From Darkness to Dawn In Central Australia
It is early Sunday evening, a time to relax as the day cools and the lustre of sunset colours the sky. We are sitting at The Block, a parcel of land off the Santa Teresa Road, just outside of Alice Springs in the heart of Australia. As dusk falls, the lights from the airport sparkle in the distance, and overhead, a thousand pale stars spatter the twilight sky. We lounge in foldable chairs, pausing to enjoy the outdoors, on the cusp of another week.
The sun shines its last dying
rays and the horizon becomes a brilliant smudge of gold. It takes minutes for it to turn into night. It is still winter, and the temperature drops significantly. Someone lights the campfire, and we put our palms out
towards the flames, drawing warmth from where we can. In a couple of months’ time, the seasons will change, and
it will be summer – too hot for an evening rendezvous.
Right across Central Australia, from Alice to its outer small satellite communities, the heat will descend and burn the desert. In a land of extremes, things can change quickly; rains come and flood the rivers, fires consume things and turn landscapes into ash; and viruses alter familiar lifestyles and upend plans. But just as things can change for the worse, so can they change for the better.
Sunset on the Santa Teresa Road Just South of Alice Springs
The dusk becomes a memory as night descends. The owl in the tree behind the caravans parked on The Block hoots. The fire crackles, and the conversation flows. We are prepared for the winter night. We have warm swags, sleeping bags, thermals and a billy to boil hot tea, as well as a camp over dinner sitting on hot coals. We know what the conditions will be like.
However, we can’t dictate what dreams will flood through our sleeping minds, or what will happen in the cities so far away from the Santa Teresa Road. But despite this, we will chart our course until morning. We know this landscape – it is our home. And we know, that after the night, comes the dawn, breaking gently in all its splendour. A new day; a new hope; a precious inevitability to hold on to. We will see the first blushes of the morning sky. The night is not the end.