Mark gestured, “Why don’t you join me, be my Viking Goddess?”

  She moved her chair to his table.

  They ate with muted conversation. It was what came after that mattered for them both. He shared his food with her as she waited for hers. In return she shared her food with him. Their hands and knees brushed in passing. She felt a thrill and she knew he felt it too.

  When they had both finished he said. “My truck is out the back. I have worked here in a mine digging for opal for a month but this morning I am up early to travel. Tonight I will be 900 kilometres north of here, up in western Queensland at a place called Birdsville. To get there I must go round Lake Eyre, a huge salt lake, then cross a big desert full of stones. Will you come with me? I sense that you, like me, are an adventurer who takes life as it comes.”

  She said, “I have been waiting to make this journey for a long time. I think I have been waiting for you to find me. Yes, I will come.”

  Chapter 17 – The Journey

  They set off driving into the early sun. It was February so, even though the early morning was still cool, there was intense heat in the sun. It was mid morning when they came to William Creek. There was not much there, just a roadhouse hotel and some old railway relics. By now the heat was baking, the thermometer on the hotel verandah read 38 degrees. Mark told Elin it would get a lot hotter yet, probably reaching around 47 by three o’clock.

  Rather than pushing hard to cover the miles he had originally planned he said to Elin, “Now I have a companion I am happy to only go part way today. There are a few places I would like to show you along the way.”

  Elin nodded, “I am your willing guest, take me where and when you will, Mr Outback Man.”

  They both had a beer and then a second one before Mark indicated it was time to head on. He said they were heading for Coward Springs, an oasis in the desert, where the old cameleers used to stop on their trips following the mound springs. Here they would have a swim in the oasis springs to refresh themselves before going on the Marree.

  It was much hotter by the time they came their oasis, the cabin thermometer read 43 degrees as they pulled up at the campground, a few old buildings scattered under pepper trees. Date palms, images wavering -in heat rising across open ground, marked the watering place.

  Mark paid the feel to swim and bought them both an ice cream which melted almost faster than they could eat them. They walked across to the pool and the surrounding shade. They were the only people outside in the ferocious heat. By the time they had walked the hundred yards every pore in Elin body was dried out and blasted with the warm air.

  She went to jump in but Mark put his arm on hers to hold her back. “First I want you to experience something that few people have enough patience to try,” he said.

  He sat on the edge and she sat down next to him. He said, “Feel the heat as it blasts into your body, that fifty degree hot wind that feels like being inside a fan forced oven.”

  She put her mind into that place where it was only her body absorbing the heat. She pulled her hair free and tipped her head back, pushing her body out like a sunbather revelling in the sun.

  Mark nodded his approval. “That is it, drink it in, feel it heat and dry you to your core. Now do as I do”

  He slowly lowered his feet into the water, an inch at a time.

  She mirrored his action. The feeling was indescribably delicious. The water was cool and refreshing, but it was the contrast that struck her most. As her feet went deeper she felt wonderfully refreshed and cool. They both sat there, side by side for several minutes, revelling in the pleasure: the cool water, so delicious and cooling them from below counter posed against the blasting hot air above.

  She looked at Mark, he was watching her finish her ice cream, his own long gone. He had a lascivious look on his face. “By God it is hot. Looking at you makes me even hotter,” he said. Standing he walked over, scooped her up with his arms and stepped into the pool.

  She laughed in delight as the cool water doused all of her. The water was chest deep, and the cool water made her nipples erect under her thin shirt, showing them in perfect outline in a watery silhouette.

  She slowly unbuttoned her top, exposing her breasts. “I think you have been trying to look at these so I thought I would give you a full view.”

  Now his mouth was on one and his hands pulling her pants down. She wrapped her legs around him and he pushed into her. God it felt good.

  He carried her to the bank and laid her on the baking hot ground. She felt prickles and sharp stones prick the skin on her back and bottom, along with the baking heat of the ground, burning into her skin. It aroused her even more, like multiple love bites, exquisite in its pain.

