Well the rain has finally stopped, after dumping more than 120mm on us in less than 48hrs. It rained non-stop for two whole days and only ceased late last night. The gale force winds continued to gust into the early hours threatening to tear our place apart, before leaving us in an eery silence this morning. The kids, who normally wake with the birds at the first hint of daylight, slept in till 7.45am. Allowing a rare sleep in for us too.....bizarre.
We have seen two dingoes while we have been on the Island. The first sorry looking specimen, we saw wandering aimlessly on the beach the first day we arrived. The second Max and Jake met, as they made a mad dash in the downpour to the nearby bushes (not all of us can have an ensuite). It was scrounging around near the tent, in the pouring rain, looking again very sad and sorry for itself. After the initial shock of being disturbed it dashed off, only to stand around for a few minutes just in case we decided to send a few morsels its way, before disappearing.
As the rain and wind bombarded us, we spent the first day hiding from the elements inside the tent. But as the conditions continued into the second day we decided to brave it and attempt a few of the inland tracks. It was an absolute crack! The tracks that had been dry two days earlier were running like rivers. It was great to see. So our boring afternoon turned into some of the best 4WDing we have done so far.....Great stuff. We sank in the sloppy sand and hit some deep wheel ruts that were carved out even deeper by the fast running water. Crept thru giant rainforests with pools of water over the track, and attempted to take photos with only a parka to keep me and the camera dry. Not so succesful.
We had avoided the beach because of the hazardous conditions, and the howling on shore wind which was causing the sea to come up as far as the dunes. However the inland tracks were full of their own hazards and we had fun negotiating them as the rain continued to hammer down. Eventually we ended up on the coast at Happy Valley, one of the islands so called resorts, where we had a quick bite before deciding to brave the beaches back to our campsite. We were still nearly three hours from low tide but because of the winds there was high seas no matter what time you left.
So we gritted our teeth and with the rain still coming down, made a dash for camp, negotiating the waves and washouts as we went. Other vehicles stuck by the same weather were also nervously looking at the surf as they drove along the beach trying to reach camp. Ha! All up quite an eventful day and we really got to see nature at its wild and wooliest....
Bees, cows, tigers and more! Windows Live Messenger treats you to 30 free emoticons.
