I have a secret page on my website that only those that search carefully can find. I call it The 50/50 Project ...
It is a list of all my hopes and dreams - both possible and impossible - & all the places I hope to one day go and all the things I hope to one day do. I call it The 50/50 Project because it was inspired by the inching closer of my 50th birthday and the realisation that there are still so many things in the world I want to do (I found 50 of them, hence the title). The idea is that - as I go somewhere or achieve something - I'll blog about it, and gradually be able to cross off some of these dreams.
Today I am crossing off:
No 36: Stand Under A Waterfall
I actually did this last year, when I was touring for THE IMPOSSIBLE QUEST in the Top End. Panos Couras, who was then the director of the Northern Territory Writers Centre, took me to swim at Wangi Falls in the Litchfield National Park, 100 km south-west of Darwin.
It was the most magical place that felt very secret and ancient (apart from the dozens of people swimming there!) Its surrounded by red desert and grey-green bush for hundreds of kilometres, and the water plummets down a ochre-red rock face in heavy white veils. To get to the waterfalls, you need to swim across the waterhole which is incredibly dark and cold. Your arms and legs are greenish-brown under the water, and I could not help being afraid of crocodiles (even though I knew the waterpool was only opened if no crocodiles were sighted).
Here is my photographic proof! (Thanks to Panos Couras who took the photos)
And to give you an idea of how tall the waterfall is (about 52 metres):
