It wasn’t Carolyn crying that woke them, but the sun creeping through the thin curtains surrounding the dusty windows of the Kombi. Alec was first to wake. He stretched and crept out from under the double sleeping bag on the extended back seat. He tried not to wake Katherine but the central side doors made such a noise that she immediately stirred. After the baby’s birth her sleeping pattern changed and it took very little to rouse her. Alec sauntered over to relieve himself a short distance from the vehicle and rubbed his stubbly whiskers. They had grown exceptionally fast over the past two weeks. It no longer looked as if he had merely forgotten to shave but more like a deliberate attempt to grow a scruffy beard. He faced the rising sun and stretched upwards as if welcoming its arrival before climbing over the fence to collect wood for the breakfast fire.

By the time the blackened, battered billy was boiling and a frying pan with the last of the bacon and eggs was crackling over the glowing wood coals, Katherine was up and dressed. Even in this isolated area and the presence of only her husband, her modesty prevented her from being too exposed and she wore a floral blouse partly open to nurse Carolyn, all clean and washed. The couple sat down in silence on canvas folding chairs and gazed into the smoke and fire. The chirruping, trilling calls of birds broke the quiet of the morning. A pipit flitted from branch to branch, aggressively defining its own small territory in the vast remoteness of the outback with pretty birdsong. It was otherwise still: not a leaf moved in the surrounding scrub. Both Alec and Katherine were silent, lost in their own thoughts as they breakfasted, the last of the trip. Tonight they would be back in Adelaide, their little adventure over.

‘Right then,’ said Alec decisively, suddenly standing and going across to the plastic bowl of water, ‘let’s get these things washed up and packed then hit the road.’

He started briskly washing and packing, while Katherine slowly folded up their sleeping things. They worked well together, each taking on a task without the need to communicate. Once everything was in place Alec climbed into the driver’s seat, Katherine beside him and Carolyn gurgling in the bassinette, once more secured in the back.

‘Right-O! Let’s roll,’ said Alec as he turned the ignition key and pressed the starter. The starter motor gave a weak grunt and then lapsed into silence.

‘That’s odd …’ A slight frown crossed his brow. He tried again. And again. This time there was not even a grunt. Not a hint of noise from the engine itself. Alec undid his safety belt, got out and went to the back of the Kombi to open the engine hatch. He peered inside but in reality he had no idea why the motor was not responding. Perhaps it was the battery connections or possibly the starter motor. He regretted his lack of any mechanical ability and a slight worry started nagging in his brain.

‘What if we can’t get the damn thing going? Ma is just going to love this. She said we were silly to come out here in this old Kombi. Probably just a loose wire to the starter motor.’

He double checked the battery connections and wiggled the spark plugs. As far as he could tell everything seemed in place and firmly connected. Alec clambered back into the driver’s seat and again tried to start the Kombi. His efforts were once more rewarded with total silence. Now he was really worried but he didn’t want to make Katherine anxious. In spite of all the distance driving he hadn’t once thought of the possibility of a flat battery and didn’t have a spare. After all this battery was almost new. It shouldn’t be flat. And the Kombi had been thoroughly serviced before leaving.

After several more tries at starting and more fiddling in the engine compartment, Alec gave up. He stood beside the open passenger door and angrily said to Katherine, ‘The damn engine won’t start no matter what I do. I think it’s probably a flat battery. I don’t know how that’s happened; it was new a month ago.’

‘Why don’t you leave it a while and then try again?’

‘Okay. I’ll do that. But my intuition tells me it won’t change anything. In the meantime, we may as well make ourselves comfortable and organise some shade for Carolyn. If I can’t start it we may be stuck out here for quite a while.’

‘Good idea. It gets hot so quickly,’ Katherine said as she climbed out of her seat.

‘Can you check our supplies, especially water? How much have we got?’ he asked, trying to sound more confident than he felt.

‘I think we have about twenty litres.’

‘That’ll last a while if we go carefully, but I’ll see if I can organise a way of collecting water for a safety margin.’

Katherine taped newspaper against the windows to reduce the amount of sun getting into the Kombi, which was already beginning to feel hot. A short distance away, on the other side of the fence, Alec started digging a pit in the red sand. Once it was completed he broke off some branches and put them in the hole, with a small bucket in the centre. He covered the pit with the sheet of plastic that served as a waterproof for Carolyn’s bedding and held it in place with heaped sand. Once in place he weighed down the middle of the plastic sheet with a small piece of granite from his collection.

