The next morning we were up at a reasonable hour
(the three were hung over, which pushed the wake-up time out, but Jojje and
Gwen NEEDED to touch rock again, so it was not too late) and headed up the
trail. We spent the best part of the day
on climbing, headed to Robyn falls, which was a lovely straight-down falls that
had shrunk considerably with the dry season.
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| Joe gives the climbing a go to great success! |
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| Robyn Falls and Joe |
Joe and I appreciated the alone time to talk
through things. He was kind and gentle
in pointing out that it was the time of the month where I turned into a
monster, and he tried to be supportive and patient about it.
We filled up on water, gas, and ice cream (hey,
we really needed the ice cream) and then went for a short drive around the
town. First we stopped under a bridge
because we saw giant flames. We walked
out to where they were and saw that a sugar cane farm was being burned. We didn’t see anyone tending the fire, but
I’m sure they were keeping an eye on it somewhere. They burn the sugar cane to clean up the
fields, kill pests, and restart things.
Then we headed off on a side road and at the end
of it found a gorgeous memorial for local soldiers. I don’t remember now if it was for a specific
war or if it was just for any of the local veterans from any war. It is true that the United States has some
serious affection for their troops, but I think the ANZACs are very comparably
loved by Aussies.
The place was immaculate. We saw a man moving sprinklers in there and
we asked of he was the caretaker. He
said yes, so we complimented his lovely work.
It really was impressive. The
grass was super green and edged to absolute perfection and the bushes were
trimmed I swear with a laser. We walked
around and around, surprised that a graveyard could impress and relax us as
much as it did. We watched the sunset
over the back wall and reluctantly got back in the car to head back to the
campground.
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| Joe and Marco being silly in the creek during wash-up |
That night when Gwen and Jojje came back, we all
sat around the fire talking about what we would be doing the next day. It was Gwen’s last day before she flew back
to Sydney late the next night. Marco
said he was excited to see Litchfield—the park we were on the edge of. He assumed we would be spending the whole day
exploring it before we got Gwen to Darwin.
There was an argument that started, however, that
seemed very unfair. Gwen and Jojje
wanted to climb more, and then between themselves had
agreed they would go to a hot springs in the morning and whizz through the rest
of Litchfield very quickly.
They were harsh on Marco when Marco objected that
he wanted more time in Litchfield. We
had spent the WHOLE DAY devoted to their beloved climbing addiction and it
seemed unfair that they would off-handedly assumed we would climb more the next
day and then sit in a hot springs that we hadn’t agreed on. Each of us had sort of had our own things
along the way that we got to do—I had Coober Pedy, Gwen and Jojje had climbing
and King’s Canyon, Joe had just been on board with everything (he got excited
about all of it), but Marco hadn’t really had anything all his own yet. And when Marco put up resistance to the
climbing and hot springs idea in favor of doing as much of Litchfield as
possible, Jojje’s response was to criticize him for not having researched the
park.
The whole thing was unfair. Gwen and Jojje had obviously been feeling
bonded by climbing and were siding with each other in this attack on
Marco. Sure, Marco didn’t plan ahead and
often made us late getting out of our campsites in the morning, but we all had
caused delays. Jojje’s attack for Marco
not having researched was fully hypocritical, since every time we had gone
climbing the whole trip, Gwen and Jojje knew nothing about the area and were
frequently reading necessary details on the climbing site as we pulled up to it
last-minute. Not only that, but their
off-handed idea to go to a hot springs that they were so arrogantly fighting
for was entirely unplanned. They didn’t
know where it was, what it was like, how to find it, nothing. They had just heard a rumor about it and
suddenly the plan was gold.
I could have bitten both of them. Marco has his faults, for sure, but he had
proved to us many times that he would give you the shirt off his back, his last
penny, or anything else he had. He is a
truly good human being and it was like Gwen and Jojje had bonded together as
the “cool crew” and were picking on the nicest dude in the whole school.
So I formulated something to say, forcefully, to
make it understood that we were on Marco’s side. I tried to keep emotions out of it and I
think I did okay, but if no one else could tell, I certainly could that I was
emotionally involved, because I could feel my face flushing and my hands
shaking. Nobody puts Marco in a corner.
Gwen and Jojje felt their popularity bubble burst
and we all agreed on a plan. They would
get up stupid early to go climbing again, while we packed up the rest of camp
and were ready to go by the time they got back.
They agreed to dispense with the hot springs idea in order to devote
more time to Litchfield.
We went to bed and set alarms, all three of us
realizing how important it was that we meet the packing deadline in the morning
because our argument was at stake. Gwen
conveniently decided that she should sleep in Jojje’s tent that night instead
of Marco’s, since she and Jojje would need to both be up so early.
I had a hard time falling asleep, which had the
benefit of letting me listen in on Jojje and Gwen as they went to the creek for
a midnight swim. I don’t think anything
happened between the two of them, but I could tell that this was like the first
step towards something more than friends.
From one girl to another, I could tell where her interests were. I was sad that she was never successful getting something started.
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