Living ‘on the road’ is nothing if not an adventure.
On Friday we moved back to one of our favourite locations; the farm just outside Sydney. The plan is that we will live there and have our office at another location with a travel time in each direction of about 45 minutes. We’re used to ‘working from home’ and so having to travel to ‘the office’ is going to be a new experience for us. However, so many people do it we expect we can survive the conditions associated with ‘having a real job’.
Saturday it rained ALL day. We loved sitting on the porch watching the rain come down in vast sheets – very spectacular. Unfortunately, this powerful show of nature has a somewhat challenging side effect; flooding.
On Sunday, we had plans to catch up with a family member who’d arrived recently from England. As we were leaving on Sunday morning we arrived at the end of the driveway, about to turn onto the road, when we heard a “cooee” in the distance.
The next house along the valley is probably about a kilometre away and so initially we didn’t take much notice. However, there was a nagging feeling that we should pay attention to the call. “Cooee” is a traditional bush call in Australia and it’s amazing how far this sound carries.
We headed for the neighbour’s house and soon realised she was, indeed, calling us.
The news was not good. As a result of all the rain the river levels had risen and the ferry was closed. The ferry is the most direct route out of the valley. Having it closed made things very complicated.
As it was near high tide there was a chance the ferry would reopen when the tide came down and so we went home to consider our situation. The family catch up could be postponed but Danita had a significant work commitment which meant she HAD to be accessible the next day.
We checked the traffic, weather and river level websites to see what was happening. We’d found that the ferry on the other side of the river was still running. This could normally be accessed via a bridge 10km up the road. However, there was a slight obstacle – the road on the other side of the river was under 1.5m of water so that wasn’t an option.
The other way out was via a rather rough, unsealed road which went to Windsor – this was our escape route.
We opted to take the 4 wheel drive which ‘lives’ at the farm as this road isn’t really suitable for a car at the best of times and since other areas were being washed out or under water we didn’t know in what state it would be.
As it transpired it was a reasonably easy (although uncomfortable) trip out. We did have one heart-stopping moment with a section of road under a ‘little’ bit of water. While there wasn’t a risk of getting swept away (it was much smaller than that), it was enough to send a spray over the top of the car thick enough to not be able to see through. Once we’d survived that we were OK.
Having made it to Windsor one option was to go into Sydney and then back out again – a trip requiring quite a few extra hours or find roads that went through to where we needed to go. It seemed every road which ran relatively directly to where we needed to go went through a flooded valley. Of course you didn’t find that out until you arrived at the closed section.
After a number of futile attempts and a lot of extra driving we finally made it to our destination with the reward with a shower and a short rest; both desperately needed.
And so the adventure continues.
Stay tuned for the next exciting instalment and may all your travels be fun.