Released

May 13 cont...

Finally, once I relaxed, I saw a faint white band, then another. They were quite far apart from each other but I managed to calmly unravel myself from the vines and get to the first band.
By now I was climbing down rock faces.
I had an uncanny sense that this was an ancient path and I felt like I was climbing down over graves. I wasn’t scared anymore but I felt the need to keep moving.

At last I could hear the distant sound of civilization and caught brief glimpses of roof tops but it was like looking down on Monopoly house rooves.
I was now less worried about being lost and more worried about hurting myself climbing down over the precarious boulders.

The white bands stopped again but at bizarre random points in the undergrowth on the side of the bank, there would be an old concrete post with a cross on the top indicating Henro trail.
They seemed completely incongruous to the surroundings and as I lowered myself down backwards, using vines as ropes, I would get a foothold and there would be a post. A few times I just sat on them and sobbed.
At the last one I remember saying ‘I can’t believe you’re still here!’ (meaning that Kobo Daishi was still with me).

I was relieved to finally see a road beneath me and I saw a vehicle pull over. It looked so tiny that I felt discouraged that the road was so far away. Something didn’t look right and when I looked again I realized it was that the lines on the road were quite big. I suddenly clicked that the vehicle was a mobility scooter! The size of the scooter had messed up my perspective to make it look like the road was further away than what it was. I couldn’t help but see the funny side of it and laughed.

At last I let myself down the last bank and come out on the road. I stood in the middle of it alternately sobbing and laughing hysterically.