The ominous and gathering clouds erupted last night in violent storm. We stood on the roof before the rains watching the sky flash with purple lightning. Soon the storms were upon us with torrential rain and extremely strong winds. Rain blew through gaps in the seals of our windows and flooded the kitchen floor. Mike's bed was sopping wet from the badly covered hole in the wall which will eventually house an air conditioner. Our front yard flooded and we wondered what the wadis looked like.

This morning we were supposed to have a new school group arriving at 10:30 for their program. It was evident by 8am that the area around the plantation was too flooded to do anything but trekking and all the tents, cots and the majlis (covered seating area) were soaked. The school group postponed to the third week in March. Which left us with an unexpected day to enjoy.

Paul, Devan and Ram came by to share the news from Wadi Hilti, the wadi just behind our house. The dam was full and the area uphill from it was now a lake. It was possible for vehicles with 4WD and lift kits to drive around the dam and around the edge of the new lake to the old road, but the road was completely washed away just past the boulder field which makes access to our reliable climbing crag impossible.

There was no way we could do any of our programs. We decided to have fun with this new and rare opportunity- paddle the rare and transient Wadi Hilti lake!! They left and we had some breakfast.

Then Ram and Devan called to tell us we needed to come see what was happening at the dam. We got there just as they were pushing off in kayaks. Micah made a valiant effort at chasing them to hop aboard.
Micah's valiant effort-


We enviously watched them paddle around a bit and decided to go get more boats. Micah and Mike left with the truck to get more boats while Will and I stayed behind. I'm sure glad we did. Ram and Devan paddled back to us and invited us aboard their single sit on top kayaks. I sat behind Ram in the storage area at the stern and Will joined Devan. Both our kayaks sat ridiculously low in the water. Devan and Will's was so low that I couldn't help but laugh every time they paddled past. To make paddling easier, we split the paddles in two so each person in each boat could row. This made the whole endeavor even more ridiculous and amusing.
Will and Devan sharing a solo boat-


Ram and I sharing a solo boat-



We took turns taking photos of each other. Once when I counted down 3-2-1 to take a photo of Devan and Will, Devan flipped their boat over. They then attempted to paddle it back upside down, which of course, didn't work at all and they flipped again within seconds. We paddled around goofing off for a while until the others arrived with more boats.


We finally had enough boats and paddles for everyone and all were eager for more exploring. The wadi lake was very deep in most places, the length of a paddle plus the length of Devan's arm which I guess is maybe 10 feet or so. We found this awesome overhanging rock that a few of the boys decided to jump off.
the group paddling away to do more exploring-

checking the depth of the landing area-

to jump or not to jump?

jump.

The Tahoe was full of laughter all the way home. Tonight we plan to have a barbeque and plan for some rock climbing tomorrow.