Cheela Plains

It is a five and a half hour drive from Exmouth to Cheela Plains Station where we had booked into the Woongara Bush campsite for the night, enroute to Karajini National Park. It rained steadily till the last half hour the drive which worried me as I was not confident that our tent would keep out the rain. I was very much encouraged by the patches of blue sky when we checked into the reception at Cheela. Brian at reception confirmed that our Subaru Forester could get to campsite which was 55km from the reception. I forgot how big Australian stations are. It was a beautiful site, nestled amongst trees, cocooned within very characteristic colour banded Pilbara hills.

It was a breeze setting up camp when there was no wind. Our camp neighbour was a couple from Kalbarri who decided to "head north" for an indefinite time. Not an hour after arrival at campsite, we were sitting on our camp chairs congratulating ourselves on a beautifully set up tent and admiring the view of the hills and the little water in the riverbed. Tables and cooker was set ready to cook dinner.

"The Ranger is here, where is the camp permit?" Permit in hand, still ever so pleased that we've done well with our campsite, bedding and necessary bags already in the tent.

"I'm sorry to inform you girls that you have to decamp and move to higher ground. We've just got word that we're expecting 5-7mm rains here, and if it rains upriver, there could be a flash flood and you girls will either be washed away, or stranded as the river will swell. I'm so sorry, but you have to move anywhere up there, NOW. Last week, 2 families were stranded for 5 days when we had 5mm rain. The river filled up and they were not able to drive across for 5 days till the water receded." Right on cue, drops started to fall. Rather big rain drops, and the sky darkened.
*** PANIC! ***
We have never moved so fast.
Very quickly, we decided to sleep in the car.
The tent came down, and pushed into its bag.
Tables and chairs folded, in the car.
Bedding in the car (fortunately that was not unpacked,.
All the bags and stuff from behind the driver and passenger seat piled into the boot so we could push our seats back and recline.
Heavier rain!
Quick!
What's for dinner?
Quick. Decide.
We skipped lunch.
We'll just share the one plain Turkish roll and the small box of 10 mini meatballs with the packet of lettuce.
Heavier rain
Get dinner and Prosecco (we deserved it) into the front seat.
Don't want to leave the car for the rain.
Everything else shoved into the boot.
Check. Check that we've left nothing behind.
We need sleeping bags in case it gets cold. Rearrange.
Quick. Quick.
Evacuate to higher ground.
Rain stopped.
REALLY!!
Rain stopped!

Whilst we were looking for somewhere to park, a lovely guy invited us to join his campfire once we got settled. So, our small bottle of Prosecco in hand, one 200ml bottle between us of course, we headed to the campfire. It would be rude to not accept that kindly invite, and who can resist a campfire. We had a lovely commune around the campfire with the other campers. When the rain started again, we headed back to the car to watch a movie on the iPad.

For the record, the river did NOT fill. We'd not have been washed away nor stranded. Like 10 year old Ollie from Bunbury whose family moved to Onslow said, "Better safe than sorry".Read more