Katherine, finished in the Kombi, curiously watched his activity. ‘What’s all that for?’

‘It’s a way to get extra water. Dehydration is going to be our biggest danger if we’re here for a while.’

‘How will that get us water?’

‘The branches in the pit transpire in the sun. Hopefully, the moisture will form drops on the plastic and they’ll collect in the bucket. That way we can get clean water. In the meanwhile, we’re going to have to be very frugal in terms of what we use. Early in the morning we can replace the branches.’

‘Clever!’

Alec pointed to some large, heavy-duty plastic bags he used for wrapping rocks and holding soil samples.

‘We’ll tie those sample bags around some of the leaves of the bushes and they’ll collect moisture as well.’

He left Katherine tying bags on the bushes while he put a few branches on the roof of the Kombi, to help keep it cool through the day. Alec tried to sound confident as he spoke while working, ‘I’m sure there’ll be a vehicle along before too long. There must be a ranger or someone who monitors the fence and the reserve. Even if we have to wait all day someone is likely to be along here tomorrow.’

* * *

The sun rose higher and the temperature crept up as morning progressed. Alec and Katherine played cards, liar dice, read their books and talked. Carolyn woke, was fed and wiped clean, and nursed.

While Katherine prepared lunch Alec watched her silently. He felt terrible about their situation. He broke the silence with an apology saying, ‘I’m really sorry I got you into this mess, Kath. Your Mum was right. I should have listened to her and not brought you out here.’

Katherine put down the paring knife and looked him in the eye.

He continued. ‘I feel really stupid, I was so keen to get up here and start collecting that I didn’t even tell the police in Ceduna that we’d be here. Noone knows where we are except the folks in Adelaide and they have no idea when we’re due back.’

Katherine left the table where she had been working and sat down beside him on the edge of the Kombi in the open space of the central side doors. She looked at him with her big, blue eyes.

‘It’s not your fault. I wanted to come with you. I didn’t want to stay back at the flat while you explored the country and, in spite of this, I wouldn’t want it any other way. Things happen. It will be all right. Don’t worry.’

Alec leaned towards her and she put her head on his shoulder. He gently stroked her hair. He loved its smell after a shower and at night would nuzzle his nose into it as it covered his face when she lay on top of him. But now it had the smell of desert dust. It would be so good to be home once more and shower. They sighed simultaneously and sat staring out on to the sandy road, hoping that soon they would hear or see a vehicle. Not a sound. In the heat of the day, even the birds were silent. In the distance the track and fence shimmered in the rising heat waves.

‘What day is it?’ Katherine suddenly asked.

‘Not sure. Let’s see. Hmmm.’ Alec’s mind tried to work backwards from now to the day that they left Adelaide. Out in the bush, with no radio or newspapers, and no routine, it was very easy to lose track of the days. ‘We left Adelaide on the tenth. That was Sunday. Got to Ceduna on the twelfth. Then up to the first granite on the thirteenth.’ Alec took his geological notebook from this pocket. He counted the days of sampling then said, ‘That means yesterday was the twenty first because we’ve been gone nine days. It was Thursday. That makes today Friday. If a vehicle doesn’t come down the track today or tomorrow it’s unlikely anyone would come before until Monday. In these parts most people would go to the coast on the weekend rather than up here.’

‘What are we going to do, Alec? What if no-one comes and we’re stuck here?’

After a brief silence Alec responded. ‘Look, if nobody comes today or through the night, then tomorrow afternoon I’ll start walking towards Ceduna. I’ll have my compass and the map. If I head due south from here I should hit one of the farm tracks. They carry more traffic than up here. If I don’t meet up with someone on those I’ll just keep going until I come across the Eyre Highway. There are bound to be trucks there and I’ll get a ride into Ceduna, find a garage with a mechanic and be back here in no time.’

‘How long would that take?’

‘Don’t know off hand. If I start walking early before it gets so hot, it shouldn’t take more than about, say, twelve hours to get to the highway —’

‘But that’s a full day!’

‘And then I should get a lift within a short time. I’d probably be in Ceduna tomorrow or, at worst, Sunday. Hopefully I’d be able to get to a garage pretty soon and have someone out here by Sunday sometime. If things don’t go smoothly it could be as late as Monday but that would be the worst case scenario.’

