The Bush Publican

"I hope that we won't have to wait that long today."

"So do I, We can take a packed lunch and some cold drinks, but where I plan to take you is not one of those long scenic shots that need for everything to be perfect."

We packed the gear into the Land Rover and, after topping up the tanks, headed off down the track that branched off the main road near the sidings. It had been graded a month ago. So the surface was reasonably smooth, with a few corrugations forming each side of the bends. I drove for close to an hour until we hit a creek crossing. I turned off and drove up the creek for a kilometre or so, until we reached a permanent pool. It was continually filled from the aquifer but the water did not normally flow because of evaporation and soakage. The trees around the pool had their roots deep into the sand and had a continuous supply of water.

"If we set up on top of the bank along there, and wait, we should see some wildlife around the pool. We should eat first, that way we can leave the truck here and move a couple of hundred metres away, so as not to spook them. We sat and consumed our lunch and took a small cool bag with the drinks with us and walked along the creek bank to a spot downwind of the pool. I set my camera up on a small tripod and focussed it on a point where it looked as if the animals came down to drink. Having set it up I turned it off, no point in using batteries un-necessarily.

Dianne set her camera up beside mine and did the same.

"We might as well get comfortable, it could be a wait." I told her as I stretched out behind my camera. I had a clear view of the pool.

"Is this comfortable enough for you?" She asked as she stretched out close beside me.

"Focus on the job at hand." I said quietly to her. "I don't want you scaring off the wild-life with your screaming orgasms."

"Spoilsport." She said as she kissed me and returned to her place behind her camera.

Everything was quiet for an hour and then there was movement, a couple of big reds came down for a drink, followed closely by a dozen or so rabbits. The whole while there was a steady stream of birds, little finches and parrots, a couple of crows, all drinking thirstily.

"I don't like this."

"Why, what don't you like?" Dianne said as she clicked away.

I stood up and looked towards the hills. "Come on, we'd better pack up and get out of here."

"Why, what's happening?" She said as she shoved her gear into the carry bag.

"The animals know that something is about to happen. There's a huge storm over in the hills, and unless we get out of this creek, we could get trapped here and lose the Land Rover into the bargain."

"But that's kilometres away."

"This creek is fed by those hills, and when all of those gorges fill up and start to funnel all that water down this creek, it can cause flash flooding on monumental proportions, it can overflow the banks very quickly. Let's go."

We ran down the creek to where the Land Rover was parked and threw our gear and then ourselves into it. The old girl fired up straight away, and with the diff lock on, I gunned it. By the time we reached the crossing, the water was thirty centimetres high and rising rapidly. We scrambled up out of the creek and I stopped. "Get your camera, this is something that you won't see every day, but make it quick, we have a couple of smaller creeks to cross on the way back."

Dianne snapped off a dozen or so shots as the creek rose dramatically, and jumped back in. "I see what you mean about it rising fast. Do you think that we'll have any problems getting through those other creeks?"

"I don't think so, but if the road cuts up and we have to slow down, it could get interesting." I had it in high range and was pushing as hard as I could. The first crossing was easy, the water was only about fifteen centimetres deep and I didn't slow down. It was spectacular with all that muddy water spraying over the windscreen and out to either side. The wipers made short work of cleaning the screen.

I stopped when we got to the second crossing. The water was higher and flowing strongly. I got out and waded into the centre of the crossing. It was now or never, at least tomorrow if we were lucky. I put it into gear and pushed into the creek, relieved that I had bought a diesel that didn't have electronic ignition and spark plugs to die when wet. The water was up to the side steps and I felt her slip sideways a little, but she stuck and continued on her way to the other side and out of the creek

"Why did you check the depth?" Dianne asked.

"I wasn't only checking the depth, I was checking the strength of the flow. If it is deep enough and strong enough it could wash us off the road and down the creek. I did not want that to happen, I might have lost you, and I wouldn't want that.'

"I wouldn't want that either." She reached over and put her hand on my thigh, giving it a squeeze.

