Sunday columnist Peter Leith is 89 and says he is “half-deaf and half-blind”. He faces daily challenges but he makes every day – and every word – count. A night at Rabbit Flat continues his series of short stories and observations about life now and then.
•••
We were flying from Longreach to Broome in a four-seat Cessna and landed to spend the night at the Rabbit Flat airstrip and roadhouse on the edge of the Tanami Desert.
The airstrip, roadhouse and pocket-sized general store were run by Greg, a retired stockman, and his wife, Anne-Marie, a French girl who had come to the Territory as an au pair and nanny for an outback station family.
Sleeping accommodation on offer ranged from a four-bed tin shed bunkhouse to one or two-person pup tents or a sleeping bag under the stars. As two of our party were a honeymoon couple, my mate and I decided that the gentlemanly thing to do was to sleep outside.
“A sleeping bag under the stars” sounded pretty cool to me, but Greg warned that a solitary old buffalo bull had taken to raiding their rubbish tip at night. I settled for a tent and during the night was woken by the sniffing and snorting and stomping of a large animal.
The next morning, examining the large pile of dung and huge hoof prints around my little tent, convinced me that I had, on that occasion, made the right decision.
Do you have a story or an observation for Peter? Send it to [email protected] and put ‘Sunday’ in the subject line.
If you enjoy our content, don’t keep it to yourself. Share our free eNews with your friends and encourage them to sign up.
Related articles:
When Mum died
The loving couple
Extended families
