'The Middle of Nowhere'

I have dreamed a lot of things for my life like travel, love, career objectives and adventures but I never expected that those dreams would lead me to live in an aboriginal community in the Northern Territory (Australia),  in a place that is literally referred to by the locals as ‘the middle of nowhere’. Originating from Brisbane (Australia) myself, you can only imagine that what I have seen since arriving last Friday has been nothing short of a culture shock. It is funny how every moment in your life never seems to be important at the time but becomes extremely important later on, my life has contained many of these moments but to properly explain where I am and how I got here it starts with one extraordinary, ordinary moment in particular, the night I met my partner Stuart.

Now just to make things clear, please don’t think I am one of those girls so hung up on their boyfriend that their lives are driven by them and that the contents of my blog will be pining love poems and declarations, it won’t.  I love him to absolute pieces and I feel it would be wrong to detail all the adventures of my new life without at least introducing the moment that led me here. Just bear with me while I entertain my nostalgia.

It didn’t seem any different to any other Wednesday night at the time, I was 19 and in the prime moment of my life where partying at least three times a week with my friend Nicole was the conventional thing to do. It just so happens that Wednesday evenings were our night where we would get together and socialise with our friends and the less than prime subjects of our peers at a dodgy, familiar and lovable pub called the Royal Exchange (RE for short). It was in no way convenient or close to where we lived, but we loved it and made it our routine Wednesday spot all the same. We did the traditional rounds, had drinks, danced and followed our social routine that had become the bulk of our Wednesday evenings. I remember walking into a small bar inside where they held karaoke and there he was, standing there by the door. Call it fate, coincidence, religion whatever you will but I felt drawn to him and stood next to him for no reason of my own I could logically explain. He kept staring and smiling at me and 2 and a half years after I still can’t recall who said hello first.

That was it. That was the moment that sparked an indescribable number of moments that eventually led me here. While there was the more specific moment of my partner getting a job as a charter pilot in Darwin, it is the more incredible moment two years ago that ultimately led me to be sitting on a half broken couch in 31 degree heat (during Winter!!!) typing out this blog.  Moving out into ‘the middle of nowhere’  is never something I would have considered doing on my own. I have always lived within an hour of Brisbane and have rarely traveled anywhere my entire life. I lived a ‘traditional’ existence and worked a steady job at a law firm which I enjoyed and I also studied part time.

So here I am catching three different  flights over a period of twenty-four hours to get to ‘the middle of nowhere’ and was utterly exhausted by the time I landed in Millingimbi. I had heard Stuart telling me all about his experiences since he arrived here two months prior but they never prepared me for what I was really in for. In fact I don’t think anyone could. It isn’t bad or horrible here, quite the contrary, people are lovely and you have all the basic utilities available from major cities and country towns. But the environment is completely different. After coming from an organised society of road signs, fast food outlets, grocery stores and endless activities it feels like you are entering a new universe altogether. There are camp dogs….everywhere! I have been warned by some lovely local ladies to take a dog stick on my walks, although unfortunately my red dirt, grassy back yard seemed to be running short on conveniently sized dog sticks. So with ambitions of finding work and settling in, not to mention being too nervous and anxious to walk a kilometer to the shops by myself without a trusty dog stick, I put the dog stick and the ‘ominous’ walk into town to the back of my mind for a few days.

The first few days drummed past in a blur, yet with super clarity all at the same time. I was extremely sore, tired and worn out from the travelling and my para sailing accident on the Sunday before my Thursday flight (long story!). I spent my days lounging around the tiny box dungeon that is my new home (really that is the most accurate description for the house). Luckily there is a conveniently placed smoke alarm above the broken couch that somehow managed to keep my sanity alive as I stared at it while waiting for Stuart to get home from work. I spent my days cleaning, rearranging the broken furniture in my new box dungeon and putting off my first walk into town. Don’t get me wrong, I am usually over adventurous and love going out and seeing the world, but as my nerves were shot through the roof from the previous Sunday accident, I think it is appropriate to say ‘adventurous Kim’ didn’t surface too much.

After three days, the weekend passed and Monday arrived so I organised with Stuart to have him drive me into town so that I could job hunt and get myself out of this dusty box dungeon and into my adventures on a daily basis. Yes I was kind of cheating by not walking myself and having him drive me, but I still was anxious and not ready to tackle the dog stick predicament just yet. However, being the basis of someone’s personal joke that I am, Stuart didn’t return home on Monday as he had to stay in Darwin for the night. And while the joke at this point is fairly ironic and funny as I traveled twenty-four hours to be alone anyway, someone must have felt it didn’t suffice as a proper punchline because Stuart wasn’t able to return the following day either due to a broken down plane. Whoa! There it is is! Punchline!

So here I am, lonely, almost deranged, anxious and considering whether it is considered sane to spark up conversations with inanimate objects (ie. smoke alarm!) when I realised I was out of orange juice. That was when I reached an epiphany. I decided that I would rather go outside and get mauled by a dog, attacked by someone or experience heat stroke than spend another full day in the hot little box dungeon, restraining my building affection for the smoke alarm that was always there for me, WITHOUT ORANGE JUICE. You can call it deranged, clarity or insanity but whatever you call it, I called it freedom! In a movement that could only be described as a driven frenzy, I screwed the mop head off our mop and wala! Makeshift dog stick! I scrambled together an outfit, my things and a ‘devil may care’ attitude and I left the driveway. Never. EVER. Has leaving my driveway been so exhilarating!!! While it was what I would ordinarily consider an ordinary walk into town, to me it felt like the most exciting thing I have done in the past week! I spoke with the Health Clinic who were surprisingly as happy to see me as I was to leave my driveway, due to them being short on staff in what is conveniently my particular field in admin and secretarial work. FINALLY! I was catching a break! I was so happy, but it wasn’t until I went to the corner store by myself for the first time and bought that delicious, sweet, cool orange juice that I knew I had finally conquered that nagging, anxious and nervous feeling that plagued me since I got here. Well at least it didn’t afflict my ability to leave the house anymore!

In some ways I think it was good for Stuart to be kept away as it gave me the push I needed to get moving and get on with this new life of my mine on my own two feet. I am still waiting to hear back about the job and will keep you posted. But right now, I have my dog stick, my orange juice, my smoke alarm, my sanity (I think) and I know that while this life will be difficult and full of challenges, it will be nothing short of the greatest accidental adventure I never meant to have!

‘Til next post,

Kimmy xx