Streaming

Yesterday was my first trip into town for four days. To prepare myself for hours of hot driving in circles I decided to go for a dip in the stream, first.

I walked round to the concrete ford where there is quite a deep shady swimming hole I had spotted earlier in the week. After a cooler day of rain the water was a bit bracing and my skinnydip quite quick. But on the other side of the fence across the stream, sunlight glinted and I decided to try walking back to the house along the stream bed.

The water was ankle to knee deep most of the way and delightfully cool in the sultry heat of the sunlight. There were many little fishy creatures darting around and patches of tired looking watercress. I passed a couple of swimming holes which would have been more enticing if less muddy or slimy. There is a lot of slime, apparently seasonal, caused by the sunshine. There is a lot of mud too, churned up by cattle.

Although I'm pretty sure I was the only human around for many miles that morning, I did have some interesting encounters with cows. Unfortunately that stream runs through a paddock where a herd of very pregnant cows are grazing. At midday they were very sensibly hanging out in a shady area by the stream and were a little concerned at my passage. Unfortunately they would move away in the same direction as I was heading so we met up several times, before I decided to leave the (suddenly quite deep) stream to them and head out across the paddocks for home.