I am not sure where to start with the blog today but I guess it will be from 3.00 am this morning when we started to get very heavy rain.
It started then and has continued on all day and into the night.
Several of us got our tents, mattresses, sleeping bags etc completely drenched and some had to jump into the cars because they were so wet.
About 6 am there was a little break in the rain and we got up to find a very wet camp site. We managed to get the kettle on the gas burner for a cuppa and quick breakfast before it started again so back to our tents we went.
After another couple of hours it stopped again and looked like it may clear. We all appeared from our spots in tents or cars and started to put our sleeping bags, mattresses and clothes in the Gigi trees to dry a bit.
Uncle Ken gathered wood and we managed to get a fire started. The chairs were muddy and wet but we wiped them off and sat around the fire to get warm. It was Shay’s birthday and Lisa decided to make scones for her. We had jam and box cream so they were a real treat.
We sang happy birthday and about 20 minutes later it started pouring again so we grabbed the gear that was drying and ran to our tents. After that we didn’t get out of our tent or car for the rest of the day/night! The rain just didn’t let up.
Thankfully we all had some snacks in our bags that we were sharing around for lunch.
Around 5 pm we heard two motorbikes arrive into camp. One of the riders was injured. They put him in the back seat of Uncle Ken’s car for Kim to look at him and it turns out he had broken his ribs. He stayed in Uncle Ken’s car for the night and his mate pitched a small tent.
It was a pretty long day with everyone either playing cards, reading or napping trying to wait out the rain.
By 6 pm everyone was pretty hungry and there was no chance of cooking dinner so Paddy once again boiled the kettle and we had a choice of cold baked beans, cup a soup or noodles. Poor Paddy, he was drenched and running around worrying about everyone. Kim and Em were wet from helping the motorbike riders so they were delivering our soup snd noodles to our tents/car saying “Uber Eats has arrived”.
Everyone was just so amazing and coped with the situation so well. Who would have thought we would get so much rain in the Simpson Desert !
Never a dull moment on this Trek. We have had a category 1 Cyclone on Mumma C’s birthday and been flooded in on Shay’s birthday - we are a little nervous about what could take place on Troy’s birthday!
The weather prediction is for the rain to clear tomorrow so we all have our fingers crossed for this so we can dry everything out.
Then we will need to make up the 18kms we missed today over the next 3 days that we have left so the kms will be back up again!
The rain is still falling now, let’s hope we can get reasonable sleep in our cramped conditions to tackle the kms again tomorrow!
Until tomorrow
Donna x
Hope weather has been better since this time. Bless you all!!
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