“I’ve been coming up here most weekends for the last 8 years”, he said, “and I’ve never ever seen any water in these creeks!”.

What are the chances, we all thought? The one weekend we chose to camp out here in the rugged outback east of the Flinders Ranges is the one where 8 years of drought came to an end with 70mm of rain in less than 24 hours.

Our tents got flattened in the strong wind, we were woken at 4am to the roar of a wall of water barrelling down the main creek while another stream flowing under my tent turned it into a water-bed. After a morning spent attempting to dry everything the afternoon brought tent flattening winds again followed by a burst of torrential rain and hail. Another wall of water came down the creak again and hour or so later.

Not being fully prepared, there were some miserable moments in those 24 hours but in hindsight I feel very privileged to have been there and so grateful to witness such a life giving event.