Travel Trotter

The colorful lights and stands of tourist knick-knacks surrounded me on all sides; crocodile purses, wooden boomerangs, Aboriginal art, kangaroo statutes. I strolled the Night Markets just off the boardwalk of downtown Cairns. The blazing Australian sun heated the wading pools outside. A stall displaying handcrafted jewellery caught my eye and I picked up a golden pendant with a sprawling, lace-like design reminiscent of flowers. It snapped open to reveal a clock. It was so beautiful, I bought it.
With my new treasure in my purse, I found my friends sitting at the patio at a German restaurant with jovial German beer girls painted on its walls. I greeted them and sat down, my skin permanently sheened with sweat.
"We will visit the waterfall after," Eric said. He'd been here for two years, working as a scuba diver to rescue sunken ships. He'd traveled all over but said the Sunny Coast was his favorite. I said it all looked like the sunny coast to me. Eric looked at Robyn, our other Canadian friend, as he took a sip of his beer; golden bubbles floated to the surface. Lush exotic trees were blooming with flowers. Life hummed.
We grabbed our bathing suits and towels and I stared out as we drove past the rising green mountains enclosing Cairns on all sides, a little oasis that opened up to the Great Barrier Reef. Not long ago, we had taken the Kuranda Rail up those hills and sat in a SkyPod as a rush of tropical rain passed over the mountain, drowning out the beetles' loud chorus.
Under a canopy of trees and dancing sunlight, we walked around the side of the jagged mountain, overgrown with moss and lichen. A bubbling river ran below and we caught glimpses of other people frolicking in the water.
Eric hopped like a mountain goat up the narrow hill and then down to a river crossing. I could see fish swim below the clear water, but lost my footing and fell into cool, refreshing surf.
"I'm okay!" I said valiantly, as my flip flop floated downstream. I rushed to snatch it as Eric laughed. Robyn had stopped at the waterfall. It gushed down from the mountain next to a calm pool that had formed. We jumped in and swam towards it, the enormous pressure and thunderous pouring water pushing us away. The grandeur of it, the sound, mist, and overwhelming beauty - it was as if time had stopped.
And it had.
I realized when we were leaving, the pendant clock still hung around my neck. And time was forever frozen on the moment, the overwhelmingly beautiful present.