Dear Sally,

Until I travelled from Brisbane to Perth, I was largely ignorant of the beauty this country held. On this trip, I swam in natural hot springs in Moree and watched whales from a windy sea cliff at the Head of the Bight, as they sought safety in the warm waters below to have their calves. However, the story I wish to tell you about is about a small rock, on the Nullarbor Plains.

This rock had sat for many years, observing it’s surroundings, very little changing from day to day. It would chat with its fellow rocks about the weather, how cold or hot it currently was, before returning to its thoughts. In the distance it could hear noises, some deafening and others softer, rushing by at great speeds. The rock wished to see what made these noises but from where it sat, all it could see was sand and sky. Nothing had changed for the rock in a long time. It recalled with fondness the last time it had moved, some twenty years prior. A dingo running past, knocking the rock a few centimetres to the left. It had been an exhilarating day, everything looking different from the altered angle. But soon, the rock became accustomed to the view. It was still on the ground, you see, and believed that would never change.

Meanwhile somewhere across the country, a woman sat in an office, having conversations with her colleagues about the weather, commenting on how hot or cold the air-conditioning was that day, before turning back to stare at the computer in front of her. Outside her window she would see planes flying in and out of view, and she wondered what it would be like to be going somewhere, anywhere. The woman had dreamed for many years of leaving to go on an adventure but had always found a reason to stay. She found it difficult to part with the safety and comfort of the familiar. But the desire to travel never wavered, no matter how comfortable the woman felt.

One day, the woman knew it was her time to leave. Without fully understanding what shape her adventure would take, she packed up her car and took to the road. Before leaving, the woman had been warned about the perils of the Nullarbor Plains, by people who had never crossed it. As she approached the outskirts, she wondered what she would encounter. Would she be swerving to avoid kangaroos hopping onto the road? Would the car break down and she be stranded without another soul passing for days? Would desert people try to kill her? All of these scenarios whirled around her head as she started the long drive across the Nullarbor.

Hours passed, and then days. Nothing happened to the woman. Animals were rarely seen during the day, the car never stalled and the people she encountered were genuine and kind. The woman relaxed and started to enjoy the desert.

One day, with the car pulled over on the side of the road, the woman wandered a short way into the desert. While driving, her attention had been captured for some time by a path of rocks, running alongside the road. As she went to observe it closely, she noticed someone had built a rock pile.

The rock heard footsteps approaching its location. It excitedly wondered if it was another dingo, though they sounded too slow and heavy to be of the quick creature. The rock watched as the woman walked up to it, and tried to take in every detail to discuss later with its friends. They would be talking about this for months to come.

The feet came to a stop next to the rock.

The woman considered which rock to add to the pile, she wanted to leave a small mark of her presence in the Nullarbor. She spied a rock, flat and small, so unremarkable that she almost kept looking for another. But thinking better of it, she picked up the rock, placed it on top of the pile and then wandered back to the car, to continue on her journey.

As the rock flew through the air and was placed back down, it knew life would never be the same. From its higher vantage point it could now see what made the rushing noises, and understand life in a way it could never perceive of, from the ground. The rock settled in to its new home, ready to spend many years observing the desert, until something else came along to alter its view.

The woman thinks about that rock, from time to time, and wonders what other small shifts she may cause through her journey.

Love, Jess