When you wish you had stayed in bed.....

The rain continued last night and whilst we did not have a power cut we did have what sound like 10 Hippopotamus dancing on our roof several times.
Now you know those mornings you wake up and the weather forecast is still heavy rain and you think what shall we do today and you then make a decision which at the time seems a good one but 8 hours later you are deeply regretting it and wished you had stayed home in bed, today was one of those days.........
The decision was based on the fact that there are two national parks in the vicinity, the nearer one being the better and more accessible and the forecast for tomorrow being dry, it made sense to do the further one today in the damp.......
No rush, we have all day, we may not get out of the van all day because of the rain I say but it's 130 kms away anyway. Look it up on the map and decide on the route that has the biggest solid lines indicating sealed roads and off we go, with Leona Lewis singing to keep us company.
We go through the 15,000 kilometres in total so far mark with no problem, we go through the 100 kms from Esperance mark with no problem and are happily singing along to Leona when we see the reduce speed sign, as we are approaching road works. No problem here as we have gone through this loads of times, the road works appear to be a re sealing job as we suddenly hit dirt, only its wider than the sealed road so, maybe they have problems out here I think.......
Now in the UK you normally have workmen, machinery, vehicles and CCTV cameras at roadworks on a main road, here there is nothing, I drive 10 kms on dirt, wet dirt soggy dirt and not a soul, this must be a big roadworks and everyone and thing is at the other end......
We start to hit ruts in the now mud, the steering becomes just slightly more in control of me at times than I care for and our speed is reducing. I can hear the quiet whispers of guidance being delivered to me calmly from the seat next to me, something along the lines of " DON'T STOP, KEEP MOVING, DON'T REV IT TOO MUCH, STAY AWAY FROM THE SIDE" like I say without a hint of panic, whilst I sitting there thinking, "Oh Shit!........."
And then we stopped............
Now in normal circumstances, best thing to do is put the kettle on and have a relaxing cup of tea, unfortunately, we did not do that, we tried to move forward and then tried to move backwards and what we actually did was dig holes with the wheels........ We are stuck! No doubt about it this is going to take some sort of divine intervention or better still a tow truck......
I reach for my phone whilst the little angel that was sat next to me is turning into a muddy Sheila until I mention we have 'No Signal' and she becomes a filthy devil, I thought she was going to try the super human strength bit and lift us out. With no regard for our safety and snakes sheltering from the rain, we start to drag broken branches and bracken from the road side and stuff it under the wheels and flattening the mounds of mud we had created whilst trying to get out. It looks good so I tell the little devil to push whilst I drive and then if we get moving to run and jump in the van as I can't stop.......
We start up and try going forward, move a good two inches and that's it, that's when I found out she was not pushing, she was in the passenger seat adding to the weight of the van.......
We start rocking the van backwards and forwards and after creating an indent of about 6 inches either side of the wheel, we suddenly move forward and out of the rut, after 20 minutes of stress a huge sense of relief floods our bodies we look at what's in front of us and the anguish floods straight back......
Just then two 4x4 Utes come blazing along, see us moving and give us the thumbs up before disappearing over the horizon........
After about another kilometre we see a sealed road up ahead, we continue and make it only to find it's about 30 yards long before disappearing and the road becomes dirt again.......
Decision time again, carry on or go back, kettle on or not, clean ourselves up or not........
Wash hands, turn around (at least we know what that bit is like) and will have tea later, the sooner we start the better, never mind the blood pressure.......
We're off and it's starts raining heavier, "No not now" I scream but we are doing well but both of us are thinking where was THAT spot and will we get passed it? There it is and it's fair to say the van started to reduce speed, it did not travel in a straight line and there was no foul smelling odours inside the van but we got past the boggy bit, continued to keep moving until we found some tar-macadam again, pulled over and had a de stress lunch......
We get back to town and head for the nearest pub but it's typical Aussie, disgusting....... I grab a table with a view and have to brush the last persons food off of the chair, and even though the table is reserved for half five by four people for dinner, it's sticky, grubby and dirty with smeared wiped drinks and glass/bottle marks, Glug Glug, let's go back to camp site......
And so I find my self back on the bed thinking, should have stayed in bed today watching the news about the rain being particularly heavy last night and a Road Train that got stuck in floods nearby but wishing and hoping it will pour down again tonight as we have just won the dirtiest camper van in Western Australia prize....