Seeing things

Woodend to Perth: Roadtrip Day 4

When you arrive at a Nullabor roadhouse before 5pm, you wonder where all the people are and pause to consider the possibility that you may have wandered onto the before now secret set of Wolf Creek:The Sequel. By 5.30pm, a full house of motel guests materialise, open the sides of their custom ute/trailer/campers, retrieve their beverage holders, and gather at their doorways, neoprened tinny in hand.

And so it was in Eucla. As dusk set, the entertainment troupe, in the form of a mice plague, came out to party. A sight more gripping than peak hour television, countless little varmints dashed SWAT-team-like from under rubbish bins, to the risky shadows of car tyres, and back and forth along walls and walkways.

By 8am the following morning, we were back on the movie set, wondering if all those other people and meece were inventions of a fine Coonawarra red that had been sunning itself in the rear of the vehicle for four days. Fortified by too much real coffee we didn’t brew in our motel room (NO COOKING IN THE ROOM), we hit the road again, and I welcomed the bracing force of a Nullabor zephyr as I hung my camera out the window for more Fleeting Glimpses. By now, I have lost the part of me that needs pin-sharp focus and am veering toward an impressionistic obsession. I love the way the blurred lines run in different directions, a bit like a mice plague.

Odometer count: 2300km. Next, Esperance.