Chapter 1
…seven days earlier
Day 1
I slowly open my eyes only to see total darkness. It is pitch black and I can’t see anything. I feel a little woozy like I have been drugged. I open and close my eyes rapidly trying to clear my head. I am tied to a tree, bound at my feet, midsection, and neck. I try to scream, but I can’t. Something is tied around my mouth, like a handkerchief or a scarf. As I struggle to get free, I hear something coming from the darkness right in front of me. THEY are coming, I hear the twigs breaking on the ground and I can just sense it…getting closer.
I jump as I awaken from the dream to realize that I have fallen asleep on the airplane. The turbulence is bouncing the airplane around a bit and the Captain has the seat belt sign on so we can’t move freely about the cabin. I put my head back against the seat and start smiling because I am remembering my wedding, the wedding that happened about 28 hours ago. I am here on this airplane with my new husband Derrick, bound for Australia.
We have always dreamed of visiting Australia and thought it would be the perfect place to spend our honeymoon. There are so many wonderful places to explore; I seriously don’t know where to begin. So, I’ve focused of the Northern Territory and the western part of the country. Kakadu National Park, Ayers Rock, Purnululu National Park, Litchfield National Park, and Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater are just a few of the places I want to go. We will rent a place in Alice Springs and fly to Perth for the final leg of the trip. There are a few spots around there I want to visit before we fly back to the United States. Trip duration is scheduled for four weeks.
Derrick would like to identify and catalog some of the most venomous snakes in the world, and quite a few of them are located in Australia. We decided that hiring a guide would be the best and safest option for us since we have never been there before. Not only do we want a good guide, but we want one who knows a thing or two about snakes. Derrick is a Zoologist and amateur Herpetologist back home at the St. Louis Zoo.
The Captain comes over the airplane speaker, “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We should be landing in Darwin in about 20 minutes and would like to thank you for flying with us today. Enjoy your stay here in Australia and we look forward to you flying with us again.” I know the flight attendant will be coming around in a few minutes to check everyone’s seat, so I might as well upright my seat now.
I turn my head, glance out of the window, and there is Darwin looking as
beautiful as I anticipated. The skies are clear and the ocean is a breathtaking turquois blue with sugary white beaches. Final approach is taking us just to the left of downtown Darwin. I can see the tip of Darwin off in the distance fading into the bay. It is just gorgeous. I see the flaps extend as the pilot starts to slow the airplane down so he can lower the landing gear. I reach over and grab Derrick’s hand and can’t believe we are almost here and about to start an adventure of a lifetime.
“Derrick, look at the water. It is so blue.”
“I know. It’s unbelievable!”
He gives my hand a soft squeeze and says, “I love you, Mrs. Kobi Reed.”
“Ooh, I like the sound of that…Mrs. Kobi Reed. It’s got a nice ring to it.”
The flight was unbelievably long and very tiring. I feel like a zombie getting out of my seat, gathering my belongings and heading down the aisle for the exit. My legs feel heavy and stiff, but I know we need to walk to baggage claim and collect our mountain of suitcases. We had to pack for a variety of climates because we will be in the mountains and the desert. Finally, all the bags show up, so we head over to the car rental company and pick up the SUV we have reserved for the trip.
We are both starving, so we leave the airport and head straight for Hanuman, a restaurant known for its Thai and Indian cuisine. Darwin has a very tropical climate this time of year, with warm, pleasant temperatures in the mid 80’s. After a late lunch, we head to the hotel, check into our suite, unpack the essentials, and decide to rest for the remainder of the day. It is early afternoon in Darwin, but my internal clock is telling me something different. I don’t think I am going to have any trouble falling asleep. In fact, I’ll be surprised if my head even hits the pillow before my eyes close.
I must have fallen asleep because my eyes are slowly opening, it is dark, and I look at the clock on the nightstand and see the time is about 11:30 p.m. I feel like I’ve been hit by a freight train; I am so sore--everywhere.
