A Trip of a Lifetime

I have become a grey nomad, you know, one of those guys who have packed up, bought a 4WD and caravan or motorhome and headed off into the wild blue yonder. I had set out from my home in South Australia on the trip of a lifetime, to travel around Australia. If you should come upon a caravan on the road with 'double disco' on the back, that's me, so stop me and say g'day. The name comes from the fact that I use a Land Rover Discovery to tow a Jayco Discovery van and, as the Land Rover is known as a 'Disco', I figured that I had a double disco. Being a diesel it wasn't the fastest rig on the road, but then I wasn't in a hurry.

I was two months into my trip, having hugged the coast through South Australia, with a short stop at the Coonawarra wine region to sample and stock up on some Cabernet Sauvignon for which that region is famous, before crossing the border into Victoria. The Great Ocean Road was spectacular, but I skirted Melbourne and spent a week on the Mornington Peninsular before heading to New South Wales. The fishing at Bermagui was good, as was the side trip from Batemans Bay to Canberra, our nation's capitol where I based myself in a caravan park so that I could spend a week visiting the National Gallery, War Museum and the National Archives where I did some research into the family history.

Not wanting to be a mobile chicane up the escarpment from Wollongong I took the Hume Highway route from Canberra to the southern outskirts of Sydney then the M7 and M2 to miss the heavy city traffic until I reached the freeway to Newcastle. From here on I hugged the coast and it was a month later that I crossed into Queensland where I blended in with the thousands of other retirees who had made this part of the world their home and enjoy their declining years.

It wasn't long before I was growing tired of all of the retiree focussed activities and decided that it was time to head across the top to the Kimberleys in Western Australia. This involved driving across some spectacularly desolate country. Because I wasn't exactly set up for serious off-road travelling, any deviation from the bitumen had to be well planned, a check with police on road conditions because rains in the gulf country can affect roads hundreds of kilometres away. It was also advisable to let the police know where you were travelling and when you were likely to reach your destination.

I headed west from Townsville with stops at Longreach for the Stockman's Hall of Fame and the QANTAS aviation museum before I reached Mt Isa. I spent a day there setting up for long distance travel, extra fuel and water, fresh batteries for my Sat Nav and satellite phone, test the EPIRB just in case, make sure the vital fluids in the Disco were okay and spend several hours in the Laundromat making sure that I had clean jocks and socks for at least a week. It was early in the morning when I drove out of Mt Isa on the Barkly Highway towards Tennant Creek, reaching Barkly Homestead mid afternoon. I decided to overnight there giving me an easy run to the Three Ways intersection with the Stuart Highway just north of Tennant Creek.

I was chatting to some fellow travellers who asked me where I was headed, "The Kimberleys via Darwin, why?"

"It's just that there was a woman in a Kombi, you know one of those really old ones with the split windscreen, we didn't like the sound of it and tried to stop her, but she insisted. I think that you should keep an eye out for her."

"Okay I will." I thought little of this as I hit the road the next morning but about 120 kilometres down the road, just past the 41 Mile Bore rest area I saw the burnt of shell of a Kombi a couple of hundred metres off the road. Stopping, I walked towards it fearing the worst. As I neared it I heard a sob and when I looked inside I saw her, covered in soot, sitting among the ruins quietly crying.

"Are you okay?" I realised as soon as I said it that it was bloody obvious that she wasn't okay. I waited for the abuse at my stupidity.

She looked at me, weighing up whether to waste any anger or frustration on me and decided against it. "My father will kill me."

"I can see that your bus has seen better days, but how are you?"

"If you really want to know, I'm tired, I'm frustrated and I don't know what to do now, everything I have has gone up in smoke."

"Do you have any burns or cuts?"

"No, I got well away before she really went up. I've heard stories about these things spontaneously combusting but I didn't think she would, Dad really looked after her and it was he that convinced me that I should use her for this trip. Shit, he'll kill me."

"Have you contacted anyone yet?"

"No, my phone is out of range and no-one has come past this morning and it's far enough off the road for anyone driving past at night to miss it."

