W - WILDERNESS

The owner of the homestay offered to drive them to the top of the mountain so that they could walk down, and at around 10am he dropped them off in his ancient Renault on a rough dirt road, just as it descended. For a while there was no-one around, in fact it was strangely still and silent with hardly a bird tweet to disturb the air.

After a kilometre or so, they noticed that the white dust from the road also coated the bordering trees, and wondered why it had settled. As soon as they had this thought they realised the cause, as a convoy of four huge 4WDs lumbered up the road towards them, laden with families, the children and parents staring out the windows at these curious creatures who actually chose to walk.

Car after car followed, each one driving a little too fast with no slowing down for the pedestrians. Soon they were as dusty as the trees and getting a bit tetchy with each other. They were also hungry and as soon as they saw a small path off to the right they took it and luckily it led to a stream tumbling down the mountain. The stove was set up, tea made and the sandwiches eaten.  While she rinsed their mugs and plates in the creek, he jumped to the other side and rock hopped further upstream.

‘Babe, come here,’ she heard, so she crossed over too and followed him. He was squatting on the bank looking down into a pool and wordless he pointed into the water. On the floor of the pool there were about a dozen small snakes and a scattering of frogs, moving slightly with the current but clearly lifeless. They looked wide eyed at each other, both thinking about the tea they’d just drunk.