  She flicked her body and rolled him over. Now it was his back in the dirt and prickles. She pinned him to the ground as she worked herself back onto him, laughing as he squirmed with discomfort. She could feel herself coming with the wildness of it. As she began to lose control he rolled again and pushed her underneath, laughing at his ascendancy. Now they both came in a great rush.

  As she felt herself come down off the mountain she stroked his head and hugged him to herself. “Thank you, I have had some wild bonks over my life but I think this one under the baking desert sun with prickles in my back and bottom will take some beating.”

  He gently kissed her on the lips and said “Me too.”

  After a few minutes more of swimming and playing he asked her if she was ready to head on. She nodded; she would have been happy to spend a lazy afternoon with him here but was game for whatever came next.

  As they drove on the air shimmered with heat haze. They came around a corner in the road. A huge expanse of white glittered before them, running away endlessly into the horizon. “That is the start of Lake Eyre,” he said. Right now its surface is hot enough to cook an egg. It would kill us in half an hour if we tried to walk over it. So now we will just drive past and look at it. Tonight, when the moon is full, if you are one made of brave enough stuff, we will walk on it.

  As they drove through the full midday heat their world took a surreal feel. Even though the air conditioning was working well in their four wheel drive nothing could remove the heat blasting through the glass windows and shimmering of the salt lake and sand hills. Elin felt she had entered a trance as the relentless heat mirage blasted into her. Mark had his eyes gritted with the strain of the sun-glare.

  Finally they sighted buildings in the distance and came into a small town. No one was in sight so they pulled up outside a sign which read Marree Hotel. The cabin thermometer in their Toyota read 49 degrees. They walked through the swing doors into a dark interior which felt so restful after the glare. There were more than a dozen people at the bar and a blast of cool air washed over them as they came close. The bar tender said. “Howdy MB, bit of a bloody hot day for driving across this God forsaken country. Do you want to introduce me to your lovely passenger?”

  Elin said, “Hello I am Eli, does this man usually bring his other visitors to such desolate places.

  The bartender replied. “Well you are a rare one. Not many have the stamina to travel on a day like this. Hottest day so far this year. Over fifty degrees out there in the sun and even in the shade of the verandah it is 48 degrees. No wonder you look like you need a drink.”

  They stayed for two hours, slowly sipping drinks as they felt the fluid ooze back into their pores. At first they drank lemon lime and bitters and then, as their hydration returned, they shifted to beer.

  When the clock passed five in the afternoon Mark stood up and said, “Well that will do me for the day. Got a mile to make!”

  It was still baking outside but, with the sun sitting low in the sky, the ferocious glare was gone. They drove on, following the signs for Birdsville, heading out of town. Now the sun was behind them, lighting up the desert scrub in a range of colour tones; golds, russet, oranges, olives and browns. As they drove they slowly veered from a heading of east to north. An hour further on they approached a turnoff to the left.

  Mark looked at Elin and asked, “Are you game for a full moon walk out on the lake? While it looks solid on top of the salt crust, underneath parts are like jelly. It can be real scary if you fall through, like quicksand only worse. But it is beautiful for those with the courage to dare.”

  Elin looked at him and laughed. “If you are brave I am too. Plus I am with a true outback bushman. I trust him to know what to do.”

  Mark grinned, self deprecating. “Out here there are no certainties, even for bushies like me. It is a game of Russian roulette. Mostly fortune favours the brave. Sometimes even the brave loose.”

  “That sounds like my Viking ancestors throughout their long and chequered history, whether discovering new worlds or hunting whales. Whoever got it wrong died, such was their warrior way.”

  The sun was a hand’s breadth above the horizon as they came to where the track ended at the edge of the lake. From their elevated position in the sand hills the surface still shimmered in heat haze. But a thing of magic was happening, it was becoming a rainbow surface, as all light’s many colours refracted off the surface crystals, taken in, splitting and rebuilding from the hues of the late afternoon light.

