Cirrus@Austlit

'The loneliness bided its time. Like a dingo lying in its den through the daylight hours, waiting. As I watched the sky turn lemon and the sun rise behind misted plane tails at Brisbane Domestic Airport, as I flicked through the in-flight magazine and failed the Sudoku between Brisbane and Adelaide (and from Adelaide to Alice Springs), as I picked up Monster Truck and took Larapinta Drive towards my first overnight stop at Glen Helen, I was barely conscious of the loneliness lurking. Only after the Englishman at reception had shown me to the bunkhouse, congratulating me on having a four-bunk dormitory all to myself, and I’d located the ladies toilets and changed into togs and was picking my way down the dry part of the riverbed with pebbles tinkling and crunching under my sandals, did I become aware of a nagging wish that someone was with me.' (Publication summary)