Wild Weather

The Eastern seaboard of Australia has been experiencing some wild weather in this last week - torrential rain, gale force winds and down south - snow.

We're the proud custodians of a block of land a few hours from the city, with a river running down one boundary. When I say river, I should say river-bed, because it doesn't run all that often. When we bought the land we asked the real estate agent if there was any possibility of being flooded in. He raised his eyes skywards (probably praying for patience) and drawled "Darl, we'd have to get some rain first." We took that to mean no and signed on the dotted line.

Since that time we've had four major floods, the most recent is happening right now. In town, we jump on the net and check our river height (technology is great). Yesterday, hubby drove down to check the fences, which are about 2m underwater. Here are some photos of the flooded Maryland River. It doesn't look too bad until you realise the bridge is across a gully and sits about 5m above the ground!

Wild Weather

Was it something I said?

Recently I posted about how hard it was to write about my hero and heroine clinging to life (and each other) during a cold storm when its hot and sunny, and I think the God of Weather must have heard me complaining. Here in Queensland (the sunshine state) we've had bucketing rain and out west the rivers are flooding. Our dams went from 70% full to 90% full over a couple of days (yeah!). Adelaide had severe wind storms the same day as our big downpour and on Saturday Melbourne was ripped apart by a hail storm.

We drove out on Friday night to check our block of land, with its minor river going from 10cm to 2m in three days last week. To get there, we go up Cunningham's Gap, a treacherous piece of road linking the coastal plain with the mountains. It's the only piece of road I know with its own helicopter pad for accident retrievals. And having driven up on Friday night, now I know why.

Sheeting rain, heavy cloud, water cascading over the road and evidence of rock slides greeted us as we crawled along in almost zero visibility. Truly terrifying! Hubby and I were bolt upright, wound as tight as a spring all the way to the top. We would have stopped, but there's nowhere safe to stop once you start to climb.

It pelted down all weekend. Great writing weather, so I snuggled up in warm clothes and wrote. From crunchy grass three months ago, our soil is now so waterlogged the rain doesn't run away. Getting the car bogged was a real possibility. And keeping our young pup clean and dry proved impossible. Both car and pup needed a wash when we arrrived home.

This weekend is probably the scariest driving experience I've ever had (unless you include crossing the Hornibrook Bridge during Cyclone Tracey in 1974 with waves washing over the car - I was six and absolutely petrified.) What's the most terrifying weather you've ever driven in?