicles. I recognised the late model wrecked Land Cruiser that had been visible from the road, but was particularly struck by a rusted vehicle covered in bright graffiti. Initially I assumed that the car had been painted before it had rolled down the slide, but now wonder if it hadn’t been painted afterwards, suggesting that there had been other vandalising parasites before me.
Cathedral of wrecked cars
Settled on a portion of the door panel painted with a large pink ‘B’. My initial. So it seemed suitable as a found signature for the overall work. I took the usual preliminary photographs and then prepared myself for one final effort of cutting. The grinder cut smoothly through the metal skin. There was no backing glue or awkward bit of hidden structural metal. Once I made the final cut, the square piece simply fell out of the larger panel. A few more photographs and I was done.
As I traversed back through the bush to my original point of descent, I noticed a faint track continuing low in the forest towards Robertson lookout. I realised that this was an old walking track that had fallen into disrepair. So instead of ascending back to Harry Graham Drive, I followed the neglected trail back to the lookout. Then it was simply a matter of retracing my path back down to Mt Keira, the Girl Guide camp and home. I half ran down the hill to ward off the gathering darkness, making it back just before 6pm.
And not a leech to be seen.
Graffiti car
'B' panel
Cut out
Square