Part of the responsibility of driving a van around Australia is to name it. Now we had already ascertained that the van in question was female (the pink stripe down her side was an indication) but the name was to take some time to reaveal itself.

I entertained many ideas: Barbara Stripped-Van, Van-essa, Anya (this of course so that I could coax her by saying "Good Anya" - its an Aussie joke folks) but none of them seemed to stick. I resigned myself to the fact that it would be revealed in due time.

So I left Melbourne to the tearful moans of Lisa and Anna and headed to the east and the Victorian High Country. I had read that this was a very beautiful area and I wanted to check it out. Now Australia is not known for its magestic mountains so the high country is relative (the tallest peak is about 7000ft). These mountains are more in line with other older ranges such as the Appilachians in the US.

In fact, what struck me most was the incredible similarity to northern New England. As I drove through the rolling peaks in early autumn I felt the strangest sense of a homecoming to my native New Hampshire. The road was dotted with friendly little towns here and there, the leaves were turning and the weather was of that perfectly crisp and clear fall variety. I even made my camp on the second night at a place called lake Dartmouth (the college in my hometown shares the name).

It was on this night as I sat in my lawn chair and looked back at the van that she spoke her name to me. We had both spent the day navigating the tortuous country roads through the high country. At one point we had gone for a long stretch on nothing but dirt roads - probably not the kind of place one should break in an oversized two-wheel drive panel van. So she was sitting there, taking a deep breath and covered top to bottom in dirt and I saw that her name was written right there on her: Missy. Everyone knowns that Mitsu is Japanese for Missy and the rest of the name followed - Missy Beasty, or Missy the Beasty if you prefer.

She don't take no crap mate.

-Jim

Missy charging up some dirty mountain roads . . . kind of.