We Finally Got Lost

Neither of us knew where we were.

Neither of us knew where we were going.

Considering we set out on this trip having no idea where we were going, it’s not too surprising that, finally, we got lost.

We took a right turn, we took a left turn, but before long we found ourselves in a dead-end with no way out.  We made a u-turn and back tracked the way we came, or at least we thought we did.  Secretly I think we turned right and then left instead of turning left and then right.

Dean started getting a little hot under the collar.  “Where are we?” he asked rather bluntly.  His voice prickled with impatience.

“I have no idea!”  I said, just a curtly.

I could tell we were getting frustrated with each other.  That happens sometimes.

“It has to be this way!” I exclaimed, pointing off in a new direction.  We headed off in that new direction but just as quickly discovered it led us back the way we came.

We retreated and made another turn that led us to another dead-end.  At least this one contained a rest area, and we decided we were thankful for the ‘rest’.

We reversed correctly this time and continued on, making turns this way and that, travelling through unfamiliar territory, desperately trying to find our way.

“HOW – HARD – CAN – IT – BE?”  Dean was getting really frustrated.  By now he had lost his patience altogether.  I could tell by the way he was talking through his teeth.  He doesn’t have much patience at the best of times, so this was absolutely testing his mettle.

I needed to find our way, and I needed to find it soon.

“Stop!” I said finally.  I needed to study at the map.

I had Google Maps open my iPhone.  I could see the little blue dot in the middle of the screen, but the rest of the screen was devoid of lines, devoid of the map.  The network signal too weak and unable to pinpoint our exact location.

I referred to the printed map I’d collected earlier at the Tourist Information Centre.  I turned it upside down, back to front and then back around the way it had been and still couldn’t work out where we were.

There was no identifying mark on the map that matched what I was looking at.

I swallowed my pride and asked a local.  Surely someone familiar with the area could point us in the right direction.

“Oh, I’m sorry deary,” she said.  “If my husband was still here, he’d be able to tell you.”

I walked away thinking how sad it was that even that lovely old lady didn’t know where she was.

I decided we were going too fast, we needed to slow down.  I needed to pay closer attention to our surroundings, surely this would help me find our location on the map and if I could do that, I could find our way out of the pickle we’d gotten ourselves into.

Suddenly something looked familiar.  Suddenly something looked like a one of the points on the map, but I couldn’t be sure.  I was struggling to read the little numbers and the tiny little words.  Why do they have to print things so small anyway?

I took a chance.  “Here!” I said.  “We need to go this way.”  Dean was apprehensive, but followed my directions anyway, turning left and then right and finally . . .

We saw light at the end of the tunnel.

Just over yonder was where we needed to go.

We laughed, we giggled and all was right with the world . . .

Still . . . Neither of us can understand why it was so hard finding our way out of the Stockland Shellharbour Shopping Centre.