moved. I banged again and made
some shooing noises. The last thing
I wanted to do was to get out and
look! As I hit the side of the tent, my
hand stopped against something very
solid and very warm! I really wasn't
expecting that! This creature of the
night was definitely not a mouse and
whatever it was had clearly decided
to sleep up against my tent!”
Reaching out again, Steph touched
the lump at the side of her tent. It
didn’t move. Steph didn’t get out to
see what the creature was, assuming
it was her little friend of earlier. The
two tried to sleep side by side, rest-
less sleep and apologies for disturb-
ing her little friend, Steph eventually
got a few hours of rest. By the morn-
ing the wallaby was gone, they never
set eyes on each other again.
This was just the first encounter
that surprised Steph as she was start-
ing to discover the ‘real’ Australia.
Mile after mile of open road, slicing
its way through sparse mulga scrub
verging on becoming desert this was
the outback. Out here the population
is thin, almost non-existent. Those
that do man the remote roadhouses
are often travellers themselves.
“Every roadhouse I stopped at was
being manned by a Brit! The Aus-
tralian government have got it well
sussed out. They insist that if you
want to extend your stay in the coun-
try then you have to work rurally for
at least three months. Clearly the
Aussies don't want to be here, so they
send the Brits out. Hundreds of miles
from anywhere and out of trouble!
Good move! You have to like their
thinking!”
But there are people in the Austra-
lian outback, along the Barkley High-
way, heading east towards Mount Isa
Steph discovered many, although,
most couldn’t hold a conversation.
“You will find several of the termite
hills dressed up to look like people!
It's lovely. Some are really good as
the shapes lend themselves perfect-
ly! Some even wore bras!” laughed
Steph.
“People get bored along this route
and so you have to find ways of keep-
ing yourself entertained. There is
evidence of this all the way along the
roads.”
“Sleeping next to a Wallaby and
TRAVERSE 37
seeing bra wearing termite hills is not
really what I had expected of the Aus-
tralian outback - but I like it!”
Covering the kilometres with only
road-trains, those behemoths of Aus-
tralian transport, for company, Steph
soon realised that the remoteness
goes on, and on, and on …
“I covered 1600km in 3 days with
just 2 junctions and 3 very slight
bends in between.”
By Christmas 2014 Steph found her-
self transitioning from the solitude of
the Australian outback to the bustle
of the Sunshine Coast in south east
Queensland. Tropical storms being
a highlight, something completely
different to where she had just come.
Spending time with a Pastafarian, a
religion that worship pasta and a fly-
ing spaghetti monster, it was chance
to understand that religion can take
any form, in this case, a light-hearted
view that doesn’t believe in intelligent
design.
The contrast of Australia’s east
coast to that of the interior struck
Steph as she hopped her way south
meeting other travellers, some who
loved the lifestyle of Australia so