  Elin looked out and said, “Wow, it is like Antarctica when the light hits the ice sheets, so barren and yet full of an eerie and remote beauty that it takes your breath away.”

  Mark unpacked a box from the back of his truck, it was an ordinary looking tin box and inside were things to make a meal, a frying pan, a billy can, along with some metal plates and cups and some tins of food.

  The heat was still beyond hot on the sand but there was something restful in the view. Mark pulled out a square glass bottle of brown liquid. He poured an inch into two tin mugs then added water from a canvas bag tied to the back of the cabin. He passed one to Elin and said, “To your best health and a good trip to nowhere.”

  She raised and clinked her mug to his, “Nowhere beats any other anywhere right now.”

  She did not know why but she felt more content than she could ever remember, sitting here in a desert place with this man she had only met this morning, his soul met with hers in a place of dangerous emptiness. In the centre of this dangerous emptiness lay a powerful bond of empathy between them. Moved by affection she slid her bottom across the hot sand, coming close alongside him. She put her arm around his body then snuggled against him and lay her head on his shoulder.

  “Thank you for bringing me here,” she said.

  He did not reply but ran his fingers through her hair and stroked her head. They sat that way, almost unmoving, until the sun orb fell below the lake and the light had faded to a deep red in the far western sky.

  Now Mark stood up. He gathered scattered pieces of dead wood from the surrounded scrub, formed them into a pile, inserted some dry grass and struck a match. The grass flared and burned brightly. Soon the wood was burning fiercely, throwing sparks and bright splashes into the night sky. Mark found a packet of sausages in a cooler box, chopped an onion and fried the mixture in a pan, before adding a tin of tomatoes. It was simple fare but tasted sumptuous after a long day of travelling.

  They sat side by side, each eating with their own knife and spoon from the pan. When it was just juices left he passed her a slice of bread. Each wiped up and ate the remnants until only an empty pan remained. He wiped the pan out with a damp piece of paper towel which he tossed in the fire before returning the pan to its box, along with the other meal things, saying, “Out in this place water is very precious. So I don’t waste it on washing unless I can refill the water tank. You never know when you might need it. One would be dead inside a day, on a day as hot as today, out here, without water.”

  She nodded, it made sense.

  He said, “Ready for a moonwalk on the lake?”

  She looked behind her; the moon had just crested the horizon, it was a day after full moon, but still it made an almost perfect circle. In her mind Elin was taken to other places of moonlight memory, nights in the Arctic winter when there was no sun, where a full moon made its way across the dark sky bathing the whole world in silver which gained an overpowering intensity when seen reflected off a snowy landscape. Then it was so cold that every part of her was covered, here warm air played off her skin as it gently wafted in the night.

  Mark found a coil of light, strong rope, the sort that climbers use, along with two webbing harnesses. He put one harness on and passed the other to Elin. She put it on following his lead. Then he clipped one end of the rope to her harness and, about half way along, tied a loop in the rope which he clipped to his waist. He looped up the remainder of the rope which he also clipped to his harness. He took a big water bottle and also clipped it to his harness.

  Then he picked up a small tightly rolled canvass bundle. “I thought we might sleep out there tonight, in a place where our whole horizon is only flat salt. We will have to walk for an hour to get that far out.”

  He passed her a hard plastic foam object, like a piece cut from a surfboard, about 50 mms thick and half a metre across, with a hand sized hole cut into one side. “This is for you. If you suddenly fall through the crust, put this flat on the unbroken salt next to your body and fold your upper body to rest on it. It should be enough to hold your weight and stop you sinking down into the mud. Equally, if I fall through, stop and put it on the ground where you are, sit down on it and stay there until we work out how to get out.