"Did you manage to salvage anything?"

"Just a bag with some clothes that was in the front with me." She pointed to a backpack some fifty metres away.

"Look, there's a rest stop back up the road a bit, why don't you grab your bag and we'll head back there and I'll fix you a cuppa while I see if I can get through to the police to let them know what has happened and that you're okay." She threw her bag on the back seat and climbed in. I hadn't realised until then just how tiny she was, she wouldn't have been any more than one hundred and sixty centimetres, (about five-four) and probably no more than fifty kilos dripping wet.

I started the disco and did a U turn and minutes later pulled off the road and parked next to the windmill at the bore head. There was a picnic table and bench but not much else. I unlocked the van door and popped the roof to get to the makings. I filled the kettle and placed it on the gas stove while I got out two mugs and a couple of tea bags. "You're pretty well set up here, aren't you?" She was looking around at the van with its double island bed at the back, table and bench seats that converted into another bed at the front and the kitchen at the side.

"Yeah, it's comfortable enough and there's an annex that hangs off the side so I have a bit more room when I need it." The kettle boiled and I poured the water into the mugs. "Could you get the milk out of the fridge?" The fridge ran full time off solar panels on the roof so I wasn't using my gas for anything other than cooking. Minutes later we were seated at the table sipping our refreshing tea. "I'm Tom, by the way, Tom Collins."

"Julie, Julie Branson." She held her hand out and I took it in mine and shook it. "Where are you heading?"

"I was going to turn right at the Three Ways and head for Katherine and then across to the Kimberleys, but now I guess we'll have to stop in Tennant Creek and check in with the police, I can give them some details over the phone but they'll want a statement for their records." I got on the satellite phone and gave a brief statement to the police as to what had happened, that the driver of the vehicle was fine and not in need of medical attention and suggested that they contact Barkly Downs and let them know so that other travellers were aware that the police knew of the incident and were not bothered by enquiries from them.

"Do you feel like company? I know that right now I don't want to be on my own."

"Sure, I think that I'd enjoy some company, I've just spent the last two months putting up with all the geriatrics on permanent holiday."

"And you're not one of them, right?"

"In a way I am, but in other ways I'm not ready to be a part of that crowd. I believe that we each have three ages, there's our chronological age that we can't hide from because it's on our passports and drivers licenses. Then there's our physical age which, depending on how I feel at any given time, varies from fifty to a hundred and fifty, and lastly there's our psychological age, and I've only recently given up on adolescence."

"Aren't we the philosopher?" She smiled at my attempt at comedy. She had a nice smile that spread to her eyes. I took the opportunity to take a closer look at her. She was a very tidy package, all the bits were in the right places and neatly put together. She was slim but not skinny and from what I could see, her breasts were bigger than I would have expected on such a small body.

"We'd better make tracks, we don't know how long we'll be with the cops." I stood up and rinsed the empty cups and put them back in the cupboard. I put the teabags in the rubbish bin, pulled the top down and locked the door. We were back on the road within minutes.

In Tennant Creek we made a full statement to the police and arranged for a tow truck to go out and collect the wreck, there was nothing worth salvaging so it would go straight to the wreckers yard and probably end up being crushed. We checked into a caravan park so that we could use the facilities and I could empty my portaloo (Portable toilet). I didn't feel like cooking so we had a meal at a pub and at around 9.00 we were back in the van watching one of my DVD's on TV, Julie chose it from my collection, I don't remember what it was because I was thinking about how to broach the subject of sleeping arrangements. Should I be gallant and offer her my bed and make up the spare bed or should I offer it to her? She looked at me as the credits scrolled across the screen. "Do you want a hand to make up the spare bed or can you trust me not to rape you if I sleep with you?"

Problem solved, but could I be trusted? "I can trust you but are you sure that you can trust me?"

"We'll have to see, won't we?"

What a weird night. We had been in bed for no more than a couple of minutes when she snuggled against me and kissed me on the lips. "Thank you for all that you've done for me." Then she kissed me again, this time with more passion.

