It started with a few drops of rain which was so unusual as we had had been having great (although very humid) weather for the past week in Exmouth. The neighbours had walked past our camp and said "there is bad weather on the way… a TC". Took me a few seconds to register that TC meant a Tropical Cyclone and that immediately got the adrenalin buzzing. The clouds were building up a very dark grey tinge on the horizon and the wind was picking up. We questioned some other neighbours and they said it wasn't heading our way and there was nothing much to worry about, so we didn't.
Until we woke in the early hours of the next morning to rain pelting down on our roof. It was non-stop, wind and rain, constanly beating on the canvas walls and roof of trakkie. We weren't worried at this stage as we have had Trakkie set up in very bad weather back in Alexandra and had no leakages at all, and heavy rain on the trip in Tumby Bay and Kalgoorlie with not a drop inside. So we felt quite smug as we watched our fellow tented campers packing up in the torrential downpour, their tents soaked while we were safe and snug inside. We had noticed a small pool of water inside the floor, so Mark got out and dug a few trenches around the base to take the water away and this seemed to fix the problem. All around our campsite was huge poolings of water and the track in front of trakkie looked like a fast flowing creek!
At this stage we hopped in the car to go and check what the weather charts were doing (we didn't have internet access at our campsite so we had to drive about 10km down the road to get phone service.) Just outside the caravan park was a low part in the road which now resembled a small lake , and as we drove through it the water came up to the bullbar and made a bow wave in front of the car. Our deepest water crossing to date! As we continued on the road, we found more flooded sections of road than not, and drove very carefully through these and continued to shake our heads in amazement at the amount of water lying around. We reached the lighthouse and logged on to the internet to check the weather. We discovered the TC had a name, it was called "Pancho" and that it was at this stage a Category 1 and was to progress to a Category 2 and up to Category 3 in the next 2 days. It was still far enough out off the coast to not be making headlines but with what we had experieced overnight, we were concerned at how much worse the weather conditions could get if the TC hung around the Exmouth coast and got any closer. We didn't really know what to think at this stage so we thought we'd head back and try and ride it out the best we could.
Upon returning to our campsite, we discovered that water had started leaking down the internal walls where the stitching was and was pooling around the corners of our bed, with our mattress absorbing the water in the corners. The rain was showing no signs of letting up, and thoughts of having a wet bed was the clincher to us deciding to bite the bullet and pack up, in the rain, as our fellow campers had only hours previously. The kids were great, I don't think they fully appreciated the whole situation as Mark and I casually started to pack everything up inside and then braving it to the outside to pack the Prado and the camper up. We were drenched, sopping and poor trakkie was packed up absolutely soaked. We went over to the lady in the office and managed to get a chalet for the night, nice name for a little shack that had a kitchen, 2 bedrooms and an outside bathroom, but to us it was heavenly. We were dry, we had space, we had a TV, terribly static but still so exciting to see a TV, real beds with sheets and doona covers, a real kitchen where I could get hot water instantly, a full stove and a real table that we could all eat at. The scariest thing was using their real crockery, it wasn't melamine like I was used to and I got each bit out of the cupboard piece by piece because I was so scared I'd drop it! The rain pelted down outside and it was so nice to feel safe and warm and out of the rain.
The next morning we didn't know if we'd make it out of Exmouth with all the water on the roads. The lady at the office rang to check road conditions and they were open with caution, so we got out as quick as we could to head inland, to sun and dry weather, so we can open trakkie up and assess the damage inside, to pull nearly everything out of the trailer to dry (we had water running out when we opened the back door). Not looking forward to the smell!!
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