  As you are a lot lighter than me it is probably better if you go first. Try to avoid places where the surface is a funny colour or looks different. If you feel the ground wobble, stop and walk backwards gently until you are half way back to me before you try a different direction.”

  Elin nodded, she could feel the nervous energy course through her, filling her with a sense of intense concentration and excited anticipation.

  They headed out. Twice in the first five minutes, she felt the ground move a bit. Each time she backed up, as instructed, and took a quarter turn to take a new direction. Then the going became good and she fell into a routine, walking along carefully and steadily as she surveyed her route.

  They went on that way for around half an hour. The moonlight bathed the surface in a sparkling glow of iridescent colours, innumerable tiny salt crystals each reflecting their own tiny point of starlike light. Erin felt as in a trance, captivated by fairy light beauty.

  Without becoming aware her attention drifted from the close up watching required. In an instant the world collapsed underneath her, sucking her down into bottomless liquid mud. The mud rose above her waist. It was midway up her chest before she mustered the presence of mind to put her plastic support into place. She felt fear washing through her. She tipped her upper body towards the float and rested her arms on it. She tried to raise her body slightly but the suction was formidable and she could feel the ground under the float wobble.

  She looked over at Mark. He had sat down on the ground, body spread out, his back resting on his bed roll, and was now pulling in the couple metres of loose rope between them. She guessed he was about eight metres away. He was looking at her intently, gauging her courage and resolution to deal with this situation. He raised his eyebrow as if to say. Well, what now?

  She knew it was a test. She could ask him to come and rescue her and, no doubt, he would.

  But she did not want this; she must think on her own, see if there was some way for her to improve her situation and, maybe, get out.

  She slowly turned her head and surveyed the salt surface which receded from her in all directions. Now she could see her error. A seam of darker colour about a metre wide ran through the salt. It was like the meandering course of a river. She had fallen through two thirds of the way across this dark seam. Her plastic support was resting on the same unsafe surface directly behind her, its edge just tipping the harder surface.

  She decided that she needed to move her support to the more solid ground, which lay closer directly in front of her, and see if it gave a solid enough surface to try and lift her body onto. Millimetre by millimetre she slid the foam piece across the wobbling surface, slowly rotating her body to stay over it. She was half way round when the ground gave a major wobble. Her heart skipped a beat but she calmed herself. She realised she had sunk another inch or two into the slime. The rope to Mark was now pulled tight, with him taking the strain. She was determined not to give up now and ask him for help. So she steeled her mind to continue.

  Slowly she resumed the sliding movement. Now she was three quarters of the way to getting her float to where she wanted it, her float corner was almost to the edge of solid ground. She squeezed all other thought out of her mind and focused on her task, now the float was ten centimetres onto the harder surface, then twenty, then at last it sat fully on it. She brought it fully in front of her and surveyed her situation.

  The ground where the float rested seemed solid but she would prefer to get it ten centimetres back from the edge. In that place she would still be able to rest her upper shoulders on it and try and use this to lever her body out. So she inched it forward, a centimetre at a time.

  At last it was in position. She bent her body forward as far as it would go resting over the foam, wrapping an arm around each side, resting them on the salt and crossing them above her head. He cheek lay flat on the foam. With conscious effort she blocked everything else out of her mind and focused it only on her body and its relation to the mud, making tiny muscle movements in her waist, hips and legs, testing for any places or spaces of give. One foot, her right, felt less tightly held than the other. She flexed her pelvis and managed to raise this hip slightly. Her foot slipped up, perhaps one or two centimetres, with a sucking sensation.

  Now she had to hold that gain before she tried to raise her other leg. She used her right arm and shoulder to inch this right side of her body forward until the suction stopped her progress. Now she concentrated on her left side. Her foot felt trapped in a vice but, as she worked her knee around, she realised she could move it slightly backwards and forward. She did this several times gaining gradually increasing movement. Now she must use this loosening to try and lift her left side.