12th/13th/14th January Limbo
The Timor Sea goes on forever, or so it seems. Three hours into the third leg of a 30 hour flight that will see us touch down in Dubai, Bangkok and Sydney before arriving in our destination, Auckland, New Zealand. I’m on my way to take part in the biggest festival in the southern hemisphere, The Big Day Out, a touring circus of musical mayhem that crosses seven time zones in three weeks.
Eight stages, fifty bands, sundry DJs and assorted fire-eaters and toad-lickers kick-off in Auckland before crossing to Australia for day-long festivals on the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. This year’s headliners are Bjork, Arcade Fire and the re-formed Rage Against the Machine. The shows are clustered around the weekends, leaving nothing to do in the days between but lounge by the pool, surf at the beach or pet a koala. Even show days are pretty relaxed – there’s no soundcheck to do and most of us only have to play for 45 minutes or so. This wonderful state of affairs has led to the tour being known as The Big Day Off.
None of this is foremost in my mind as I drift in and out of sleep over the Timor Sea. I’ve watched all the movies I can take, tried unsuccessfully to get into a book and am now reduced to staring transfixed as the little aeroplane icon slowly crosses the sky-map on the screen above me in the cabin.
I’ve been in this seat for eighteen hours and my conscious state is now beginning to mirror my geographical status, somewhere in limbo between Asia and Australia. Once we cross the coast and start out across the vast expanse of red dust desert that separates west from east on this continent, it is possible to convince yourself that you are ‘here’, even if it will take another seven hours of flying time to actually get ‘there’.
But for now, with Surabaya still on the map and Western Australia nowhere to be seen, the Timor Sea goes on forever.