Flying that long on an airplane, and being confined to a seat most of the time wears you down. I get up and slowly walk to the living room and realize that I am hungry. I call the front desk only to learn that the hotel kitchen is closed for the night. I guess I will have to wait until morning to eat something. Hopefully, I will be able to fall asleep again in a little while. It will take several days to get my internal clock readjusted to local time.
Day 2
Derrick and I wake up feeling still a little tired but excited about the day ahead. We are meeting our guide Dane at noon in a small town about 70 miles south of Darwin called Adelaide River. Dane lives just off the main road in this tiny town of 190 people, in a very simple, one story house with a windmill in the front yard--not the kind of windmills they have in Holland, but the simple kind that pumps well water. The house is a bit rundown, to say the least. The front porch sags, and the roof looks as though it may fall at any moment. The weeds have taken over the yard and appear to be consuming the house. It does have electricity with the help of a generator. There is an open shed on the side of the house with a lot of old farm equipment in it—none of which appears to be in working order. Rust is feasting on the rundown tractor with two flat tires. The rest of the stuff in there could be donated to a scrap yard.
We are getting out of the car when I catch sight of a man exiting the front door of the house. I am assuming this is our guide, Dane. He is a very tall man with strong features. He has a chiseled jaw and piercing light sky blue eyes. His hair is almost pitch black and very long for a man. He pulls it back in a ponytail which hangs half way down his back. His skin is dark from the sun and he is wearing crocodile skin boots. I wonder if he killed the crocodile himself. I’m guessing he is in his early thirties.
Dane invites us in and offers us a cool beverage. He seems like a great guy, and appears to be very smart. He is not a native of Australia, but has lived here most of his life. His mother married an Englishman and moved to a little town just east of Cambridge, England called Newmarket. A few years later she had Dane. But, she was very unhappy in England, hated the weather, and missed her family back home. So she packed up one-year-old Dane and headed back to her home near Darwin. Dane grew up around these parts and moved out of the big city just after his mother died when he was 19 years old. His father still lives in England, but he has no contact with him.
We decide to spend the day here at Dane’s place so we can organize our trip. Dane will drop us off in Alice Springs after we have traveled around the Northern Territory and part of Southern Australia. I have a rental plane reserved, a multi-engine Piper Navajo. I will just need to fly with an instructor for a few hours before they will allow me to rent their airplane. We chose to fly from Alice Springs because it’s a long way to the coastal part of Western Australia, and the territory is mostly desert and extremely harsh. It’s an unforgiving environment should the car decide to break down, so we opted to fly instead of drive. Dane will drive back to Darwin and return the rental car for us.
Dane has acquired all of the camping gear we will need for the trip. We have tents, sleeping bags, cooking utensils, and lots of bottled water including a 500 gallon mini “water buffalo” that sits on its own trailer hitched to the SUV. Water buffalo is a slang expression for a large container of water shaped like a over-sized oil drum. He also has quite a collection of knives he will be taking as well as a shotgun just in case we run into trouble. The plan is set, so all we need to d
o now is sleep. We’ll head out at first light.
I close my eyes and smile because I am so excited about getting on the road and seeing all of the sights. “Go to sleep, Kobi. This is your last night in a real bed for a while, so you might as well get the most out of it,” I say out loud to myself. I can hear the wind howling outside. The windmill in the front yard needs oil because it is squeaking louder and louder with every gust of wind. I am lying there, humming a song, keeping time with the squeaking windmill. I can’t fall asleep. Anxious and frustrated, I decide to get up for a glass of water. I am surprised to see Dane at the table sharpening his knives.
“What’s the matter Dane--can’t sleep?” I ask.
“No, I am usually a little restless before I head out on a tour. There are so many threats here in Australia, especially in the outback. I am responsible for the two of you, and I always anticipate trouble; so it causes my brain to overthink everything which keeps me from sleeping.”
“I’m sure everything is going to be fine. I’ll see you bright and early.” “Good night, Kobi.”