Nepean River rail bridge.
Nepean River Railway Bridge
Climb out and down – from tracks to pylon. Sit. Wait. Water below.
A lo-o-o-ong way below.
Steam train comin’. Water spurting. Hot. Scalding.
Easy choice … except all vertical space is a barrier.
Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance.*
Bullshit.
Jump. Scream. Splash.
A lot of air betwixt track and splash.
* Train in the Distance from Paul Simon’s 1983 album Hearts and Bones .
[…] childhood, youth, and adult life … I have grown up with it. As a 9 or 10 year old we would jump off the rail bridge pylons, we swam at the weir or just sat under its cascade escaping the heat, we learned to water ski, went […]