I got lucky for I scored a pretty damned good job on a remote cattle station in Central Australia and when I say remote, holy crap I really mean REMOTE. Fair dinkum, it takes a day and half just to get the mail and a two-day drive into town. That's how far I was living. Okay, the cattle station. It's old (in Australian standard) as it was built around 1860 something and the land, well, lets' say it's empty of trees but wild. Maybe over twenty odd thousand acres or more. My job is boundary riding, making sure that the Dingo Proof Fence is in good nick, as well as the Rabbit proof fence which runs from Central Australia over the border into Western QLD (Queensland) so it's effing long. My job is to make sure that the fence is secure, plenty of water for the cattle (a dam I'm speaking of, and I see a mob of roos each and every day sharing the dam with the cattle), and no dingoes or them pesty bloody rabbits are destroying the land. The blokes I work with are the local Indigenous and bloody great blokes and great workers to share your billy and damper with. There is one area my Indigenous mates refuse to go to is this glorious watering hole. They refuse to go anywhere near it.
"Why?" I asked my best mate, Tommy (not his real name).
"Buddah," he said, "there's very bad spirits there. No good. Very bad place. Elders warn us not go swimming there or she'll take you."
"Who are we talking about?"
"Yee Na Pah."
"Yee Na Pah?"
"Devil Girl," was all he said. I left it at that but I was to witness this Yee Na Pah, the Devil Girl.
It was roughly about a month back when this strange incident occurred. It was in the low 40s, bloody hot, as we traveled along the fence line, repairing this, shooting that when it came near five o'clock and it started getting cooler. I knew we couldn't get back to the station until mid-day the next day, as the horses needed resting. Tommy started getting nervous about something then told me we were in Yee Na Pah's territory. "We have to be aware, buddah, not good country here. Plenty of tucker though but not good country."
That night we had a freshly killed kangaroo, which is good for you then we set up camp. We had a yarn about this and that, who's winning the footy and what have ya. Then we settled down to sleep. Now, I am not sure to this day if I'd dreamt this or was it real but whatever the hell it was, it scared me badly.
I was sleeping in my swag, Tommy snoring away, when the old bladder called out to me (wee wee time, wee wee time) so out of my swag I got, groggily I should add, and started my peeing. It was a stunning night with the black velvet sky sprinkled with stars as well as the milky way streaking across the sky. If you want to see such amazing night sky, spend the night in the Australian desert and you're in for a f**king good treat. Anyway, I stood there peeing away happily when SHE came out of the darkness. I can't say she was human, nor can I say she wasn't. I have no bleeding idea what the hell she was, but she came out on her fours, naked as the day she was born. Something about this... This creature that stunned me then a voice spoke. It was Tommy's.
"Back up slowly, buddah, no sudden movement. That's Yee Na Pah, shhhh."
I did what I was told and stood looking at this girl creature. Like I said I have idea what she is...was...whatever but I stayed there as she made her way back into the darkness. Tell you one thing, I didn't sleep that night and we both left veryyyyyyyy early the next day. I never went back to that camping spot and still no idea what the bloody hell Tommy and I saw that.
Post Script:
An old Elder of the tribe came to me and asked me to describe what I saw. I did and he shook his head. He said that I was very lucky that she didn't take me. I have no idea what he meant. Yea, that have to be a very strange experience and I had many of those throughout my life but this one takes the cake.
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