Long time coming.

After an uneventful yet blurry day of flights (20 hours in all) and not quite enough sleep, I caught the 7 am greyhound from Broome to Karratha in Western Australia, the least populated, least visited and largest state in Australia. The backpack feels heavy and comforting and I seem to have lost my knack for living out of the thing. Nine points for enthusiasm, four for organization and a meager two for efficiancy in packing the damn thing. I forgot my universal gaucho pants (teasr) and broke my thailand anklet that has been waking up and falling asleep with me for 14 months. Not a good sign. Or, depending on your outlook, a fresh rejuvenated ankle justing waiting to be adorned by symbols of new adventures. Fascination of the day are the bugs, soon, I fear to turn into warranted hatred in the weeks to come. Aussie bugs are bugs that have grown up heeding their insect-mothers advice and have eaten their veggies, or more specificaly, popeyes spinach. Broome is on the ocean so the breeze eliminates most human-bug contact, but inland on endless stretches of straight flatempty roads, they cross the street in packs of 100s, and when they hit the front of the bus, you risk being awoken from a doze believing its hailing golfballs in 100 degree heat. You'd be hard pressed to cover key lime colored splashes with a cereal bowl. Upon closer inspection, (yes, I peered at the grill), they are 3 to 4 inches, which makes them big enough to scare the shit out of my cat. If they were alive (God forbid), I would have been able to discern facial expressions. After almost an hour of executing a convincing impression of a pulverized bug, one of them unwrapped their mangled limbs and wings from around teh grate, cracked his neck loudly, gave the driver the finger and flew away. It was a terminator moment. Its difficult not to speculate on the number of bodies being buried in the outback. Its a perfect place to do so, if youre so inclined. My drver is a character straight out of a Coen Brothers movie. I bet he picks his teeth with a bowie knife. He stopped and stared a dead cow for three minutes before he took a picture with his phone, and slowly, thoughtfully, drove away. You know, so he could look at it again later. I was afraid to cough in his presence. "'I left behind two people, so let that be a lesson to those of you that remain. I won't wait for any of you. You guys have all day, but theres some shit I want to get done at home later." I made the mistake of laughing. It wasn't a joke. Luckily I wont bonus point by asking for permission to come aboard. I was granted permission, thank God. I almost saluted him. I think he might have really liked that.