Mataranka, N.T.

Mataranka.. I think that is where I am.  I should know: I have been here before, sleeping in the back of the Subaru under the close watch of a peacock.  Reminds me of Grandma B’s.. only her birds were noisy.

There are Kangaroos too.. and a ton of little frogs. 

Ahh.. the outback.  Soon to be a memory. 

That is what I have been thinking of lately.. again: still: how quickly things change.  How fragile our lives are. How everything we do becomes.. a memory.

I have been working on a wedding book for Travis and Stephanie.  So much change even since that event.  Chelsea and George are gone.  The people they left behind are different now, pieces missing and in their wake are harder, yet more fragile parts.  Jackie and dad are ‘into’ making owls now.  Sara’s belly must be swelling, as is Jeri’s ‘other’ Jana.  Abigail is crawling. 

And Kununurra is behind me.  Literally. 

20 K from Timber Creek  Feb 12/2011

The road on which I have travelled has changed as well.  It is green.  The grass is now higher than the termite mounds that used to reign prominently over this landscape. Whereas before everything was black with ash or merely dry brown stubble, now it is all about the underbrush and pools of water.

The trees too are thick with leaves.  They still have that Dr. Suess look about them, little bursts of colour and puff balls of green.  The flowers are mainly gone, yet the landscape looks happier: like me. 

I tried to leave Kununurra yesterday, but 200 kilometres down the road met up with a small lake, drifting lazily across the road.  A river actually.  It was higher than my knees and one of the fellows said he watched once as a car tried to cross such a river and actually floated away.. 

“It’s not just the water getting into the engine that you have to worry about” he explained.  “It’s the current.” 

So I drove back to Kununurra and tried again this morning.  Instead of being slightly above my knees, the water was slightly below.  It was also slower, even warmer and there was no one around to discourage me. No one to tell me my car could float away.

I do some of my best work when I am on my own.  My most daring anyway.  No one to point out why not..

I went really slow.. so as not to get a wake built up in front of the vehicle.  The water was high enough without me pushing it.  Anyway.. it worked.. here I am: Mataranka.. 400 K past the 'river'.

I stopped in Katherine at the McDonalds, with it’s free internet… had a coffee and now can’t get to sleep.  I am thinking about the things I am going to miss.

The black cockatoos all going to bed in one tree.. the flying foxes in the mango trees, the boabs, with all their shapes and sizes.. the waterholes.. the frogs calling out noisily to one another at night,  the lizards: water monitors, frilled (Not Grilled) and the little guys running around on the walkway as I head to the 'shop'.  The warm rain..

Kangaroos jumping out of the ditches along the highway and Dingos and hawks dragging road kill off the narrow bitumen roads.   

There were a  couple of big snakes on the road today: no pictures.  I don't stop for snakes, or spiders.

My hair dresser told me that her boyfriend was bitten by a centipede at Blackrock Springs, where we were last weekend.  They are one of the most painful bites you can get.  I won't miss the thought of that.. She also spotted a little crocodile in Valentine Springs, where Vas went again today.  Crocs can’t be good. 

But mostly I am going to miss Vas. 

Really, he hardly bites at all.  I am pretty certain he will find me: no matter where in the world I end up. 

I am loving doing up these books.  It has taken away from my 'blog time', sorry about that.  I think I am finding a balance though. 

I better try and go to sleep.. heading to Alice tomorrow.  Dave is buying the Subaru… so I will be flying to Sydney from Alice, to find out what comes next.  

Insha’allah.