We were looking for the right spot – somewhere strange, ancient and eternal.
The road curved round and revealed two paths at the start of the forest. We took the left path, and carried along it until we reached a “No Trespass” sign. Dismayed that our first venture had led us, quite pathetically, down a short path to a dead end, we returned to the fork and took the right-hand path which took us over an ancient stone bridge to the Dinas Rock – a huge asteroid sized grey rock plonked in the forest.
We followed a path round the rock till we heard the loud white noise of waterfalls.
It was about 8 pm and, whilst there was still some dim summer light, our eyes were beginning to adjust to the lower light levels, especially under the trees, and then readjusting again, with some shock, at the sudden sight of the vibrant bright green luscious vegetation and moss, almost self-luminous in this forest undercover.
The narrow footpath carried us up alongside the river.
At one point, we instinctively left the path, and we started scaling up the cascading waterfalls. We climbed up rocks and hopped over the many gushing mini-waterfalls.
Ideally, we wanted somewhere sufficiently discreet so that we can properly let go of any inhibitions – somewhere, where we could focus ourselves during the initiation.
We climbed up over rocks and boulders, until we found a suitable spot with a view up the river, and down the river too. On either side of this flat spot, the landscape jutted sharply upwards to a towering overgrowth of trees and thick rainforest. Where we stood, there was a boulder and fallen moss-covered log and, in the middle, a calm pool of water with the river rushing past just beyond that.
The sound of gushing water surrounded us, the forest surrounded us. This looked right. It felt right, so it was right. We’d initiate here.