Fortunately for me, as I live in a caravan park, there are people of random occupations that also live here too. Travelling hairdressers included. One happened to cycle through our camp area and asked if any of us were needing haircuts. He would be happy to do it for $20. Both Hannah and I asked if we could be fit in for the following day and he set up some times with us. I only hoped my work shifts would be okay for me to fit it in inbetween.
So the following day I worked at housekeeping and ran out of there at precisely 2:15pm to make it to the appointment. I then ran all the way to the hairdressers campsite to which he plopped me up on his newly purchased hairdressing chair and asked what I wanted done. I told him. I don't own a hairbrush. I don't want to have to worry about bedhead or styling and I certainly don't want to have to worry about cutting it as it grows out. I needed something to last me untill the end of next February as that's when Alex and i hope to be finished our trek. So he flipped through a magazine, pointed out a couple suggestions and I said "okay." And then he chopped it off. I am now left with a roll-out-of-bed style and the remains of a ponytail I am currently using to freak everyone out with as I figure out where I can donate my cut hair to. Life is good.
Well - life WAS good until it decided to start raining here in Broome. Not that I have anything against rain, but when living in a tent on a dirt ground not built for soaking in water during weather of which is dumping rain so hard one can't run to the washroom without getting soaked - well, it's a little wet.
Yesterday was, in particular, the worst. It rained the entire night before and we woke up to it raining. I got ready for work in the rain. Ate breakfast in the rain and eventually walked to my shift in the rain. And then, as I am sure you have guessed, I worked my housekeeping job in the rain. By the time I came back to the caravan park for a much-needed hot shower and warm meal, I felt and looked like a drowned rat. Before I could strip of my soaked uniform, I ran into Hannah who was standing ankle-deep in a puddle that had overcome our entire camping area. The tarp that was tied to the trees above and was momentarily sheltering her from the rain was rapidly filling with water and threatening to dump at any moment. So I joined her under the tarp and we scoped out the situation. It didn't take us long to figure out that we needed to do something - and soon - the puddle would soon become a lake if we didn't. So we put our brains together and came up with a solution. Quite simply, we had to divert the water away from the tents by building trenches. Hannah and I zipped up our raincoats and moved the tents out of the way, rigged the tarp overhang up better and grabbed what we could find to dig the trenches. We came up with a wooden spoon and an oar. So we dug.
Using skills Hannah and I developed playing with dirt as 7-year-olds we dug our way out of a flood. Residents of caravans stood, neither wet nor muddy, under their umbrellas and watched on. One even warned us of digging too close to the elecrical outlet box that is secured on top of a fence post and nowhere near the ground. She also reminded us that she too had stuff she was trying to keep dry under her caravan and was worried that the water we were diverting would be sent her way. She failed to understand that we were on a mission to clear water away from our entire home and a small box under her caravan of things she wasn't using at the moment was not the top of our priority list to save. Particularly when she didn't offer to lend a hand. Or a shovel.
Eventually we were able to trench our way to the road where the water started to drain out of our area. We had saved our tents. Or at least the tents in our area. Others were not so lucky. I ended up going off to work at Zanders for the evening and when I came back everyone was crammed in the baby change room trying to stay dry as they had come home to find their belongings floating in half a foot of water within their tent. Many had to sleep on wet mattresses and even more decided to opt out of the tent experience and find somewhere else to sleep for the night.
Fortunately, my tent withstood the entire episode. It had never experienced so much rain in such a short time and it did me proud. Made me even more confident that Alex and I will be able to survive in it for 5 months as we trek Te Araroa Trail. Life still is good - or at least untill this weekend when we are supposed to get even more rain. So much for the dry season.
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