chapter 4 chuck and leila

Chuck and Leila were an American couple. They’d met in a backpacking hostel in Bali. They were both taking a gap year before studying at university. Chuck had a place to study marine biology at UCLA and Leila was going to study biomechanics in North Carolina. Initially, they had simply decided to travel together because it was safer and less lonely, but by the time they reached Australia, their friendship had blossomed into love.
They were young, but they both came from families who, although they weren’t wealthy, they had enough money to support their children on their adventures throughout the world. They didn’t have to look for work to support themselves as they travelled. They simply had to find a cheap way of getting from A to B and then find somewhere cheap to stay. They had enough money as they travelled to visit the local tourist places and they didn’t have to starve themselves to keep going.
They had no rigid itinerary to stick to. They’d already travelled around the outside of Australia and thought they would go through the middle from Adelaide to Darwin before heading towards Sri Lanka and India.
They’d not long arrived in Alice Springs in the heart of the red centre. Chuck had thought it would just be a tiny little village, but it was a sprawling, but low rise town in the middle of the desert. It was an essential resource and supply centre for all the outlying settlements for hundreds of miles as well as a destination for tourists who wanted to travel on to see Uluru. Tomorrow, they had pencilled in a visit to the flying doctors museum and if they could find a bus to take them there they would visit the telegraph station that had established the outpost in Victorian times. But tonight, they were going to have fun and experience whatever nightlife Alice had to offer.
They’d had a few drinks and a dance in a club that they’d found when they met an Indian guy who introduced himself as Yash. He said he worked on a ranch a few hours away that trained outback horses to work with sheep and cattle. He persuaded them to stay at the ranch for a few days to experience the real outback. The accommodation was clean and had air conditioning, which was a real plus for somewhere that was so cheap.
They arranged to meet Yash the next day outside their accommodation with his Yute.
They travelled up the Stuart highway towards Darwin, then turned off onto a dusty dirt track. After that, there was nothing but red sand, the odd bush and an occasional tree. They saw a big red kangaroo with her joey, and a couple of wild camels on their journey, but nothing else.
Yash pointed out barbed wire fences that served as borders between one property and the next. At one stage, he had to get out, uproot a fence post and pull it across the road so that they could pass and then put it back.
As they neared the ranch, the barbed wire fences gave way to smart post and rails, the scrubland became rough grassland that supported a few horses.
It had been a long journey to get to the ranch. On the way, Yash told them about the ranch owner. They might meet him today, but would definitely come in to contact with him tomorrow. Andy was half Scottish and his wife, Brigitte was Swiss. He had been ordained into the Church of Scotland. Living on the ranch, they would be expected to attend his little service in his specially built chapel tomorrow. It would be nothing major. Andy was no evangelist. Most likely he would simply retell one of the stories from the bible and get his small congregation to relate to the story to modern day life.
Chuck and Leila came from a Christian background. Leila had been brought up in the Bible Belt of the south, so they didn’t mind attending a small Christian service once a week.
Yash showed them straight to their room once they got they there. They had not stayed anywhere so nice for the price that they were being charged. Somewhere like this would not stay empty for long if they advertised on air bnb. They had air conditioning and their own en-suite bathroom. There was a television, but Yash told them the reception on it was sometimes poor. They were too far into the outback to get many services. There was no mobile phone or internet network here, they could watch tv, but sometimes the service was patchy because they had to rely on satellite. There was no terrestrial or cable service out here. The most reliable method of communication was by radio, which was reserved for emergencies.
Yash showed them around the stables and introduced them to the horses, then took them over to the big house for lunch.
The ranch hands were already gathering around the big dining table. There was an aroma of mixed horse and human sweat teamed with the smell of leather and hay. It was not unpleasant, it was a smell of the country and good hard work! Leila noted that they all looked well fed. That was good! She had been worried about not been given enough food.
They were allowed to help themselves from the plentiful dishes that were laid out on the table. The ranch hands piled their plates high. Chuck thought nothing of it. These people worked hard! They had probably been up since dawn mucking out and grooming then exercising the horses. Chuck and Leila had a moderate meal. When they left the table, the others were stick tucking in enthusiastically, but they did not overthink it. Back home in America, they were used to large portions and big appetites. It was only since they left that they’d both realised that American portion sizes were actually too big!
They went for a rest back in their room. Their muscles were aching from the bumpy ride. They would probably benefit from a quick siesta.
They spent the afternoon looking around some of the homestead. The outlying areas were far too big to cover in a few hours, but they had plenty time to have a look around the station.
Evidently, Andy must earn more money than a regular farmer from buying and selling his horses because not only did most of the buildings have air conditioning, but there was also a pool, half of which was covered with a canvas tent roof, so you could cool off in the shade, rather than boil in the sun. There was loungers set around the pool in the sun and in the shade, a bar and an obligatory barbecue.
They decided to chill out there for the rest of the day, before getting closer to the horses the next day.