***Welcome to Beastly Tales. Each has a message, a moral. All are meant to have an element of humour. Naturally, any names included do not depict real folk but are included as part of the joke.***

***All rights reserved.
(As with Beastly Banter Beastly Tales is written and illustrated by Richard Hersel.)***

***Thank you for your following.
Richard Hersel***


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<h1>BEASTLY TALES</h1>

<h1>THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK</h1>

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***Ashley Corney did decide on an outback holiday,
Four wheel drive, it was reasonably cheap to pay.
He’d formerly not driven too far from Australia’s coastal fringe,
The true outback was unknown so didn’t impinge,
On his enthusiastic planning for him and his wife.
Who he sometimes referred to as his “trouble and strife”.***


***Thargomindah was the focus of the trip,
And over stupendously awful roads did his tyres slip.
Hundreds of miles of amazingly straight land,
Mostly desert-like, much orange sand.
Later it would become all fine dust,
They had a sign on the windscreen, “Thargomindah or Bust!”
That sign seemed to be so very appropriate,
The roads didn’t permit speeding, and so they were always late.
The “Bust” part of the sign, turned out to be true.
The S.U.V. rattling from every loose screw.
The dust permeated all, although windows were closed.
The dust stuck to the vehicle, even when hosed.
Now, if the dust was enough to make you mad,
The flies were well beyond just making you sad!
Myriads of flies, little black horrors, were all over the place.
If you were on your feet you kept up a fast pace,
But given the access to superb aerodynamics,
When driving they tormented drivers and mechanics.
In fact everyone that was seated in the car,
Driving all, out of their minds, whether near or far.
Pity the poor animals who must reside there,
Such torment of innocents doesn’t seem fair.***


***Now after the excitement of equipment preparing,
It seems such an anticlimax to have to be bearing.
Such a horrendous duet of both flies and dust,
A seaside holiday wouldn’t be like this, you trust.
And when you finally arrive at your accommodation,
You feel you may have travelled to a different nation,
Northern Africa springs right to mind,
Then finally you see something just to remind,
You that you are still in Australia,
But the so-called holiday still seems a failure.
The water you must drink comes from a bore,
It tastes of every mineral you ever saw.
Even the beer from the ice-box is not cold.
“Visit us again” you do not want to be told.***


***Now Ashley was very proud of his car,
It was nearly new, never gone far,
But now it seemed to rattle and clank.
And of various things it frightfully stank.
But most of all, it was the flies and dust.
Ashley must now clean it, really he must!
And so he plugged in his portable vacuum.
But it had little power, neither strength nor acumen,
To make much of an impression on all that mess.
It will never work, Ashley had to confess.
And so, they did drive for mile after mile,
They’ve not had a holiday so incredibly vile.***

![the outback.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmUWCNnL1yYE81BftM3PtreZM8hULH63KXkb7gfs4UZQBu/the%20outback.png)

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