I spent all of Saturday lurking around a petrol station and later a hotel lobby, making phone calls, posting on Facebook groups and desperately trying to find someone to give me a lift to anywhere!

Mum and I came up with a theory about how a surprising number of young women have come to be working in Fitzroy: clearly, they’ve all been stranded, just as I was, by flood waters and terrible public transport. They get trapped for so long that they start to feel like they should be doing something with their time and lending a hand to the community. They develop a form of Stockholm Syndrome that tricks them into thinking Fitzroy is a nice place to be, and that’s it. They’re stuck. Never again to see the rest of the world!

Hey, I just wrote my first conspiracy theory piece!

Around 5pm, I decided to call it a day and check into the hotel. Different hotel from the night before, more expensive – and I did have to pay this time – but much nicer! I made the most of having a relaxing night in a room all of my own. Had a long shower, washed my hair, put on a face mask, and sat watching Netflix in bed. I was asleep by half nine and slept through til 8 o’clock this morning!

From my bed, I checked the road conditions and phoned Greyhound to see if their buses were running today. No such luck. When I got up, I packed my things and headed once again to the Shell garage to pick up a lift. After a couple of hours, a strange twist of fate came along and made my day.

A gent who thought I’d have more hitchhiking luck in a different part of the town offered to drive me there, but once we got on the main road we spotted the Greyhound bus! We turned the car round and followed it for a few minutes until it stopped. It had come from Darwin and was headed for Broome, but terminating in Fitzroy because of the closed roads. I asked if they were turning around and heading back to Darwin but they told me not until tomorrow. Another dead end, I thought.

But then! A lady who was getting off the bus overheard me and said she was driving to Katherine (only about 300km south of Darwin) and could give me a ride! She’d come to Fitzroy to pick her truck and horse box and was driving to Katherine this afternoon.As I write this, I’ve been on the road about an hour, and I’m sat in the front Jane’s truck, with our four-legged-friends in the back, feeling like the stars have finally aligned for me this week!

Tomorrow is a new day, a new week, I’ll get to Darwin by lunchtime and from there I’ll have many more options!