Thursday, May 23, 2013

Why are romance and the Outback so entwined?


It is a good question as to why the Outback of Australia and the rugged areas of other places seem to draw themselves to romance.

Maybe it is the contrasts of harshness and soft love, opposites attract and soft love is not really a trait of nature when she hands out her lessons on life in the wide brown land.

I love a sunburned country
A land of sweeping plains
Of ragged mountain ranges
Of droughts and flooding rains
I love her far horizons
I love her Jewel-sea
Her beauty and her terror-
The wide brown land for me.

Dorothea  Mackella, in this second verse of her great Australian poem epitomised the love that one can feel for the Outback. It shows that the spirit of the land is not  only in the animals and the long born indigenous people, but can raise in the hearts of the settlers, the graziers, bushmen of all working codes, and it is soon felt in the hearts of the traveller if they let themselves be adopted by the Outback Mother, Nature herself.

In my own heart comes the feeling of wonder at nature's hand; how a land like ours can supply all that the rest of the world holds, and yet retain its own individuality.

I know that there is always the thought, when nature is good to you, that you could hug her, you could love her for her kindness, and that is how we develop true love for the women that gave us the opportunity to feel true love as was meant for man and woman.

I have been subject to some terror, things that I thought I would not come out of, and in the end, all the terror and fear had been washed away by a sweet girl, cotton wool soft, hair of golden strands and eyes so blue that I had ridden over my fears to accept the love, the surrounding place and the situation.

Having passed that test of returning from disaster, and being blessed with that beautiful angel, a bush girl, an Outback classy lass, I know why the Outback is an ideal platform for fair-dinkum, joyous love stories.

From photographer Tony Feder
I challenge you to seek the Outback , to sit at Emily's Gap, at the Alice, see the colours change against the rocks as nature practices her painting technique.  To fathom the Katherine Gorge. To stand on the Black Soil Plains and see an unbroken horizon in the full circle of land as though you are standing on a plate that could easily flip you off into the cathedral sky of the night. I challenge you to see these things and not feel a greater love for the person of your desire.

Believe, the Outback begs for love stories.

[Peter Rakes Romance Adventure novel, The Outback Story - The Loves and Adventures of 'Tiger' Williams, is available now on Amazon]

1 comment:

  1. Lovely story Peter and love that poem, you sure know how to write , the way it touches the heart.. god bless and keep up the good work.. I just love your stories as I have told you before, once in a lifetime along comes a person who when you read what is written it touches your soul and that is you Peter... take care.Raine.

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