On the way back we could see the black clouds dumping rain in vast quantities on the hills, but it was bright and sunny where we were, the road was thankfully still dry and I could really push it along. Bert was standing out front of the garage as we turned off the track onto the main road. He crossed over and came up to the pub as we pulled up around back. "Di, will you take this gear inside, I have to get the hose out and wash all this mud out from under the wheel arches and around the chassis before it dries and hardens, otherwise it will take forever."

She grabbed both camera bags from the Land Rover and took them inside just as Bert came around from the road. "We were beginning to worry, we could see that it was pissing down and wondered whether you'd seen it in time."

"It was the animals that warned us, they were all coming down to the pool for a drink, so I knew that something was about to happen."

"A regular bushy, aren't you?" Dianne came out to collect the food container. "Did he scare you with his wild driving? We could see his dust cloud approaching and he's lucky there's no traffic cops out there, it would have cost him a fortune."

"No, he didn't scare me, I enjoyed it in fact. Among other things, he's a good driver." She gave me a huge hug and kissed me.

"I can't stand any more of this." Bert said. "You two carrying on like a couple of lovebirds." He walked through the kitchen door. "Deb, my love." This was followed by the sound of a slap.

"Get away from me you randy old goat. It's not Saturday."

"I can't wait until Saturday, Dave, who's been on short rations for ages has this gorgeous woman crawling all over him, and me, your husband who loves you, has to wait until Saturday. Is there no justice in this world?"

We walked in just as they had reached a compromise, Deb was letting him kiss her.

"Ahem, unhand that woman sir, she has work to do." For some reason neither of them took a blind bit of notice, for at least a minute.

It was just the four of us for dinner again. Deb had roasted a leg of lamb with potato and pumpkin, and broad beans and lots of rich gravy, just like Mum used to make when I was a kid. "This is nice." Dianne said. "I could get used to this food. It sure as hell beats all of that over-processed junk you have to put up with back in the city, you don't know what's in it."

"Sounds like someone's taking a liking to this lifestyle." Deb said as she helped herself to a second serve of lamb.

"I have a job to do, and that will take me back to the city as soon as I get enough pictures."

"How many more do you need to take?" I asked her, hoping that she'd say thousands.

"I have a lot of good shots of that gully at sunset, and now that pool and the flood. What I really want is to get high in the hills so that I can take shots over the plains. But it has to be early enough in the morning so that heat haze doesn't become a problem."

"If tomorrow isn't raining we can get up early and I can take you up to the top. There's a track that can get us up to a good place for that shot. It'll mean an early start."

"How early?"

"We'll have to leave here before dawn. That will also give you some great sunrise shots."

"In that case I think we should go to bed early, don't you?"

"I don't think going to bed early is going to make any difference, what you two need is sleep and lots of it." Bert said and flinched as Deb thumped him on the arm.

We did go to bed early-ish, and did get at least seven hours sleep before getting out of bed in the dark. Half an hour after leaving the pub, the sky had changed from black with a squillion stars to a very pale blue and no visible stars. We came over a crest just in time to see the very top edge of the sun climbing over the distant hills, on the western side of the ridge we were on, the gorges were still black and ridges a pale gold with patches of green. I stopped and Dianne had her camera out and was getting out almost before I had stopped. "Darling, this is amazing. I could have stomped around here for months, years even, and not witnessed anything like this. Thank you for this.

The sun moved on and the light changed, colours changed, so we moved on. The Land Rover scrambled up a narrow track along a ridge top until we reached the highest of the hills. The vast, flat plains stretched out as far as the eye could see. From here it appeared featureless, just kilometre after kilometre of gibber plains and sand dunes with the occasional row of trees along a creek line. The clear blue sky contrasted with the ochre coloured landscape adding intensity to the vista. We set up and took literally hundreds of shots of the plains and the rugged hills.

We had loaded our gear into the Land Rover and I had just stepped over behind an outcrop of rock to have a slash when I heard the sound of loose rocks rolling down the slope and Dianne call out. "Dave, help me!" Then there was a soft thud and nothing.

