What a day!!

After a night of steady-but-not-too-heavy rain we woke to the sound of torrential rain at around 3am this morning, and it had not eased up by the time we got up at around 7ish. We did the all too familiar task of wringing out the towel and using the chamois to mop up any leaks in the camper tent. We were having breakfast in the annex, discussing what we should do regarding staying or going (the decision was made to stay another night and stick it out) when we heard kids playing out in the rain. Two of the kids from the family near us were playing with a body board in the puddle that was forming about 3 metres behind our tent. We found this amusing, some kids will find fun anywhere. After brekky we went for a walk to the office to pay for the extra night. We were gone about 10 minutes and upon returning to the site we found the puddle behind us had grown considerably, and was now only about a metre from our annex. It was still bucketing down rain. We had a look at the creek running along the other side of the park and found it had risen a bit. Although it was raining hard and we didn't like the prospect of packing up in the torrential rain, we agreed that if it continued raining like that for the whole day we might be in for a bit of a flood, so we decided it was time to move. A quick visit to the office again for a refund of our money just paid, which was refunded without a drama, but the owner of the park insisted that we were safe from flooding. He said the creek may get a bit full and edge on to some of the other sites, but it wouldn't flood and ours would be safe from flooding, due to the way the creek flows, and the amount of rainfall needed with a certain tide, etc, etc....

Regardless of his wealth of knowledge of all irrigation related matters, we got our money back, stripped off and proceeded to pack up our camper in the torrential Coffs Harbour rain. By the time we got back to the site (less than 10 minutes had passed) the puddle behind us was creeping under the walls of the annex. We both got moving quickly to get things packed up but the water was rising faster and faster. Kathy packed up inside the tent and completely wrapped up the mattress in a couple of tarps, and I furiously packed away the kitchen and began pulling out tent pegs. In what seemed a matter of minutes, the creek-that-will-not-flood had overflown into the park at one end and the puddle at our end had picked up speed and was heading over to join it's cousin somewhere in the middle. At one stage of throwing things in the toolbox of the camper I casually observed my pair of thongs floating perfectly side by side about 20 metres from our campsite and heading out into the park. It was unbelieveable how quickly the water rose. We ended up getting water into the main tent as it became deep enough to flow over the door opening, so getting the tent folded up became our priority. The entire annex was unzipped and allowed to fall over in the flood water (it was wet anyway...) and we quickly folded the tent up onto the trailer and put the cover on it. By now the water was half way to our knees and flowing steadily. The annex was starting to float away and we had to pull it around the side of the trailer so it would stay put. Kathy got a couple of snaps with our small camera, but they are a bit blurry due to the camera not being able to focus through the pouring rain. We eventually got it all packed up, completely drenched, the annex was thrown on the roof of the Pajero, other stuff was packed where it fitted, we hooked on and drove to dry land. A quick shower and change into dry clothes and we drove out of Coffs, still pouring with rain.

Our plan was to head inland, and hopefully away from the relentless rain. It poured rain as we drove slowly north along the Pacific Highway. There was plenty of water on the road, with a few spots having water flowing across the road. When we got close to Grafton the traffic was slowing and banking up. Here, the Blackadder Creek had completely flooded and was flowing across the Pacific Highway (see the video). The highway was down to less than one lane. The south-bound lane was higher than the north-bound land and so had less water over it. So traffic in both directions was attempting to use the shallow end of the pool. There were cars crossing with water splashing up to headlight level, beeping the horns, a car was stuck on the road, there was no room to stop and help because it was every man for himself. We stayed to the left and drove slowly through the deeper water to give the others more room, but anyone crossing that water in a sedan was taking a fair risk. The water was flowing fast and getting deeper. We were only a few k's up the road toward Grafton when we heard truckies on the UHF saying that the road had been closed. Made it by the skin of our teeth!! Ten or twenty minutes later and we would've been stuck on the Coffs Harbour side for who knows how long.... but we got through, turned off at Grafton and headed west.

It rained all the way along the Gwydir Highway toward Glen Innes, but as we were about 10km from there the sun came out!! SUNSHINE!!! We were so happy we stopped for a coffee in Glen Innes and sat out in the sun for a while. We drove a bit further out to Inverell and stopped for the night in a cabin. This is the first night out of our camper in 8 weeks, but it is so completely saturated that we need to set it up in the morning so it can dry out enough to sleep in again.

All in all, it was an Australia Day we will not forget. Everything we have is wet, we have a bit of work to do over the next couple of days, washing, drying and cleaning, but we are safe and we escaped Coffs before the highway got closed off. We'll sleep in the cabin tonight and start drying out in the morning. Hopefully it wont rain.....

Where to from here..? We'll figure that out over the next few days.

Stay tuned!!