A Storm Is Brewing (The Road To Alice Springs)
A Storm Is Brewing (The Road To Alice Springs)
A storm was brewing just as the sun was about to set. The otherwise warm and dry outback had turned into a cold and muddy swamp. Reviewing our options we were thankful that we had 18 litres of water and enough food for at least 3 days. It had been several hours since we had seen any other signs of life, so things were not looking too good! Then, suddenly, in the horizon we could see a glimmer of hope…
A fleet of four cars was driving by and so we ran towards them waving our hands furiously in the air… but, they couldn’t see us because we were located on an isolated dirt road about 1km away. We continued to run towards the nearest intersection hoping to get within viewing range before they passed us by for good… one car, two cars, three cars – they all drove by without stopping, did they not see us or did they just think that we were waving “hello”?
It was day 3 of a 5 day road trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs including stops at Coober Pedy, Uluru and a few other locations. We were about 200 kms from Alice Springs when we saw a sign indicating the site of some meteorite craters, so feeling adventurous, we decided to go check it out!
A Storm Is Brewing (The Road To Alice Springs)
At first our Toyota Kluger was managing the muddy terrain just fine but then suddenly, the fun stopped and we found ourselves trapped, bogged down in the mud created by the intense rain that had fallen over the previous few days. This was not good at all, we tried everything to get out – the car was too heavy for us to push, there was too much water for us to scoop it all out and the harder we tried, the deeper the hole became.
After some time a couple of what seemed to be German tourists drove by in a four wheel drive and so we stopped them and asked for help, they did not have any rope so were unable to pull us out of the bog but they said that they would go and get some help for us but after several hours of waiting, still no help had arrived.
As we waited, we contemplated and considered our options. It was likely that we would have to stay the night and proceed in the morning on foot (apparently, many people who find themselves in this sort of situation don’t make it because they leave their car, get lost and perish).
A Storm Is Brewing (The Road To Alice Springs)
Then, in the distance we could see a number of cars driving by, “help had finally arrived” we thought, so we ran towards them feverishly waving our arms in the air but one by one they drove by, it seemed that they were not here to help us after all and we were too far away for them to see us.
We were on a dirt track just out of their range so we continued to wave our arms in the air as we ran towards the intersection hoping to get there before they did, three of the four cars drove by without noticing us but luckily the fourth car – a group of what seemed to be French tourists noticed us and stopped.
Unfortunately their van was not powerful enough to help but fortunately one of the other cars came back to see what was happening, this time it was someone in a four wheel drive with a CB radio who called for back up.
A Storm Is Brewing (The Road To Alice Springs)
They found us just as the sun was setting and the rain was increasing in intensity.
They escorted us to the nearest main road from which we proceeded with our drive to Alice Springs.
Special thanks goes to the Central Coast Four Wheel Drive Club for saving us from what would have been a very cold, wet and embarrassing night in the middle of a cold and muddy swamp.
That night the crew from the Central Coast Four Wheel Drive Club pulled out 3 cars that we know of including ourselves from the mud.