Naganaga; land of the water dragon

Hello there from the land of the water dragon; Naganaga. The property occupies the tail end of a ridge called the water dragon by aboriginals. Last week Megha showed me the full length of the dragon and yes I was able to see why the indigenous people of the area saw a water dragon in the shape of the long curving bush clad ridge. Actually until yesterday I was under the misapprehension that Megha had said the line of the ridge was called the rainbow serpent. But no, I had misunderstood her. I had begun to tune into the idea of being at the serpents tail end but of course I am equally happy to find I am standing, sitting, sleeping and walking on the tail end of the water dragon !

When I last visited Australia seven years ago I was on retreat at Vijayaloka near Sydney and had the good fortune to see a water dragon on several occasions as one lived near the large rocks at the edge of the river where we would take regular dips. His/her body was about 10 inches long and then the tail was another 6 or so inches. He/she had a slightly crenelated ridge running down the back from the neck and was brown/green in colour. As their name suggests water dragons are good swimmers.

Naganaga is about 20 Km inland from Kempsey which is about a 6 hour drive north of Sydney. Megha and Satyagandhi have been living up here for the past seven years almost. They had recently purchased the property from an aboriginal woman when I was last in Australia in Jan 2002. At that time they had just suffered a bush fire. I never saw the land at that time. Seven years on the traces of the fire are there if you look for them; dead gum trees and charred stumps. However the overall impression is one of a plentiful expanse of bush which at this time of year [autumn] is very green, as is the grass and shrubs, with flowering plants and a bountiful supply of citrus fruit on the trees they planted since moving here.

I have been here just over three weeks now. I am sitting in the community kitchen typing this blog entry whilst Megha showers next door. Once she has finished I'm going to put some plaits in her hair, that is if there is time before the pre-supper meditation. It is raining steadily outside so I think we will be meditating next door in the lounge rather than head off down the hill to the yurt which is the main shrine room. Not very adventurous I guess but it takes a bit of effort to open up the rain flaps over the yurt [it has been closed up all day] and it depends whether either of us are in the mood to get wet. Plus it is dark to add to the adventure !