This is not a combat story, but a recounting of the activities of my father, a transport driver, and his friends in the Australian Army during World War 2. It's the incidents and events they talked about over a drink when they got together to remember the old days. Most are funny, in many ways, and some are frightening. They convey what they did to stay sane, and also why they were there. Included is the poetry by the author, nearly all of which was written whilst on active service. 24,900 words
This tale is based on a personal trip in 1969, when I hitch-hiked from Sydney to Perth, some 3,000 miles. This, in the middle of a very hot Australian summer. The main road, a lot of it unsealed at that time, runs across the Nullarbor Plain, a desolate land inhabited mainly by kangaroos, with a few small settlements along the way. I must have been mad, but I did actually complete the journey, taking only 3-and-a-half days. The latter portion of the story is fiction, but the majority is true.