A few months ago, I enjoyed a wonderful winter weekend with my extended family in a place called Cobram, alongside Australia's mighty Murray River.
A mere one-minute stroll from our cabin was one of the many billabongs that adorn the river gum forests alongside the Murray. I'm not talking about a popular brand of surfwear, by the way - if you're from outside of Australia you may be more familiar with the term "oxbow lake".
I went and took at look at this billabong just as dusk was falling. A beautiful and totally serene place. Dead quiet. Dead still. The water was like a mirror below steep banks with ancient river gum roots lurching all over the place. The river gums themselves towered over everything like sentinels from an age that time itself forgot.
Billabongs have their own unique serenity and beauty.
They're also rather dark and spooky.
They're relics of a river that has long since passed them by. They're timeless and outside the flow of things. They cast their own peculiar spell. It feels like you're being trapped, seduced by a beauty that will hold you fast forever.
While I was standing beside this particular billabong in the rapidly fading light, a whole extended family of grey kangaroos emerged like shadowy ghosts at one point from the other side. They glanced at me as if I was a piece of mildly interesting mildew for a few minutes, but the initial wariness appeared to give way to a realisation that I was absolutely insignificant. Then they loped away, some of them glancing back occasionally as if to say "We're just passing through, but look at you, rooted to the spot..."
Enthralled by the billabong's timeless spell, you eventually can't help recalling that they are the favourite haunt of bunyips. Whether bunyips are real monsters or just the disturbed imaginings of a mind lost in never never (or ever ever), is hard to say.
I've met more than my fair share of teachers who had what I call billabong syndrome, and I count myself as an occasional victim of it as well.
Beware!
Admire and enjoy your perfect billabong moments when you happen upon them, but don't forget to get back to the river. Move on, keep moving forward.
:-)
