Women Over Fifty

There is a highway that bisects Australia north and south.  We started at Adelaide and the bus was headed for Alice and maybe points beyond. The Pioneer Bus we traveled the outback on was just a bus, not a tour bus.  Just ordinary people going their ordinary ways and a few lost tourists added in.  It was daylight when we got on the bus with a lot of Aussies on holiday.  They were backpacking and carrying a lot of gear.  A holiday mood filled the bus.

So long as it was daylight the terrain looked pretty much as it had since we entered Australia.  As night fell, we got as comfortable as we could and tried to sleep.  I listened to people talking and laughing and just passing the time.  It was cozy.  I was getting a sore throat and so I was taking sips from a large bottle of water all night long.  Soon everyone settled down, except for me.

I just didn’t feel well and I needed to travel to the back of the bus a lot.  We were about in the middle.  To get to the back of the bus involved picking your way over feet and around heads and pillows until you finally had to excuse yourself to the person sleeping on the big seat at the back.  No one seemed to mind my frequent trips.

Because I was awake, I saw the lights come on at the first ranch/station we came to.  Sleepy people struggled out of the building.  A few people got on, a few people got off, and some stuff was delivered.  As the bus left,  the lights went off again.  I was so glad we were on this bus.  Here I’d gotten a real snapshot of life as it was lived on the outback.  A tiny glimpse to be sure, but a real look into people’s lives.  I began to look forward to the next stop.

The night wore on.  Total darkness, then a quiet stop to deliver people and supplies, then off we went again.  I snoozed a little, ever alert for the next set of lights.  Some time during the night we stopped for a break at a restaurant and most of us got off to eat a little and stretch our legs.  Like the stations, the restaurant had opened up as we arrived and closed when we left.

Toward dawn, I woke to find a large kangaroo racing the bus.  For a while it looked like the kangaroo was winning, but it saw something else interesting and hopped off into the brush.

Later, I saw parrots again, high in the trees, flitting about in pairs.  These parrots had yellow under their wings.

I saw places in the outback where it looked like a caterpillar tractor had just gouged out a hole in the ground.  I was mystified.  Later I was told that those places were created to catch water when it rained so the stock could drink.

We pulled into Coober Pedy around 6 AM.  Our Best Western Host was there to greet us and drive us to the hotel.  I guess it was pretty common to be up in time to meet the bus.

Breakfast was waiting at our underground motel room.  We ate and crashed.  I slept so soundly the whole time in Coober Pedy.

More about that tomorrow.

Marilynne

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