A waterfall and the trouble with staring at the ground

One of my favourite things in all of God's creation is a good old jungle. Back home, we call them rainforests but the difference is lost on me. My geography was never really good enough to understand these fine distinctions. The point is that the small southern Queensland town where I spent my formative years had much rainforest on hand for a small child to enjoy, and our semi-regular trips to the north gave me early exposure to the tropical variety. Years spent in the more pastural Gippsland made my love of the rainforest/jungle lie dormant for a few years, but on first coming to Malaysia it was reawakened. By the time I was living here last year, it was thoroughly active again, to the point that I booked a cabin in the jungle to spend a night back in June last year, even though I had a fever and had barely been able to walk the previous day. I love the jungle. That's all there is to it.
So today, after two and a half days of being back at my old school, more or less acting like I wasn't actually on holidays at all, I had the joy of going to one of my favourite Sabah haunts - Taman Bukit Tawau (Tawau Hill Park), where I stayed for that famous feverish night last year. I went with a friend, the husband of my principal, whose company I always relished when I lived here. We could drink beer and talk about history and literature, and he liked walking in the jungle. Enough said. So today we returned to the jungle, and went on another ill-fated search for the mythic hot springs of Tawau (that's two failed attempts now, this time because a very large tree and menacing-looking rotan branch had fallen across the path) and also had a successful trip to the Bukit Gelas waterfall, pictured above for your convenience. My feet got absolutely coated in mud (yet another pair of shoes to be christened by the extremes of Bornean weather) as did my trousers, and I was thoroughly sweaty by the end of the hike, and had an all-round rollicking good time. Afterwards we drank tea and ate papadums and roti, and talked about history and theology. We're planning another jungle trek on Saturday, this time up another hill nearby.

There was a moment while hiking when I realised, though, that for all my love of the jungle I rarely look at it when I'm walking in it. Much more of my time is spent staring at the ground, avoiding the mud (I was unsuccessful), looking out for leeches (failed on that count too) and generally making sure that where you put your feet is steady and safe (that was more successful). Then you enter the clearing, find the waterfall and put your bag down. You wash your face and hands in the stream and look up, and there it is. The thing you came here for.

You cannot, perhaps, see from the picture just how beautiful that waterfall was. Come to Tawau with me one day and I'll show you.