The first day of autumn. Taj slowed the quad bike as it reached the crest of the ridge, expertly negotiating a winding animal track up to the lookout point. All too aware of the press of Kim’s slim arms round his waist and the sandalwood fragrance of her hair. The bike hummed to a halt and the weight of her arms fell away.
‘Come.’ He beckoned her to follow him, scrambling up between clustered rocks and onto a stone ledge.
Kim took in the view with shining eyes, her wind-whipped hair framing her face.
When she went closer to the cliff edge, his muscles tensed involuntarily. Taj moved to stand beside her. He could feel a vibration where their arms touched, the slightest shiver of skin. The narrow stone table offered a spectacular view across the range, which was in turn blanketed by forest and scarred by jagged bluffs. A pair of eagles wheeled across the sky, riding the updrafts, and the sun sailed overhead, high as heaven. This was his favourite vantage point to look out over Tarringtops. With a little stretch of the imagination, he could be gazing at a mountain pass in the Hindu Kush.
‘All these years and I’ve never been to this spot,’ Kim breathed. ‘It’s by far the best place to see the waterfall.’ Across the valley, Devil Falls plunged two hundred metres down Echo Gorge, a silver ribbon breaking in a rainbow of spray on the rocks below. The special clarity of early autumn light made the cascading water seem almost close enough to touch. ‘It’s the loveliest thing I’ve seen.’
Taj nodded. Lovely, yes, but with a dark past. It was rumoured that during colonial times, local Biripi people had been dispossessed of their land and thrown to their deaths from the top of the falls. Beauty and violence went hand in hand here just as they did in his native Afghanistan.
‘See to the left of that line of trees?’ He moved behind her, closer now, pointing down the valley. ‘That’s where our last planting is.’
‘Or was,’ said Kim, with a rueful smile.
Removing the brumbies had succeeded in stabilising the creek banks, but it hadn’t solved their main problem. As fast as they could plant the trees out, they were nibbled down by browsing animals. Wallabies, deer, goats, even rabbits took their share. Heartbreaking. Plastic tree guards proved too flimsy, and fencing such large areas wasn’t practical. Taj went spotlighting most nights, much to the delight of the locals. He’d supplied them with enough venison to last for months. But as fast as he eradicated one pest, another took its place. He was only one man, and targeting ferals didn’t dent the wallaby and kangaroo population.
‘Look.’ Taj pointed to a troop of goats with half-grown kids, emerging from a gully. They spread out across the replanted paddock to graze.
‘Cheeky buggers,’ said Kim. ‘We’d better get down there before they clean up what’s left.’ Her shoulders sagged. ‘I feel like when we plant out we’re just sacrificing the poor seedlings to an army of chompers.’
A strong gust of wind caused her to step back, pressing against him. Taj steadied her with a hand to her waist, and a spark passed through him. Surely she could feel it too? He guided her back down the rock scramble, reluctant to let her go. Wanting to take her hand. ‘I have an idea,’ he said. ‘But first, I must show you something.’
Kim stood with a hand clamped to her mouth, staring at the ravaged plants on a slide of lichen-covered rocks above the rapids on Cedar Creek. ‘The orchids. The ravine orchids you were going to show me . . . was this them?’
‘Yes.’ His eyes brimmed with sadness. ‘I’m sorry.’ The orchids once grew here in a glorious profusion, forming broad mats across the moist rock face, many metres wide. Now the ancient clumps had been reduced to a few clusters of fleshy grey-green roots. They clung precariously to high stone fissures above the turbulent water.
‘What happened?’
‘I thought the cliffs would protect them. But I hadn’t counted on sure-footed goats.’
He had wanted to give her this view of the orchids, the beauty of them tumbling down the rocks, an image she could see over and over against her eyelids as she fell asleep. Why hadn’t he brought her here sooner? All this while he imagined them safe and beautiful, and now . . . It broke his heart to see her disappointment.
‘We have to do something.’ She choked back a sob. ‘Tell me your idea?’