Bus from Alice Springs to Darwin
Scene 5
Hing had left a Greyhound bus ticket in Maille's hotel in Alice Springs. The ticket was for Darwin in the far north of Australia – and along the way the agent had yet another labour to perform. The 1'500-km journey on the Stewart highway was expected to take 24 hours. During the night various types of animals were hopping around in the headlight: above all, kangaroos of all sizes, emus and dingos. At one point two camels stumbled across the street – somewhat like two fashion models with exorbitant derrieres in incredibly dirty pelts trotting over a catwalk. During the journey, the driver had very often to suddenly ram the brakes; most of the time he managed to avoid an accident. Only once did he knock a small kangaroo, an incident that made him mutter the word, «shit» – otherwise, he behaved as though it was a routine occurrence. There were so many animals out on the road that the scene looked like a video game.
The night was cold – and, probably in keeping with some tradition of Australian long-distance bus operators, the driver stopped every two hours at some petrol station or the other so that the passengers could get out of their warm seats and stretch their legs for a couple of minutes on the neon-lit tarmac or grab a late-night coffee at a deserted snack bar.
The morning dawned in the form of an indigo-blue sky – like a cold fire suddenly dispelling the blackness of the night. With the day came the heat, which one could detect despite being cocooned in an air-conditioned cabin; it felt as though someone was constantly pouring steaming-hot tea over the bus.
