Driving through the flooding creek at Marlborough
It rained most of the night, but was only sprinkling as we left at about 8 am. However, there was a lot of water in the fields. As we passed through Mackay I put the radio on and we listened to the 9 o’clock news. The leadoff story was “There has been torrential rain in central Queensland …” and then the announcer started listing off the roads that are closed. There was no mention of this highway so on we travelled, and then it really started to pour.
Unfortunately one of the problems with this motorhome is its front window. It’s huge, and flat, and every stone that is thrown up hits us. Today we got a big stone right in front of Enid, but the worst was one that hit in front of me, right at the edge of the window. It has now spread and there is a huge, and growing pair of cracks on my side of the window, so we will have to get it replaced sometime soon. The pavement is breaking up from the rain, and is full of potholes, and every semi-trailer we meet throws up a lot of stones.
When we reached the small town of Marlborough there was a sign that said “Water over the road” and then a highway truck with flashing lights, and a flagman. We followed the highway truck through the water, and it was pretty deep – more than 30 cm of water running over the road for at least 100 metres. We pulled in to the service station right at the end of the water, and were going to fill up with diesel, but the pump was busy with two large trucks. So we decided to go eat our lunch, which we did in the gravelled parking area by the garage. As we were finishing a highway truck pulled up, and I asked if the road to Rockhampton was OK. “It was,” she replied, “when we came up this morning, and it might still be open, but the road to Marlborough is now closed.” We were the last vehicle to go through before they closed it (shades of Chicken, Alaska this summer, but a bit more lucky).
After we’d filled up with diesel I asked the clerk in the service station if we could get through to Rockhampton. “I’d leave right away,” she said, “because the water’s rising in the creek.” I asked how far it was to the creek, and she said about 20 km south.
Sure enough, when we got to that spot there was more water coming over the road, though not as much as at Marlborough. We did get through ok, and are now checked in to the Big 4 campsite in Rockhampton. We’re parked on a concrete drive, so there won’t be any problem with getting stuck. As Enid’s umbrella has broken we went shopping and got a new and much bigger one. It continued to rain, and just about half an hour ago there was a heavy wind. It must have broken some branches from the palm trees, as something landed on our roof with a thud.
Now it has stopped raining, and the sky is actually lighter in the west. We were actually cool enough in the motorhome that we have the heat on, so that is a real change from the last few days. The top story on the television news tonight was also the flooding. It’s interesting how our stereotypes affect us. When planning for this trip I was always concerned about the fires in Australia, since that is virtually the only weather story about Australia that we have heard for years. It turns out that it’s actually the rain here that’s come early that is bothering us. And as for stereotypes, well today we heard an advertisement for the Calgary Stampede, and a tour through Banff. So I guess that’s what Australians think of when they think of Canada.