Blood at Yellow Water Read Online Free Page B

she was vehemently opposed to the
building of new nuclear plants in Japan.
    Shoni was twenty-eight years old and faced
continual pressure from her family to follow the Japanese tradition
of marrying and establishing a family like her sisters. But she was
not ready to settle down into married life. She had a number of
relationships with men and the last one had ended badly so she
decided to leave her job and travel. Her first trip was to Europe
where she and a girlfriend spent six weeks backpacking around
England, France and Italy. On her travels she met and became
friendly with a group of Australians who had encouraged her to
visit Australia. She returned to Tokyo and found a temporary job
but quickly became restless and applied for a twelve months holiday
working visa to Australia.
    She had started her trip in Sydney and
gradually moved north up the east coast, working occasionally as a
waitress to help pay for her accommodation, usually at a
backpackers’ hostel. After touring seaside resorts on the New South
Wales and Queensland coasts she had decided to see the outback,
travelling by bus across western Queensland to the Northern
Territory and eventually stopped at Daly Waters. Having spent the
first night in the backpackers’ room at the Daly Waters Hotel, she
noticed the hotel was seeking a barmaid/waitress, and on enquiring
with the manager, was immediately offered a job for two months. She
was now two weeks into her job. At the end of her employment at
Daly Waters she planned to travel to Darwin before returning to
Tokyo.
    Jake suggested she must visit Kakadu
National Park which was a unique heritage listed park famous for
its waterways, plant species, crocodiles and bird life. A loud
knock on the cabin door interrupted their discussion.
    “Come on Jake, time to rise, we’ve got
something special to show you.”
    Jake put on some shorts and struggled to the
door to see his father standing there.
    “Oh, did I interrupt something? Not to
worry, we’ll pick you up in ten minutes for our little
excursion.”
    “Right, Dad, I’ll be ready.”
    “You can bring the young lady with you if
you want,” said Bill smiling and wandered off.
    Jake looked quizzically at Shoni.
    “I can make it as I don’t start work till
4pm today.”
    Fifteen minutes later, Bill and Lizzie
arrived in a battered jeep and Shoni and Jake climbed into the back
seat. Bill accelerated and headed off.
    “Where are we going?” asked Jake.
    “We are going to a special place which very
few white people get to see,” responded Lizzie.
    Bill drove out past the old airport which he
explained used to be a base for the American and Australian Air
forces during the Second World War.
    “That’s strange, there’s an old plane
sitting on the tarmac. I’ve haven’t seen anything but crop-dusters
at the old airport for years,” Bill remarked as he turned onto a
dirt road.
    Lizzie said, “It looks like one of the old
planes that the Australian Flying Doctor Service used to have. I
think it’s a single-engine Pilatus PC-12. They have long range
capability and they were popular in the 1990’s.”
    Jake looked at the plane curiously and
noticed two men strolling towards the aircraft as the car passed by
the airport.
    After about thirty minutes the track petered
out near a large rocky outcrop and they all got out of the car.
    “We’ll have to walk from here, put on your
hats and bring your water bottles,” said Lizzie, moving on ahead.
After fifteen minutes, Jake could see the rocky outcrop was much
larger than it first appeared as they came to an opening between
two huge boulders. Walking through the gap, they entered an old
dried creek bed surrounded on both sides by steep rocks. The rocks
were shaped like beehives with stripes of orange and black caused
by wind erosion. They followed the sandy stretch till they came to
a bend in the creek bed where the rocks closed in on the trail
forming a small gorge. Jake could hear running water and