Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Watery Wednesday ~ Water in the Desert or Aged Idiocy


Im the desert country it can rain all night playing music on
the tin roof but after an hour or two, all that is left of the
downpour is a puddle on the road.


The sandy ground is already drying off and paling in colour.


My Nemesis, after another night of rain, I came a cropper at
this inconspicuous little sheet of water. It had gathered in a
roadside ditch I needed to cross to the patch of Sturt Desert
Peas on the other side. The water was too deep to my being
willing to immerse my leather shoes in, too wide to jump, hmm
what now? No wood handy to bridge it, aha!, a sizeable rock
half submerged in the sticky mud, that will have to do. After
some juggling of camera and yanking at rock, I had my prize
without being plastered in mud. A judicious throw near the
other side where the water was shallower and within my range.
The result was not perfect but the way around the water seemed
worse. The bank on the other side looked firm enough, I gathered
my forces, put my best foot forward and leapt . . . I had intended
to barely touch the stone when, with a sucking sound the rock
sank. Pitching forward, yours truly slammed into the muddy bank
on hands and knees. When I extricated myself from this sticky
situation and shakily surveyed the damage, it seemed not too bad.

The camera had survived almost unscathed and I? Well I did look
like the monster from the deep, jacket, trousers and gloved hand
liberally caked with mud, both shoes full of water but no less
determined to go after my photographic quarry than before. I
slipped and slid up the bank, crossed the road and walking on a
couple of pounds of mud stuck to my shoes soon discovered the
flat earth I was behaving more like a mixture of an ice rink and
quicksand and pulling my feet away from under me.

I saw our trusty red UTE come my way and by ESP my darling
daughter to my rescue.

I seemed to be all in one piece. Only later at dinner the swellings
and bruises started to appear. In the heat of the moment I had not
noticed a couple of rocks on the bank, that added to very thin
blood due to medication did the rest. Weighing up options: driving
to the nearest hospital (a few hundred miles away), not an option
with flooded creeks. The airstrip too soft for the flying doctor to
land and the helicopter had left before the storm broke. Ah well,
had to rely on self help again and here I am to tell the tale.



Go swim the sea or submerge in a puddle but visit 2sweetnsaxy
and join in this very wet meme. Just click on the Logo.

17 comments:

  1. Like the first picture of the desertlandscape - beautiful. The reflection in the water is so cool :)

    http://fotochip.blogspot.com/2010/11/wwpuppies-drinking-water.html

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  2. Terrific captures, but wow what a mess!! Glad you're okay! We do have problems now and then with aged idiocy, don't we! Great post for the day. Hope your week is going well! We're freezing here in Seattle!!!

    Sylvia

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  3. Oh Arija, I am glad of your ESP and daughter. Sure hope your are well and healing. I did a slow motion backwards fall in the Weavers a few weeks ago and did manage to miss all the cacti. Accidents do happen when we go exploring but that's not going to hold me back too much.

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  4. Great post and capture for Watery Wednesday.

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  5. It almost looks odd for that puddle of water to be there in that deserty looking landscape. Love the reflection in it.

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  6. I do hope you are truly okay! I have been known to hurt myself and not know it for several hours. Thank goodness your daughter has ESP!

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  7. It is amazing how fast the water can dry up. Thanks for including the photos.

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  8. Arija, so glad you are in a happy frame of mind after the shock of falling in the muck... you sure do get up to some adventures!!!
    Glad the ESP was working... take care now.

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  9. That sounds like a dangerous scenario, Arija. Thanks heavens you were not seriously injured.
    You managed to capture some lovely shots in spite of every thing you went through to get them. What a trooper you are.
    As I age any mishap causes more aches and pains.

    be well, dear Arija.

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  10. A very beautiful capture. In the desert I think a rain is a glory to them. Thanks for sharing!
    Watery Wednesday

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  11. Oh no....You must have been so dangerously bruised. I can't imagine being that far from medical help. How did you treat your injuries. What we can accomplish in youth becomes so potentially dangerous when we are older......How are you doing now?....hugs...Michelle

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  12. What beautiful shots.
    I like the first one with all the reflections in the water

    Thanks for visiting

    Have a great day
    Gunilla

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  13. smiling, the puddle looks a little like Australia. :)

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  14. great post! on the other hand here (Romania, at the time) we had yesterday a summer storm, with thunder and lightning, weird! best wishes from me!

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