"Didn't you say something about me trusting you not to rape me?"

"Am I raping you? I thought that I was trying to seduce you, there is a difference you know." I felt her hand on my cock and it was something that I hadn't felt for some time, a hand other than my own on my cock that is, so I let it stay there. I was glad that I did because she was good at what she was doing and in very little time I had a hard-on like I'd not seen or felt for years. I decided that two could play at her game so I reached for her pussy. I found that I hadn't completely forgotten what I was supposed to do and she was responding as I would have expected. She sucked my cock so I licked her pussy and when she was ready she opened her legs in an invitation that I couldn't have refused if I'd wanted to.

What happened next took me completely by surprise. After what I had believed was the best sex I'd ever experienced, after we'd both come, she burst into tears. "What's the matter, didn't you enjoy it? I know I did, that was the best love making I've had in years, possibly forever."

"It was fine, the best, it was all that I'd dreamt it would be, you are a great lover, it's just that, I have never had loving this good, ever. I was married for years to a man who had no concept that the woman should get some enjoyment from sex, it was a case of 'whip it in, whip it out and wipe it'. That was a small part of what I had to endure and this is just so different, so much better. My tears are tears of joy."

I held her to me and made appropriate consoling noises until she stopped crying. "You don't have to tell me about it if you don't want to, but it may help to get it out in the open. I get the feeling that you haven't been able to talk to anyone about it."

"Oh I've talked about it, I've talked to psychologists and counsellors who nodded sagely and told me all of the same positive things like I have my whole life ahead of me, but they couldn't accept that I was totally trapped in that life. I've talked to my mother and father who couldn't understand why I'd put up with it for so long, why I didn't just walk away from him. They didn't understand that I had walked away from him, several times, but each time her tracked me down and beat me. Each time was worse than the last until he flew into a jealous rage because he had misunderstood a situation and I ended up in hospital and he ended up in gaol. That is why I'm out here in the middle of nowhere. He's due for parole any day now and I don't want to be around when he gets out."

"Why don't you take out a restraining order so that he can't hurt you?"

'I've done that before but he doesn't care about them, they don't exist as far as he's concerned. If he wants to beat the crap out of me he does and to hell with the consequences. I'm not safe while he's around, I just hope that he can't find me. Oh shit, I've just realised that I've involved you in my problems, I'll leave in the morning."

"We'll leave in the morning, I can't have you running scared because of him. Now what was that you were saying about me being a fantastic lover?" I drew her to me and kissed her. She was stiff at first but eventually she relaxed and we were soon making love again.

Julie eventually drifted off to sleep but I just lay there beside her trying to come to terms with this whole thing. At first I thought that it was because the sex was great after the years of a single and lonely life since my wife died. I hadn't sought another relationship because I thought I'd never find one as good as the one I had with Suzie. Then I thought that it was because I had felt sorry for her having lost everything when her van went up in flames, but then I realised my feelings for her could go a lot deeper than those, I really liked her, her smiles though few and far between, when they appeared lit up her whole face. It was as if, after years of misery and suffering, she saw a glimmer of hope for a new and better life, hopefully with me. Then the reality of the situation kicked in, who was I kidding? She was a good twenty years younger than me, could she ever contemplate a life with me? The doubts set in and my mind went into freefall and I was still struggling to get some sleep when I felt her stirring against me, then I heard her voice, softly, almost as if she was talking in her sleep. "If you're worried about whether we have a future, let's just take it one step at a time. Right now I couldn't think of a place that I'd rather be than here, with you." Who needs sleep anyway?

I was self conscious about being seen with her, I even thought of introducing her as my daughter but she told me over lunch after we had checked into a caravan park at Katherine that if I even thought of doing that, she'd walk. "Look Tom, at our age the difference means little. You said yourself that you have a physical age that differs from your chronological age, for which by the way, I'm grateful. So the fact that I'm forty-five and you're eleventy-seven means nothing to me. If other people have a problem with that, then it's their problem, not ours." To reinforce her statement she stood up and came to me and stooping, she kissed me, gave herself to me.

