I was travelling north out of Sydney, driving up the Pacific motorway. It's a fantastic road. Ten minutes after leaving Sydney and you're in the mountains. The road doesn't climb laboriously up and down each mountain. As soon as you hit the heights the road goes airborne, skipping from peak to peak, and it's like driving in the sky.
You drive along and to either side of you there are panoramic views, hills and mountains and trees rolling away into the distance. It's hard to believe you were in a busy city just minutes past.
I've often driven this way and the views have always lifted my heart, especially on a fine day. A day of thick fog is something else. You can't see far and you're terribly aware of the drop if you are careless enough to crash off the road. Or I am, anyway.
Today, the weather was fine. There'd been some showers in the morning but they'd cleared away, leaving a blue sky and a hot sun shining down on a freshly washed forest.
At about the fifteen minute mark heading out there is a lookout area. I've never actually been up to it but you can see it as you travel along, perched higher up the mountain. Today, on a whim, I took the turn that went up to the lookout.
It wasn't far. I came off the road into a cleared area that finished at what was a sheer drop-off. The drop-off had a fine sturdy metal fence running along it which was fortunate, as I wouldn't have approached the edge without that fence there.
The look-out area was neat and clean. There was a picnic table and benches plus a rubbish bin, but apart from that, no facilities. It was just an area where someone could pull over, enjoy the view and sit down for a snack if they were so inclined.
I was the only person there and I parked and strolled over to the fence. The view was absolutely amazing. I mean, the views from the motorway were pretty spectacular but you're driving and can't really appreciate them. Here, high above it all, I could see for miles, and it was all hills and trees with an occasional glimpse of the motor way winding its way across the mountains.
If it was all flat land I'd have been looking out across a hundred square miles of wilderness. Seeing that the land was anything but flat I was probably looking at triple that area, all curves and slopes and green, sparkling in the sun reflecting off the wetness left by the earlier showers. I had my smart phone out and took a few panoramic shots which I hope will turn out well.
I'd put the phone away and was just standing there, enjoying the view, knowing I should be getting back on the road but in no hurry to do so. At that point another car pulled into the look-out and parked near mine.
I flicked a glance over at the car, seeing a couple of men getting out. I ignored them and turned back to the view. They came strolling over, chatting together as they came.
"Magnificent," one was saying. "Well worth stopping for. I could look at that scenery all day."
"True," came the reply. "All smooth rolling curves. Makes you want to reach out and touch them."
Touch them is just what the two gregarious bastards did. Can you imagine my shock when hands groped my bottom as the two men moved up to the fence, one on either side of me?
I froze for a second in total shock, eyes popped wide open. Geez, I'd have been shocked if one of them had brushed my bottom, but to have both of them grab it? It turned out that one second of freezing shock was one second too many.
I made some sort of sound. I won't call it a surprised scream, but it was close to it. At the same time I went to hit out at the hands touching my bottom. That's when I found out that the one second freeze was too long. The two men had both fastened a hand over one of mine, holding my hands to the bar of the fence where they'd been resting.
Holding my hands didn't shut me up.
"Get your hands off me, you assholes," I yelled, trying to pull away and getting nowhere.
They just laughed.
"Oh, don't be such a wuss," said the guy on my right. "We're just admiring the curves. Get used to it. We're not going to hurt you."
"Right," said the left side guy. "A bit of harmless fun. And very nice curves, by the way."
All I could do was stand there, hands pinned to the bar, while they groped and stroked, giving my bum a good going over. One of them actually had the audacity to lift the back of my dress and tuck it into itself, up around the waist, leaving my bottom exposed to their lecherous gaze.
