We left the apartment and walked towards our pre-planned route, into nature.
I noticed that the tarmac just looked like a thick oil slick poured onto the greenery. It was disgusting, and then a pig-farmer drove past us in a 4×4 (the scene almost perfectly summing up the ills of our society that we wanted to leave behind us) and it prompted me to laugh in despair and irony.
We walked to the stone bridge over the river, and through the thick green foliage, I caught a glimpse of the river – goodness me, I was startled, it looked magical. I took a picture with my camera which hung around my neck. The greenery. The moss on the stone bridge was damp and gorgeous, I bent into it breathing in the pure mossy air. I peered over the other side of the bridge and the slate rock was shimmering like coral underwater, actually shimmering with colours as if alive. I was fascinated by the scenery. Everything was bright.
We continued over the bridge and suddenly saw people near the asteroid rock. One of my travellers said let’s prepare ourselves to encounter people and accept it. I didn’t want to see them – they were ‘bringing me back down’ from my elation. They looked odd and far away, distant. I was a stage removed from them. I watched them curiously. After a few steps we came upon two paths and we simply didn’t know what to do. Left or right! I was already lost after 50 feet (at the edge of a car park!) Tall reminded us that the old man told us that we need to follow the path to this place called ‘Scooderrider’, and that it went round that huge asteroid rock.
We looked closely at the sign post and found a sign towards Sgwd Yr Eira. No way, we blurted out – it’s three words! I was completely flabbergasted that it was three words and let alone the goblin-like spelling. Okay, let’s follow the path – I followed them like a little boy, looking around and unaware of any plans.
I was fascinated by the patterns. I was completely fascinated. I was still conscious of my surroundings (never in danger, nor would I have done anything dangerous to myself or others), but aware that I was on a different plane of consciousness. The geometry in the flowers amazed me. The fresh bright sapling green. Even dandelions bursting out from the paths were incredible, flowers everywhere!
The path started inclining. It started raining now and the path became slippery and muddy. The trees around the thin path had veiny slippery roots on the floor. We huffed and puffed with our hoods on, edging our way up through this endless humid passage, not too sure whether or where we would come out. The passage eventually brought us up to an opening at the top. The passage, like a birth canal, was dark and arduous, and it felt like we were being reborn. We came out onto a clearing.