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Last week, heat threatens fires. This week, floods send vast amounts of water from the mountains to the sea. One bridge at Cadgee along the Nerrigundah road washes away; water laps at the edges of a caravan park; and further north about forty campers are stranded, including a baby. When the rain first pours down the grass gutters near home flow so fast the grandkids ride their body-boards down the hurtle.
We indulge in a bit of flood tourism and spend about eight hours visiting and revisiting places we know well, barely recognising them under pelting water. At lunchtime, just before Tyrone Bridge goes under, my grandson and I walk across it, water spurting through the boards, and he rescues a body-board caught up against its edge. Later, when we return with the rest of the family, the bridge is thoroughly submerged and the water is still rising. By the time we finish rubber-necking, the chance of getting home along the Eurobodalla road is slim, so we drive at dusk through the bush along Big Rock Road, to be stopped by a fallen tree. However, C-Ridge, the forestry road along which we found sun orchids not so long ago, gave us a clear run to the highway and took us home to a late makeshift dinner.
By 7 the next morning we were out and about again, checking the same spots as yesterday. Our wine-above-the-river spot has become a wine-well-below-the-river spot, and even J, who knows the river reserve intimately finds it hard to pinpoint its exact position. K, my animal-loving daughter-in-law, is in the water up to her knees rescuing grubs and insects and rodents caught up in a drama bigger than us all.
By lunchtime not everyone is keen to see the river enter the sea, so S and I venture off alone, stopping at the Tuross bridge where it would have been no trouble to launch the boat – if you had a death wish. At the opening the water is wild; out to sea are standing waves; at the edges sand drops away in chunks. The water is murky and roiling.
At home, Potato Point beach is no longer pristine: it’s black with tree-trunk detritus.
On the third day the rain eases off, the water drops and wetness becomes a nuisance: piles of damp dirty laundry; no chance of a week camping upriver by the clear calm waters of the Tuross for my visitors; and beans sulking under the vegetable dome because they’ve been watered too much.
By Sunday evening our wine spot is seven metres above river level again, and we sit in early evening above its rapid flow, relishing bank-to-bank water.
Madhu said:
Pretty dramatic footage Meg! Brings back memories of the recent deluge that devastated our city. Stay safe.
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morselsandscraps said:
I felt easy delighting in my flood because there was no devastation. I was aware all the time that other people hadn’t been so lucky.
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pommepal said:
The video really captured the drama of the speed and danger of the floods rushing by taking all the debris to the ocean then finishing with it back to its almost normal speed.
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morselsandscraps said:
Even if my horizon did have a tilt???? The mob kayaked 14 kilometres yesterday, and found it a bit slow.
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pommepal said:
The horizon added to the drama. The mob would have to be careful of the debris.
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morselsandscraps said:
It cleaned up remarkably well.
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pommepal said:
Good to hear.
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restlessjo said:
Love the grandson shot, but that is a LOT of water! Go safely, Meg 🙂
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morselsandscraps said:
Never any danger, although two cars did go into a side channel, so story says, and there were pleas for people not to be stupid.
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Heyjude said:
The flood waters can look very beautiful, we passed flood plains flooded from the Avon and Severn on our way home after Christmas. It is when these areas are built on that the damage occurs, and of course flood barriers in towns only cause the water to move further downstream and overflow somewhere else. It must be devastating to get it indoors though, all the mud and stink to get rid of. Hope the sun is shining now for you all 🙂
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morselsandscraps said:
It’s so hard to read familiarities under cover of the unfamiliar. We were animated for two days by seeing the changes such vast quantities of water made. Tomorrow the mob ride kayaks and a body-board down twenty kilometres of it: I drive to Nowra to collect a friend from the train. No chance to murder nanny Meg by river!
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Heyjude said:
Hahaha… I am sure they will find another way 🙂
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Elissaveta said:
What is going on with the world these days…? Water has such power, it can rise and wipe it all out before you even notice. Those pictures are beautiful though and it’s interesting to see the whole sequence with the water receding towards the end.
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morselsandscraps said:
Thank you for not commenting on my wonky horizon in the movie bit! Our flood was relatively benign: it didn’t bother townships and the river passes through sparsely inhabited country. We had a lot of rain last Christmas too – always welcome as fire fears grow. Western Australia and Victoria have both had very destructive fires – hundreds of homes gone. The are plans afoot now for a bit of kayaking and bodyboarding.
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Lucid Gypsy said:
Good heavens Meg take care! This isn’t what I would expect to see in an Australian summer. There’s been a lot of flooding here – not in Exeter but some parts of Devon and further north. Many homes have been lost, but it’s winter.
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morselsandscraps said:
Your floods have caused huge loss and suffering. I felt fairly easy regarding this one as a sight worth seeing. J needed his tanks topped up badly so we welcomed its drama.
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