a crescent moon

So here we are, all ready to grab our bags of recently acquired cowboy boots and hats and head off out of the sunset!!! I've got to say a big thanks by the way, you helped to keep me sane out here, and linked to the other way of living by knowing that people want to know about us out here. Our last few days of painful packing was eased in a big way by our lovely neighbour taking on babysitting duty all last night and today. Apparently the kids went to sleep at 3:30am last night, then went hard playing again all today. They got back tonight a little deranged and very bleary eyed, but completely in love with their friends. We all threw together some emuburgers and home made sausages, and Shae even brought some lettuce over, which I couldn't stop staring at...it's been a while in between shops and green stuff! So our last night was spent laughing till I cried with our neighbours and the Field Officer, Mo, and trying to rein in the kids very vaguely. Shae and Mo even kicked Al and I out of the house at sunset and we drove off, this time into the sunset, to the dunes. We dodged the 50 or so roos that were around the water trough, then Al called out 'Look behind, it's attacking the car!' 'Uh, what is?' I thought maybe an emu, or a goanna... I craned my neck over the open window to see a snake right below me darting out from under the car into the spinifex. It had a dark head and a red body, and was fired up! 'Jeez you could have told me it was a snake, some warning would have been good! Did it really go for the car?''Yeah, it looked like it went right for it!'  Al pulled up on the next dune, 'the sunsets beautiful, and look at the light in the spinifex.' He was already playing with lenses on his camera. 'Yeah, it's lovely, but I'm not getting out there, it's snakeville.' I stared gloomily at the ground from my window. 'Oh, don't be silly, get out.' I did, and it was beautiful watching our last sunset, and  seeing the soft orange glow bring the true desert beauty into play, and turn the harsh 44 degree day into a world to beautiful to truly comprehend. We stood on the crest of a burnt dune, looking onto waving dry spinifex, but at our feet in the blackened sand were hundreds, no thousands of green shoots. The rain has brought new life, and the cycle will of course go on. On waving goodbye to our neighbours for the last time, they pulled away from the gate, sillhouted by the glowing orange clouds and watched over by a shining white crescent moon. It's time for us to say goodbye and give thanks for being welcomed and watched over in this great landscape. I only hope we will return some day.