It meant that we missed out on being scrutinised by the pelican who guarded the beach. Before you could get to what else Monkey Mia had to offer, you had to pass the pelican. And if he didn’t like you you could kiss goodbye to the dolphins, never mind the monkeys.Although under normal circumstances she would not be parted from her mother, Vanessa couldn’t face having her sleeping in the van with us that night. Drunk, Poppy snored. Not a loud snore but loud enough to spoil the outback experience for her daughter. We were in a complex of lodges and cabins, bars, cafés, restaurants; we parked the van where we could avail ourselves of the most modern conveniences known to camping – had we asked, they’d have piped red wine into us through our taps – but we were still half a thousand kilometres from the highway, on a promontory protruding like a nose from the coastline of Western Australia far into the Indian Ocean. We were a long way from anywhere. Vanessa had come here to get away.
