Broome & Beyond: Lookout

Friday 8th July, just after 9am

I'm sitting at a lookout. It doesn't seem to have a name, just Lookout. North of the 26th parallel, just inside Carnarvon Shire. It's both incredibly dull and incredibly amazing.

Set off this morning at about quarter to eight. Five degrees. Took a few minutes to clear the windscreen. Once clear, though, it's dry enough that there is no more fogging.

The sun is low down to the right, the east. The highway is a straight line with some gentle rises and falls. The bush is sparse and up to three metres high. I now remember why I love to drive north...

It's low. It's flat. It's beautiful.

Clear views for miles. Views of... nothing much. I start slowly -- no more than 80 kph -- to enjoy the drive. And to give the engine time to warm up. There's not much traffic, no need to let other people past. By Overland I'm sitting a bit above 100. Comfortable. Cruise control for most of the time.

I'm thinking of another reason why I like this bush: it's safe. Sure, you can kill yourself with thirst, starvation or heat. But the bush itself has no dangerous surprises.No vicious animals, no quicksand, no sheer cliffs... Safe.

There's a change in the bush, I'm into station grazing land. There are occasional goats, possibly sheep?, and the undergrowth is worn down by grazing. Not destroyed, just a bit bare.

I'm into the Shire of Carnarvon and the North West -- north of the 26th parallel -- at about the same time. Suddenly the bush is knee high, flood plains perhaps? A lonely windmill stands out above the bush.

Now I'm parked at the Lookout at the top of a hill. The hill is perhaps 20m high, it stretches for a kilometre or more. Flat on top, with tracks to drive from one view point to another.

In one direction the view is scrub, mudflats, ocean. At the bottom of the hill, tourists have gathered stones to write messages. "Aloha", and "X loves Y". I'm on another side, looking back along the highway to the south. Light traffic, bush views to the horizon, a mysterious structure in the middle of nowhere.

At one point of the lookout are memorials. A rough "garden" of rocks, gnomes, toys, a few new and shiny plaques, a few old writings on rocks. A hill of rocks nearby, with names written on some of the rocks.A smaller pile of rocks with a cross and a plaque. It's nothing much. Just a nicely human -- personal -- group of memories.

Peaceful.

Ah well. Time to move on.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"The man who cannot visualize a horse galloping on a tomato is an idiot." ... André Breton