So I shall tell a tiny tale of a trip to nowhere*.
Once upon a time, a loud-mouth American and a “lanky” Brit drove to the far reaches of NSW. We were in search of nothing other than unique landscapes, breathtaking starscapes and a desperate need to escape. Escape Sydney, escape illness, escape work … just escape.
In a car that should probably only be driven on newly paved highways, we drove on unsealed red roads that went on forever and made me think of Tom Petty's "Into the Great Wide Open". We drove past kangaroos and bunnies and emus. On occasion, we drove into birds and lizards.
We drove 1000 km to visit a national park, only to find the main attraction restricted to tours. The kindness of the guide allowed us to play on rocks and sand dunes of a surreal landscape. It was in that same national park that I stood in the middle of an ancient and desolate lake-bed one night and watched the universe swirl around me.
We drove again into another state and camped by lakes full of algae and salt, eerily pink under a gray and moody sky. It was by this lake that I sat on a picnic bench and watched Venus fade to red and then disappear into the horizon…and felt the first bit of peace that I had in months.
To the Brit’s delight, I threw a watermelon and startled a snake, thus shaving several years off my life.
To my delight, field mice found their way into our disintegrating tent that night and body-slammed the Brit before taking refuge in a package of cookies.
We drove again, and belted out 90s songs as if our lives depended on it. But eventually the escape came to an end as the lights of Sydney came into view, reminding us of our inescapable realities.
In the end, nowhere was a good place to be...and those stars...
* I had originally meant to turn this into a multi-post story but for reasons I don’t have, I’m not going to. Someday I may tell the full story of the snake and field mice. It’s a good one.
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