The river that runs along the border of the land that I live on, is usually always dry. Unless for one or two weeks of the year, which is usually at the end of Spring. But this winter, has been one of the wettest in recent years and definitely in the 11 years that I have lived here. I have , in the past shared photos of me and my youngest daughter, walking down it, jumping from rock to rock. It's a favourite walk of ours.
But a few weeks back it started to run again and before we knew it, it was bursting it's banks. I could hear it roaring past. The land I am on, has two terraces, our home is parked on the top terrace with our compost toilet on the bottom, which is level with the river.
It was a Wednesday night, three weeks back and suddenly the river grew louder. I went to check on it, as I heard boulders being brought along with it. It was fierce and I began to worry. Not that it may reach our terrace, but that it could cut away at our terrace, living the land unstable.
( Our terrace being eaten away by the river.)
Then I got a phone call from a good friend, who lives on the same road as me, she told me that the policia and the environmental control people were coming door to door to people's homes who lived on the same side as the river, to check if they were safe. At 11:30p.m they arrived at ours. I met them at the gate and led them down to the river. The looked up and down with their powerful torches and told me to go, as the river was going to get bigger and their was a risk that it would cut into the terrace I live on.
I asked how soon I should go and they said now, due to the rainfall and high levels of snow and snow melt, the river would surge even more. I have never had to face evacuation before, so it came as a shock. They left as I told them I could go stay with a friend. Then I took a few minutes to process it all, before I phoned my friend, who had offered for me and my girls to stay if needed.
When I phoned her I realised that I couldn't leave my animals behind, 4 cats and 2 dogs, but it would be really tough to bring them, as she has 8 cats herself an 2 dogs. We spoke about keeping some of the cats in the bathroom, but it seemed so chaotic. But I was so grateful for her help, especially as she said she would come and pick us all up.
( How the river, or lack of it, usually looks like.)
Then I went into the caravan to tell my girls. My youngest got so upset, at this stage it was almost midnight. I told them to pack a few things and then i got our passports, birth certs and went about gathering all the animals. Two of our cats, our more recent rescues, have to be separated as they don't get along so that was a bit of a challenge. I was a little frantic at this point not sure what I should be doing and for some reason I was carrying around peanut butter in my hand.
Then my phone rang, it was one of my employers. I look after his land property. He lives abroad, but knew what was happening. He phoned to offer his house for me and my girls to stay in, which was amazing. My friend arrived and I must say we were both relieved that I would now be going to my employers house, which just happened to be next door to her. It took three trips to get us all to the house and by 2 a.m I found myself in safer surroundings.
I was exhausted, but unable to sleep, as I had no idea what would await me the following day, when I planned to go back and get my caravan out of the land.
