Eyre we go

June 2012

Water ripples across the salt-encrusted surface of the ancient land. In the crush of earth, salt crystals linger on running shoes from urban centres: unfamiliar territory for feet used to pavements.

 Sunlight dances on the shoes now squelching in the watery salt basin, sucking and singing to rhythms made of mud. A seagull in the desert squawks defiantly at fringe dwellers now braving the centre of a continent flooded with rains from the east.

 Bugs, rats and beetles are caught in the receding pull of water as it is blown by spectral winds on the flat land. The salty tempura prove easy pickings for the seagull who quickly abandons feathered outrage at human interlopers for the twisted shapes, motionless and still.

 The shoes sink.  Caught in layers of salt, mud and mire the travellers pause and survey sky-earth and wind-waves.  Somebody sighs.

 “Do we need to take off our shoes?” asks the youngest.

“If you want to get to the water, you’ll need to take them off and also roll up your trackies”, answers a smiling father.

 The shuffling and sucking sounds of shoes peeling from soft skin are caught by the wind, a melodious hum punctured by excited gasps for air, cool and crisp. Bubbles of mud ooze through tentative toes, tickling and wooing feet to adventure: farther on, deeper in.

 Feel the salt on your skin calls the voice of the wind. 

 Each wanders, feet rolling, through layered earth memories softened by rains, yearned for and longed for and cursed for til come.  Silenced by wonder, the dance has begun. 

 A soundscape of wind-blown whispering stories tug at the human shapes tilting and thrusting angular lines; bent, lengthened and tossed, twirling limbs in full flight. The giggle of voices splash, fling, fall: recover in waves undulating and stung white by the sun.  Faces tip skyward, ankle-deep spiralling warmly inviting dreams for the dreaming: unfolding and bursting, carried high on the winds. 

 The dance has begun.

 In the most unlikely of places: the ditch in the desert, with the barefooted and curious, the dance has begun.

Photography by Julian Masters, reprinted with permission.