I didn't even bother to zip up my jeans before running around to see her stretched out a couple of metres down the slope, her right leg at an odd angle. Time to zip and do something quickly. I grabbed the first aid kit from the Land Rover and scrambled down to one side of her so as to not send any more rocks crashing down on her. Moving to her side, I quickly checked for vital signs, she had a graze on the side of her face and a lump was growing on the side of her head. She was unconscious but breathing softly, it was her leg that was my greatest concern at this time. The tibia and fibula were broken just above the ankle. I needed to immobilise to ease the pain and risk of further damage, and work out how to get her out of there.

I placed a splint on her leg and bound it and her ankle so that her foot wouldn't move and cause the break to move. She moaned as I finished. "Dianne, darling, can you hear me?"

"Dave?"

"Just relax and lie still, try not to move while I work out how to get you out of here."

"Can you," she whispered, "Can you do something about this sharp rock that's digging into my back."

I raised her right shoulder and slid my hand under her and removed the sharp rock. "I'm just going up to the truck, what I'm going to do is to start the motor, I thought that I'd tell you this so you don't think that I'm abandoning you. Then I'm going to lower the winch cable down. Then I want you to put your arms around my neck and I'll use the remote control to rewind the winch and pull us up. Do you think that you can manage that?"

"If it means putting my arms around your wonderful neck then I think I can do that."

"Good. When I get you out of here I'll give you some pretty heavy painkillers to ease the pain. Be brave my love."

I scrambled up the slope, it wasn't easy going, for a while I was going down more than up because the loose rocks were giving way under my weight. I cranked up the truck and moved it so that the front was pointing to where Dianne was laying. I opened the bonnet and connected the winch cables to the battery and the remote cable to the winch. Paying it out as I scrambled back down, I reached her. "How are you feeling?

"I've felt better. What do you want me to do?"

"I'm going to squat down next to you and place a rope loop around my body and under my arms. I want you to put your arms around my neck and hang on. I'll use the winch to lift us up and when we're standing I'll walk up the slope. You will need to hang on tight and not let go. Do you think that you can manage that?"

"I'll try."

"Good." She put her arms around my neck and kissed me. The winch took up the slack and slowly lifted us up until we were standing. I stopped it. "You'll have to move around behind me, I can't walk up the cliff with you in front, I might bang your leg on something, can you do that?"

Still with her arms around my neck and with me helping her, she hobbled around until she was hanging down my back. "Ready?"

"Yes."

"Let's go, I'll take it steady, if you feel that the pain is too much for you then tell me and we'll go to plan B."

Very slowly, I had it on the slowest retrieve setting, we worked our way up the slope until we were standing in front of the Land Rover. I stopped the winch and took the rope loop from around me, and gave her a pain killer. "That's the first part of getting you to medical attention, now we have to get you out of here."

"First things first." She kissed me again. "Thank you my darling, thank you."

"You didn't think that I'd just go off and leave you here for the dingos to gnaw on, do you? I couldn't let that happen to the woman that I love now, could I?"

"Do you really love me?"

"How could I not love someone who can take the shit that Bert and I have been heaping on you from day one and give as much back in return. The big question now is, do you love me, or do I shove you over the cliff and leave you here?"

"If you put it like that, I have no option but to love you. Now get me out of here you idiot."

"Okay, I'll help you into the front seat, and then I'm going to bind both your legs together so that you can brace yourself with your left leg to prevent further damage to the right. Ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

I lifted her in and did what I had to do to make her as comfortable as possible. I climbed in, picked up my satellite phone and got through to Bert. "Bert, it's Dave. Mate, we've had an accident and Dianne has a broken leg. I'm bringing her down, we'll be back in about half an hour. Can you contact the Flying Doc and get them to come and pick her up. You'll probably need to close off the road, it's the only place that they can land. You have to stop any stray cars or trucks coming along. Can you do that for me?"

"Sure thing, I'm right on to it."

"Okay, hang on, I'll be as quick but gentle as possible." I said to Dianne as I put it into gear.