‘So long? Have we got enough water and food? I really don’t feel comfortable being out here alone, even if there hasn’t been much traffic. It’s a bit scary, especially with Carolyn.’

‘I agree. It’s not ideal, but what alternatives do you suggest?’

‘I guess we don’t have many, do we.’

‘We’ve been camping for the past week and you’ve been fine.

You’ll be all right for just a couple more days, at most. It won’t be any different because I’m not here, just a bit lonely. You’re not worried, are you?’

Katherine looked glum and her eyes glistened. ‘No, not really but I can’t say I’m wildly happy at the thought being out here all on my own, especially at night.’ She was more concerned about her baby than herself. What seemed like an interesting adventure in the outback now seemed like an ominous threat to their safety. She forced a smile. She didn’t want Alec to feel more guilty than he obviously already did. While travelling and camping Katherine really had enjoyed the isolation, the remoteness, the feeling of being alone with her husband and baby. Now she would have welcomed a crowd of tourists, a bus or even the company of passing traffic.

Alec held her close and gave her a firm hug.

In an effort to appear less worried than she felt, she leaned back, still encompassed in his arms, and smiled up at him.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said softly. ‘I’m sure things will work out and … well even if I am here for a couple of days we’ve got everything we need. My main worry is water and we have a small supply plus your clever way of collecting. It seems to be working. The bucket’s already got some in it and there’s a bit in the little plastic bags on the bushes. From here they look pretty, almost like little Christmas decorations!’

* * *

The sound of birds and the slight breeze ruffling the leaves heralded the end of the day. The sounds and air movement relieved the blanketing, stifling daytime heat during which even the ever-present little black flies carried out their irritations in silence. Both Alec and Katherine tried to sleep when Carolyn was sleeping, but it was an exercise in futility. With eyes closed their brains went into overdrive, thinking of the passing of time and what they might do if assistance did not arrive. While the sun was still casting long shadows Alec walked to the pit to see how much water had collected.

‘Bucket’s about half full,’ he announced. He looked back to his wife. ‘I am really sorry about this, Kath.’

‘Of course you are, but it isn’t your fault. No-one could have predicted that the Kombi would break down, and I really did want to be with you.’

‘No, I mean the fact that I didn’t foresee the potential problems. I should have carried a spare battery. After all, this isn’t really the sort of vehicle one takes out here, on these roads. I should have waited for the university Land Rover. One really needs a four-wheel drive out here.’

‘The Kombi went fine. Even a four-wheel drive might have had a flat battery.’

‘True. But if I’d waited —’

‘Yes, but you yourself said the Land Rover wouldn’t have been available until after Christmas and you wanted to get started with the field work. If you’d waited another six months it would be another six months or more before you finished and you could get a better job. With Carolyn, we need the money. It really is not your fault.’

‘I just feel so bad about it all,’ he responded.

‘I know. But it could have broken down anyway. There’s no guarantee that you wouldn’t have problems with a different vehicle. I mean, the battery was new. Why should you expect it to go flat?’

After a brief silence Alec looked her in the eye with that determined look that Katherine had become used to.

‘Kath, I’ve made up my mind. We can’t just sit here waiting for someone to drive past. There’s just no bloody traffic on this track. Our water supply will last only about three days, even with the leaves and the pit transpiration system. Carolyn is going to need more water and you too, with breast-feeding. Before sunrise in the morning I’m going to get up and walk across country to the main road. From there I should be able to hitch a ride into Ceduna and get help.’

Katherine ignored the uncharacteristic swearing. ‘Isn’t that risky? I mean, you’d be gone at least twelve hours, maybe more.

What if someone comes?’

‘Like I said, I don’t like leaving you on your own out here, but really, what alternatives have we? We talked about this. What happens if we just sit here waiting and no-one comes along? We could run short of food and water. What then? I’d have to hoof it then and it would be even more risky leaving you with no supplies. No, it looks like I just have to do it.’

‘How sure are you of your timing, or even managing to hitch a ride?’

‘Not sure about anything. If I leave here early in the morning and head due south - I’ve got the compass and aerial photographs so there isn’t much chance of getting lost - I should intersect the Eyre Highway about here.’ Alec put his finger on the road map, indicating a point some twelve miles south of the dog fence. ‘If I go slightly west, then I could possibly intersect with this track,’ he pointed to another line on the map, indicating a poor quality road leading to the Koonibba settlement. ‘It’s slightly longer but there’s a possibility of traffic heading along that road so I’d get a ride sooner.’