We very nearly missed the boat for our trip down the Katherine River gorge. I was a little out of breath after the hundred metre sprint from the car park, or maybe it was the energy spent in the caravan before that had sapped my strength. In between gasps I managed to get some words out. "Eleventy-seven was ten years ago."

"Were we making love that long, it certainly felt like it," she looked at me with a most lascivious expression on her face that had some of the other passengers jealous, "I enjoyed every minute of those ten years." This was followed by a kiss that left little doubt as to her expectations for the future.

Two days later, not all of which was spent in sight-seeing, we headed for Darwin. It was an easy enough drive although the road trains barrelling past at speed tossed the van around a little, I was glad that I had fitted stabilisers to the draw bar. As we approached a truck stop on the southern outskirts Julie suddenly ducked her head. "Don't stop, keep driving! Shit, bugger, bum and fuck!"

"What's the problem?"

"Did you see the man talking to the driver of the road train nearest to the road?"

"Yes."

"That man is, or was, my husband. How the fuck did he know that I was up here?" We checked into a caravan park and I opened the van so that she could take her mobile phone off the charger and call her parents. She dialled their number to be transferred to their message bank. "That's strange, my parents aren't answering. I don't like the sound of that. I think I'll call my brother to see if He's seen or heard from them." Another call, this time it was answered. "Hi Jase, have you seen or heard from Mum or Dad?"

I watched as the colour drained from her face. "My god, no, how are they? I've got to fly home." She turned to me. "Could you lend me the money for the plane trip back to Sydney? I know that it's asking a lot of you but my parents are in hospital. Wayne, that's my ex, he beat both of them until they told him where I was. Dad is in a bad way, his spleen is badly damaged and he has a broken jaw. Mum is badly bruised but nothing is broken. The police are looking for him but I doubt if they have thought that he would have breached the conditions of his parole by leaving the state, so they're concentrating on his friends and known associates."

"Okay, first things first, I won't lend you the fare." I saw he face drop. "We are going to the airport and book seats on the first flight out." Her face rose again. "Then we are going to go to the police and report the sighting and hope that he doesn't find us before we leave. Come on." Minutes later we were at the police station. "We would like to report a person who has breached the conditions of his parole and is a threat to Julie here."

The sergeant looked disinterested, he reached for a pad and pen and looked at us. "This person that you believe has breached parole, what is his name?"

"Wayne Branson, he's my ex-husband and he was released on parole in the last couple of days from prison in New South Wales. He was doing ten years for assault causing grievous bodily harm to me. At the time of the assault we were separated and I had taken out an AVO that was supposed to keep him away from me. It didn't. The police in Sydney are looking for him in connection with a serious assault on my parents. He beat them to force them to tell him where I was, it must have worked because we saw him at a truck stop just south of the city. I would like to have the AVO extended to cover me here, although I don't think it will do much good."

"Let me see if Sydney is interested in him, don't go away." He went off, presumably to call his NSW counterparts. His expression when he returned had changed from indifference to concern. "My colleagues in Sydney would indeed like to have words with your ex-husband, so you'd better give me more details."

Julie told him as much as she could and it was while she was speaking that I came to fully understand what she had endured for so long and why she was as scared as she was when she saw him. We finally left the police station and headed back to the caravan park. We had only just got out of the Disco when he stepped out from behind the neighbouring van. "So you slut, you thought that you could escape from me did you?"

"Who are you and what do you want?" I tried to sound as calm as possible.

"Why don't you fuck off and let me speak to my wife."

"No, I think I should stick around."

"Suit yourself, it's your funeral." He turned towards Julie. "You didn't really think that you could hide from me forever did you? What did it take me, two days to find you across the other side of the country? Now are you coming back with me or not?"

"No I'm not. You aren't my husband any more, you gave up the right to call yourself my husband when you beat me senseless."

"I had every right to beat you, you were fucking another man."