Going nowhere - 11th Jan

At 4am we were woken to a massive clap of thunder and the start of an almighty storm and torrential rain. We knew the storm was right above us as the thunder and lightening were simultaneous. We fell back to sleep but when we woke again at 7am it was still pouring down. From our room we could see the owner of the Ecolodge, Keith, drenched to the skin desperately trying to rechannel water which was gushing down the hillside and into his property.

The Ecolodge under water

Keith told us that all 3 access routes out of the area were flooded and impassable and that we'd have to wait an hour after the rain had stopped before we'd be able to attempt to drive out. We offered Keith our help but there was not a lot we could do that would have helped the situation.

There was a family with 4 young children, a woman and daughter and us all trapped in the lodge. Then at about 10am an Italian turned up. Yesterday, he'd been planning to drive to Fraser Island but heard the Bruce Highway south of Gimpie was blocked and so had decided to pull off and camp in the National Park for the night. He'd woken this morning and tried to drive out but like us had got blocked. It was lucky for him that the Ecolodge had been in the area he'd got stuck in as it gave him somewhere dry to wait.

Well the rain continued all day – it was unrelenting – it would start to slow slightly and then come gushing down again. It quickly became evident that we were going nowhere today.

Taken at 11am - The road runs to the right of the telegraph pole

Taken at 2pm - you can see more of the sign so it'd gone down a bit

Keith was really kind and gave us food for breakfast and lunch and cooked us a meal in the evening. We also had wifi access and so could keep up with the news, emails, update the blog and speak to people on skype. Our day stuck in the mountains did in the end pass quite quickly however we did go to bed wondering whether we'd escape the next day or not.

Stuck but smiling

The other castaways