‘It seems like six of one and half a dozen of the other. If you walk the shorter distance it could be quicker, but if you take the longer route there’s a chance of a lift. You’ll have to decide once you start walking. In this heat you’ll have to rest up in the main part of the day. So, how long before you reach the main road?’

‘I’ll take water with me. If I walk at about three miles an hour through the scrub it should take about four hours. Let’s say I walk from first light, that’s about five thirty, until about ten. That gives me about four hours. From there to town depends if I get a ride or have to walk all the way. If I walk a bit in the dark and start really early I’d get to the highway about midday, then I’d surely get a lift.’

‘If you’re walking in the dark I don’t want you falling in a wombat or rabbit hole and injuring yourself. You’ll be out there alone so I just want you to be extra careful.’

‘I will be, don’t you worry about that! I’ll be thinking of you and Carolyn all the time. Once I get to town I’ll get a mechanic organised, so don’t expect me back until Sunday, maybe even Monday. Count the days!’

‘I’ll be counting the hours!’

Alec looked at the map again in the fading light. ‘On the other hand, there are some farm tracks south of here so I might even get a ride sooner. Here’s hoping!’

Having made the decision, they relaxed slightly and spent the evening as if it was just one of their usual camps. Alec was only slightly concerned about leaving his family alone but the lack of traffic, once a frustration, now allowed him a degree of confidence they would be all right. Katherine was a very competent camper.

After Carolyn dropped to sleep, the couple decided to go to bed early in anticipation of the early start. Alec was in the fold-out bed first and, as Katherine sat on the edge rubbing cream on her heels, he leaned over and, putting his hands under her pyjama top, cupped her breasts. He pulled her down towards him.

‘I love you so very much,’ he whispered as he kissed her.

‘I love you too, sweetheart,’ was all she managed before he covered her mouth with a lingering kiss.

‘Shh, don’t wake Carolyn,’ Katherine managed to murmur before rolling on top of him.

Alec loved this position. He could feel her whole body, stroke her enticing narrow waist as it curved smoothly into her hips, and feel the tickle of her hair as it covered his face. He kissed her breasts, guiltily tasting the sweetness of escaped drops of milk. He felt so at one with her as she allowed his gradual entry.

He groaned and Katherine gently covered his mouth with her hand.

They made love quietly, moving slowly. Alec suppressed his usually noisy passion as best he could knowing how well Katherine controlled her own emotions, rarely making a sound. She loved his hands, his long, slender hands, and the way they caressed her. All over her body they wandered, sending ripples up and down her spine. Together they smothered all the concerns of their predicament with the overriding pleasures of the moment.

She whispered, ‘I love you. I love you so much.’ They became one and he softly whispered, ‘I love you too, my beautiful wife.’

They were still in each other’s arms as they dropped off to sleep.

* * *

Alec was up well before the birds. It was still dark when he crept out from under the sleeping bag. He had been awake for some time before he rose, listening to the snuffling sounds coming from the bassinette and Katherine’s rhythmic breathing. He found it comforting to realise she was sleeping soundly. He took it to mean she was not particularly worried about their situation. Alec, who felt responsible for their situation, was not so sure and worried about what was wrong with the Kombi. Would they be able to drive it back to Adelaide? If not, then…

‘I’m racing ahead of myself,’ he muttered as he pulled his parka in around his chest against the early morning chill.

Soon Alec had the fire lit. The billy was huddled against the wood as if for warmth. On his haunches before the small flame, Alec was feeding the little fire more twigs and branches when he heard Katherine stir. She emerged from the Kombi stifling a yawn while stretching, her hair still ruffled from sleep.

‘Morning, Kath.’

‘Morning.’

‘You slept well.’

‘Mmm. Reasonably, considering. Carolyn didn’t wake after the last feed and she’s still sleeping.’

‘I’m almost ready to go. I’ve packed two water bottles in my rucksack and restocked the pit with fresh branches. There was over half a bucket of water. I’ll have a mug of tea and some of the cracker biscuits then be off. Do you mind if I take the oranges? There are only three left. And an apple? I’ll leave rest for you.’

Katherine nodded. ‘Will that be enough?’

‘It should be. With luck I’ll be able to have a good feed in Ceduna at lunch time! Get some help then back here to fetch you.’