The national park was riddled with other families taking in the impressive mounds of limestone that poked out of the earth. I couldn’t believe we’d never bothered to drive up here before. It wasn’t as if it was too far from Perth, but it was like nothing else I’d ever seen. The butter-yellow sand contrasted with the dark green shrubbery and the clear cobalt-blue sky made me feel like we were in an exotic postcard. And the weather was simply perfect—not too hot, not too cold.

‘It looks like something out of a movie,’ Payton marvelled, as her hair blew into her face.

Sax opened his mouth as if he was about to say something derogatory to his sister but took one look at me and smartly shut it again.

Although our surrounds were beautiful and I was trying to enjoy time with my children, I couldn’t help noticing the two-parent families all around us. Everywhere I looked I saw a happy family, admiring the rocks, kids running in between them, laughing and squealing with delight, and parents watching as they smiled tenderly at each other. I knew I wasn’t the only single mum in the world, but it felt like it out here, and the thought brought a lump to my throat. This was not the life I’d wanted for myself or my children.

Damn Adrian, for ruining everything.

Determined to salvage the day, I pushed my soon-to-be ex-husband to the back of my mind and adopted the chirpiest, most enthusiastic voice I could muster. ‘Let’s explore,’ I said as I set off on foot from where we’d parked, digging my phone out of my pocket to take photos. Payton skipped ahead of me, running in and out of the mounds.

‘This would be an awesome place for hide-and-seek,’ she shouted back.

I snapped a pic of her peeking round a rock twice her height and nodded.

‘How long do we have to stay here?’ Saxon grumbled.

I chose not to answer. ‘Go stand with your sister so I can take a photo.’

Remarkably, he did as he was told—no doubt thinking about his phone and laptop at the bottom of the ocean—and I got some lovely snaps for my post-Adrian family album.

‘Can you take a photo of me at the top?’ Payton asked, one foot already on the bottom of a pinnacle ready to launch.

‘No,’ I shrieked. ‘Climbing is forbidden. Get down!’

‘But …’ Payton pointed all around her. ‘Everyone else is doing it!’

‘Not quite everyone,’ I said, although there were indeed quite a few people blatantly disregarding the rules. Couldn’t they read? Hadn’t they heard what the park ranger had said as we paid to come in?

‘What’s the point if you can’t climb them?’ Sax said, not attempting to hide a yawn. ‘Can I go sit in the car?’