A pale blue haze of sky. Old stately river gums shade the river bank. Red gums and wattles, serried waterlines on clay banks. An area of startling green lawn where two rivers meet. Reedy waterhole and in the tangled shady light of the river bank a wagtail stirs from grass stalk to grass stalk. Ducks, black swans, ibis, cormorants and pelicans sighted. Crows mill overhead. Fretwork of tree shadows where within wagtails and magpies stir. The gathering ground mist in the early morning air slowly disperses in the heat of the sun.

Muted greens and yellowy mud creams along the river bank. The river snaking off into reach after reach of gentle zig zags. The current sweeps past creating backward running eddies. Rafts of foam sweep round beds. Tree branches loosened from the banks surge in the current like half sunk rafts. Easy to stand all day to watch hypnotically its changes. Gnarled, wrinkled, massive river red gums march along its sides, hanging over the brown swirling water. I clamber down the steep bank with exposed tree roots used as handholds. Swarms of mosquitoes hover, tree limbs, leaves and sticks lay beached in the shallows. I track a wagtail from log to log, tame but elusive hovering at knee height, just beyond reach.