All the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened

"...all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened"
Genesis 7:11/


Now, I'm one of the least religious people ever. But in this case its very fitting!
Remember how it hasn't rained in the Pilbara? Well, it did.
We've still not had much rain, but its been falling further down the catchments in Newman/Jigalong. 


So I innocently went for a drive on friday, joking about how there had better not be any water in some of the more awkward river crossings further down (think steep bumpy washed out drop down into a soft river base with standing water and keeping enough momentum to get you across the next 50m of river gravel...)


How shocked was I to encounter this at the first hurdle?!

Thats the "road" across the Oakover. Its normally a 300, wide gravel and rock crossing, with a couple of standing water pools. Its not normally a 300m wide fast flowing body of water.

My new fieldy was in front, and I saw him starting to out the car into low range to attempt a crossing. Not Good! So I ran up and stopped him, we radioed back to base to see if there had been any reports of flooding the previous day. Nope. It was all new. Flash flood! 

I stood around taking pretty pictures, and as I spun around taking this panorama:

I saw the river rising BEHIND where we had stopped the cars.

Very quick 3 point turn on the little island we were up on and we got the hell out of there. It would have been an interesting incident report! How did you lose these two utes? Well... 

Thats the video of the water rising over the track. We were parked up on the dry bit on the other side...

 I've seen this river in flood before, but I've never seen it actually in the act of flooding before. It was impressive!

Back on site, we warned the road trains, who carry our ore to port, that they should put word out to be cautious of the oakover crossing 50km up the sealed road, because the flood wave is on its way.

We told people at site, and they didn't understand what we were talking about, because the road trains could still get through. Yes, um, because they have a raised sealed road 50km away from where the current flooding is going on, we have a dodgy gravel track that bumps its way along the base of the river channels...

When the flood wave did hit the monitored river crossing 50km away, it rose 2m in half an hour:

Thats how we got 3 road trains washed away a few years ago. One truck crossed OK, so the guy coming in the other direction crossed, but in the 10 minutes between them  the river had risen so dramatically that it washed the truck away. Another 2 went the same way because it was night time and they couldn't see the extent of the water. They ended up doing an air rescue, using a mustering helicopter from one of the stations, and a jet ski, and the driver we taken to hospital with hyperthermia. 

Oh, and the flood also buried on of our contractors pumps that theyd left in the river chained to a tree. Oops.

First Drive of the 2010 field season

The moment I've been waiting for since about a week after starting in the Perth office. Today Brad and I went for a drive to check the roads and estimate how much work they'll need before we can start properly.

It too us about 6 hours all up, and that distance would normally take us about 2... But can't be too careful when the next corner or hill brings serious bumps!

In general they weren't too bad- just the odd bad washout where we'd constructed heavy duty tracks across gullies, so what can you expect. And build ups of debris in the river crossings that will need to be moved.

The worrying part is the lack of water! Last year there was more water around for months after the wet ended. Even though the cyclone went right over the top of us, and there was obviously some torrential flows down the rivers to have changed the layout and moved so much material, so much there hasn't been much continuous rain. No afternoon thunderstorms every other day... The Davis River (below) should at least have some water left in it!

Hopefully we'll get more soon, or there will be more dead camels and cows than usual, and  the drillers will complain!

Went for a 7km treadmill run last night (til I got bored),  then today was stiff from so much driving on top of the run, so just 30 minutes slow swim. 

Crickets!

I hate crickets.

Actually, I think a singular cricket is a fairly cool critter. They have amazing eyes and come in great colours, and are mechanically brilliant.
But when they swarm they freak me out.

• They fly in that weird circular pattern
• They have spikey feet
• They get stuck in my hair
• They end up eveywhere.
• 
  
  They make a horrible crunching noise when you stand on the masses of dead ones.
• They sit hidden in spinifex, then you walk past and they all jump out and fly at you.
• They end up in your room and jump around once the lights off, but are nowhere to be seen when the lights are on.
• They smell really bad when they burn up in the fly zapper at the wet mess.
• They spend the whole night flying into the nightlight on the outside of my room, so all I can hear at night is the scratching as the tumble down the wall.
• They land in the pool and turn it into dead cricket soup. So no swimming up here for a while!

Yes, the green tinge to the floor is all cricket carcass...

Off to check the roads to see what damage the wet season has done to them so far.

We get some good washouts, and while it hasnt rained for a while, there are pockets of bull dust that tend to look solid until you drive on to them and sink...

Could be interesting!

My 5 things

So the task of the day is to list the 5 things that you are thankful for. Mine are:

1. 
   
   My lovely OH who just cooked me Chicken Parmigiana salad for tea, all on his own (he has no confidence in the kitchen, and up until he met me never ever even cooked pasta) while I had a bath and a glass of wine. For loving me through thick and thin and across oceans for the last 5 years.
   
   
   

2. That Australia let me in, and hopefully will do on a more permanant basis. After spending 3 months here in 2006 I knew it was where I wanted to live, and here I am. Best decision I ever made, and even better that I convinced the boy over too :)
   
   
3. My education- I was at university before I realised how lucky I was to be there. Decent primary, great Grammar School and straight into Uni without really thinking how much other people struggle to get there. Don't get me wrong, I worked hard and got good grades, but I had support from all sides all the way through and never had to fight against the system. And it opened so many doors (see 2 and 5 and 1 I guess, since thats where we met).
   
   
4. My friends those here and afar. Despite hardly ever being around (due to emigration or work rosters) theyre always there when needed, and I hope I am too, where possible.

5. My job. I hate it at times, but how many other people get paid to spend half the year camping out bush and having crazy adventures?! In this case getting bogged on top of a camel due to the distraction factor, and flooded creek crossings. Love it!