Bill had been driving his truck up the Stockmen’s Track for three hours but hadn’t come across any sign of Jake’s Toyota or any other vehicle for that matter. He stopped the truck and turned to Shoni.
“We should have run into Jake by now. Either he’s not coming or he’s turned off somewhere. I don’t know where he could have pulled off the road without leaving some sort of sign.”
Shoni replied “Are there any tracks leading off the road along here?”
Bill thought for a second. “Good question Shoni. The only one I can think of is the track to the Lost Temple but it’s rarely used. But it’s worth a try, I think I may have even mentioned it to Jake. It can’t be far away.” Bill gunned the truck.
An hour later Bill was explaining to Shoni that the Lost Temple derived its name from a peculiar sandstone rock stack formation when he saw the dead kangaroo on the side of the road. He jumped out of the truck and shone his torch on the corpse. He could see that it had been hit by a car and searching the road noticed freshly made tyre marks. Back in the truck he followed the tyre tracks until he saw them turn off the road. He saw the signpost to the Lost Temple lying on the ground as well as two sets of tyre marks heading down the track.
“This is where they’ve gone and there’s a car following them,” Bill said to Shoni. “I hope we can get there in time. We’ll have to take it slowly from here.”
Bill tried to call the Daly Waters Police Station again but there was still no telecommunications coverage. He swung the truck onto the track.