The last evening we were there it started to rain and it rained all night, I should have been quicker and taken a photo of Michael off to the showers wearing his hat and driazabone coat with just a towel underneath (around his waist) and thongs (flip flops), it was a good look but not one he wants to adopt.
As it was so overcast and wet we changed our plans and decided against the coast and went directly north, up the Monaro Hwy to Cooma.
We had memories of Cooma being a quite pleasant little town but the feeling now is one of grey misery! We went to the 'super IGA' supermarket and for the first time ever I saw half empty shelves. The deli section was only about one third stocked! Don't know the reason.
We drove to the other end of town to the Aldi supermarket and this was a well stocked great supermarket, we bought a 3.4kg tub of Greek Kalamata olives (they're not as good as ours but the tub will give us a good container so we can take 3.4kg of our olives away with us).
Then we went up to the caravan park (the only one in town). The office area was new and nice and tidy but not the rest of the park. It screamed that this is the only caravan park in town, they don't have to try anymore so they don't!
Anyway we checked in for just one night and then listening to the radio a couple of hours later we heard a "Flood evacuation alert for the town of Cooma".
We double checked and realised that we were quite safe as we are in the high part of town, up the hill, and the river is obviously in the low area of town.
The weather forecast was that almost all of NSW would receive its annual rainfall over a 3 day period.....
but at the moment it wasn't raining.
The weather (and caravan park) were quite miserable but we settled in for the night.
Next morning, although there wasn't any storm or rain overnight, we were up early for us at 7.30 and on the road by 8.30. We figured we'd make a break and head directly north again to Canberra, getting through 'downtown' Cooma.
The Monaro Hwy was relatively quiet and the weather quite pleasant for a morning drive.
Although those clouds were around.
We weren't going directly to Canberra, we were heading to Queanbeyan. The reason for that was that we wanted to get some work done on the van, and had been recommended the Fiat agent in Queanbeyan.
We also wanted to get rid of those Federal tyres and get back to Continentals.
We were unable to get an appointment at the Fiat place for about 10 days, so we abandoned that idea, but did get an excellent price on Continental tyres, AND a good price on new front shock absorbers, all that crashing about on Federals hadn't been kind to the vehicle (or us!) We booked in for Friday to get all that done.
So we had a couple of days to wander around Queanbeyan.
At least there are 2 caravan parks in this town - we checked them both out, but didn't really have a choice as one didn't have any sites available.
The one with sites was the 'Riverside Caravan Park', it's right on the edge of the river, and guess what?.....
That rain is still around and there's now a flood alert in Queanbeyan!!
Reason prevailed - it's not actually raining at the moment and we can see the water level, it's a good 3 or 4 metres below the level of the top of the bank.
The receptionist explained that as long as we could still the weir we were safe, once we couldn't see the weir anymore we'd be on evacuation alert. The worst that would mean would be that we'd have to unplug, start the engine and drive off.
We certainly hope that Queanbeyan has an RV Friendly status, because we're supporting it well enough, with the tyres and shockies, caravan park and we also bought a new HD 12 volt tv for the van! Typical of us, we have a new HD tv and we go and buy 3 DVDs that are old 1920s, silent, black and white movies!
Then the rain started late in the afternoon and didn't stop all night (in fact it's still raining!!)
We could still hear the weir so weren't worried.
The next morning the top of the weir was still visible - just.
The water level was around 4.2m and there were television, radio and local newspaper photographers moving around the place. Another rain front was forecast with the water rising to around 5m by 5.00pm, then maybe 6m by 9.00pm. The big flood in December 2010 had a water level of 8.0m. The water was all over the caravan park and across the road then.
Now I had not followed my own adage - the sun was not shining and I had done some washing, it was in the dryer when the standby alert came on the radio. As soon as it stopped we'd be off.
The council had opened up the showgrounds for caravans and campers to relocate to, with power and water too. (Another showgrounds!!?)
11.00 we were off to the showgrounds. The first spot we stopped soon became boggy, and with 4WDs and caravans driving past all the time it was getting worse. I knew that neither of us would sleep well if we stayed where we were so I had a scout around - there was a large, bitumen car park area, with a power box, so I grabbed the coffee cups and walked over there while Michael started up and followed in the van.
It was a good move!! The wheels were spinning as he pulled away.
We, of course, started a trend and soon the area around us was full.
The van is full of damp clothes hanging everywhere - but we have power so the heater is on and they're almost dry now.
Hmmm, WA looks good - sunshine and 30 degrees!
Throughout the day the caravans arrived, the alert was still 'standby', but there were road closures around the place. The rain lasted all day, with the forecast for it to continue until maybe Tuesday and the worst of the weather to hit on Saturday. We will decide where we go from here once we've got the tyres and shockies. Maybe another night here, maybe into Canberra - watch this space!
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