todays view from the Monaro - Richard Adam's Watership Down

watership down

A little part of the book goes like this:

Blackberry: Men have always hated us.

Holly: No. They just destroyed the warren because we were in their way.

Fiver: They'll never rest until they've spoiled the earth.


Vague visions and recollections of Richard Adams's Watership Down blur with the landscape in front of me. I trek across the Monaro, a quest to find the Watership Down, a place of refuge, safety, community. Rabbits scatter, tails disappear, he is near. I see the story - rabbits, humans, dogs, sheep, old homesteads, farm machinery, struggles and bloody confrontations between their own and others: ancient trees, ancient tracks, ancient timelines, ancient song -ancient movements across the landscape and the search for a peaceful place, food and shelter - Watership Downs. New trees, new homes, new people, new humans. Tired still. Drought and limited employment. The landscape shimmers. I find myself asking, today, am I the human or the rabbit? Yongar and his mob become anxious, they eye me, scatter into the woodland, beyond distant fence. I move. Today I must be human.

Return to the warren, traipse back home, I think back to last nights meal, and the afternoon before: the poor, frightened, little creature, the look in his eye. Cars!!! Fiver caught by the car, my car, maimed, back legs broken. Cuddle it, soothe it, soft, warm, speak gently, quietly, forever clasped, I say goodbye.

Sleep, try to sleep, but no sleep comes. I toss. I turn. It must be done. Barely able, I work in the dull night light.

The skin comes away cleanly. I clean him out. Lay him bare. Poor little creature, legs broken beyond repair.

Tomorrow I'll cook him, respect him, little creature, a little life.

Today I'm human.

Blackberry: Men have always hated us.
Holly: No. They just destroyed the warren because we were in their way.
Fiver: They'll never rest until they've spoiled the earth.

We search for Watership Down.