As rising floodwaters surrounded their vehicle on a remote road in the Northern Territory on Tuesday, Tess Foxworthy pulled out her phone to capture the predicament she and her colleague were in.
"As you can see, we are floating, waiting to be rescued, just sitting in a river, bogged," she said to the camera.
The "river" was, in fact, the main road to Lajamanu, and the pair had just been told they would have to stay overnight before a rescue helicopter could reach them.
"This is our video diary. We hope we survive," Ms Foxworthy said shortly before ending the recording.
With their dog Charlie, the two women had left Lajamanu a day earlier, hoping to avoid the severe weather and "minor" flooding forecast for the Upper Victoria River on Tuesday night.
They had wanted to head home to Yuendumu, 600 kilometres south, but the road was already closed.
So the colleagues — who had been setting up a media program in Lajamanu — were forced to take the long route via Katherine, 640 kilometres to the north-east.
But on the way, they encountered their first major problem.
"The rivers were burst, so [the road was] unpassable," Ms Foxworthy said.
After spending Tuesday night in the car, they were advised to head back to Lajamanu on Wednesday.
But as the tropical low dumped more rain than expected across the region, the unsealed road to Lajamanu quickly transformed into a flowing tributary.
"It started off just being quite muddy," Ms Foxworthy said.
"And then more rain came … and there was more water on the road.
"And then it just all of a sudden became deeper, and it was just unmanageable."
Stranded in the flowing stream and still 40 kilometres from their destination, they contacted the Lajamanu police, who unsuccessfully tried to rescue them by road.
"We were told that we'd be spending the night in the car in the river," Ms Marshall said.
Despite the situation, the pair remained calm, knowing they had plenty of food, water and a satellite phone if things became desperate.
"We'd done all the preparation … we could [alert authorities to] an SOS emergency if it became life and death," Ms Marshall said.
But late on Wednesday, several hours after becoming stranded, they were given word that a helicopter was on its way.
When it landed, they jumped on board with nothing but their dog and some basic supplies, leaving the rest of their belongings behind with the bogged vehicle.
It was only once the chopper lifted into the sky that they were able to comprehend the scale of the flooding, which had inundated many of the houses in the nearby community of Kalkarindji.
"It was just shocking how bad it was," Ms Foxworthy said.
"And [we were] just really worried for the people in the community here."
The women spent Wednesday night sheltering in Kalkarindji, where hundreds of residents from the flooded community of Daguragu had also been taken ahead of yesterday's mass evacuation.
"It's going to be a big effort to get this community back up and running," Ms Marshall said.
"They are really resilient, and they're coming together, but [we] just want people to be aware of the support that they'll need."
Ms Marshall and Ms Foxworthy have since managed to make it back to Lajamanu, where they'll remain until they can recover their vehicle and eventually return home to Yuendumu.
Efforts to evacuate hundreds of people from the flood-affected communities of Kalkarindji, Daguragu, and nearby Pigeon Hole are continuing.
Authorities expected to have relocated around 700 residents by the end of Friday.