We reached the flat ground and I no longer had to concentrate as much. "When we get back to town I'll pack your gear up for you and you can take it with you. We'll see what we can do about getting your 4WD back to Adelaide for you. There's a truck coming through tomorrow or the next day and he'll probably welcome a back load. Where can I get him to leave it?"

"I don't know what the home situation is going to be. It will probably be safer in a storage yard somewhere until I can sort it all out."

"Okay, I'll organise something and let you know. You can take my camera with you and download those pictures that I took, you're welcome to use any that you think are okay."

"But how will I get the camera back to you?"

"We can work something out later, you just get better and soon."

"I've got it!"

"What?"

"I have some annual leave coming to me soon. As soon as I'm mobile, I'll go back to work and finish this project, and as soon as that's done and dusted, I'll come back up here with your camera. Unless of course you've found another woman."

"The chance of that happening is Buckley's and none, and Buckley's is looking pretty slim at the moment and not likely to get any better."

Half an hour later I was parked just off the road on the long straight out of town. Bert was with me. "The Flying Doc has given us an ETA for about fifteen minutes. Just before they get here I'm to light a smoke flair so that they can get the wind direction." Smoke flairs are a necessary safety item for outback travel, they can be seen for some distance to alert searchers in case you're lost or broken down.

It was a long fifteen minutes before I heard the pilot coming through on the emergency frequency. I told Bert to light the flair. The pilot circled once to get the lie of the land before touching down and taxiing to us.

I untied the bandages that had kept Dianne's legs together and immobilised, and the Doctor quickly checked her out. "That was good thinking to use one leg to support the other."

"I had to do something, I had to get her to where you could pick her up, she needed help quickly and it was rough terrain. The Medivac chopper would even have had problems accessing the area, and it would have taken hours for it to get here."

"I can't fault your reasoning. Are you coming with her?"

"Much as I'd love to, no. I run the hotel here and can't just drop everything and leave. I'll chat to her when I can and sort something out, she's got a very expensive camera of mine with her."

"Your excuse for contacting her, I presume?"

"You could say that."

"I don't blame you mate."

Dianne was lifted into the plane and I kissed her good-bye and shut the door. The pilot swung around and taxied down the road before turning and taking off. Like an idiot I waved at the plane as it disappeared.

"You're in love with her, aren't you?" Bert was standing next to me watching the plane and Dianne disappear into the sky. "What are we doing about her car?"

"Rocky will be coming through in a couple of days, he always stops for a feed before heading south. I'll see if he'll take it back to town. Her work can pay for it."

As soon as the plane was out of sight I got on the phone to her work. It took some time, most of it spent on hold, before I got through to the right person. "Good morning, my name is David Roberts, I'm the publican at the Thompson Creek Hotel. There has been an accident involving Dianne Wellings. She had a fall while taking photos up in the ranges and has broken her leg rather badly. How badly we don't know yet, but she's on her way to the Royal Adelaide with the Flying Doctor. They've just left, if you call them they can give you an ETA."

"Thank you for advising us, we'll get someone to meet her at the hospital."

He must have thought that it would make a good story because the next thing I knew was that I got a phone call from one of the TV stations wanting an interview, you know, one of those phone interviews where they have this screen with what is supposed to represent a sound recording meter going up and down, not in synch with the voices. I decline the opportunity to promote my business. This was a mistake. When I turned on the TV to watch the mid-day news bulletin the story stated that I had been with her when she fell, and it was slanted in such a way as to suggest that there was something of significance about this fact.

It must have been a slow news day or something, while I was fending off callers, they had contacted Bert, and he was telling them a highly exaggerated account of how I had risked life and limb, to scale at least fifty metres down an almost vertical cliff face and rescue her. In the eyes of the world I was suddenly a hero.

Late afternoon the first of the news choppers arrived complete with camera crew and a talking head presenter, armed with a pad of questions that she wanted to ask. I couldn't avoid them so had to stand in front of the pub saluting flies from my face as she asked her inane questions.

"Tell us in your own words Mr Roberts, what happened this morning?"