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If you’re wondering what it’s like driving through flooded NSW, here are some options:
a) Pulling over at a servo, trying to work out where to go where roads wouldn’t be cut, on hold to the transport department repeatedly being asked if we were in need of Opal Cards
b) Being amused/helped by truckies on the UHF saying (in slightly more colourful language) that to get where they had to go they’d likely have to go via Canada and China and Broome
c) Wanting to gain some insight into what roads were open (live traffic app buffering leads a little to be desired) so heading into the police station at Griffith with a road atlas in pure desperation that they’d be able to help
d) Being so excited to have made it to the final destination each day to the extent that Chariots of Fire just absolutely had to be played, full volume, with the windows down, driving into said final destination.
You may have guessed, but for us, the answer is e), all of the above. It’s been quite the week.
From Sunday to Thursday we stayed in Wagga with Kate’s uni friend Leigh, with us all crashing in her son Patrick’s house due to Leigh’s place being flooded. Claire’s mind was in overdrive, dreaming that she jumped on the back of a frog which took her through lava tubes to the AFL grand final, but apart from that, we had quite a cruisy start of admin, going for walks, and briefly enjoying stability of staying in one place for more than two nights. We went to trivia on Wednesday night, naming ourselves ‘Leigh and the gang’ and finding out that 11 babies have been born in Antarctica. Our knowledge of vintage cars isn’t the best though, we got a solid 3/10 for that section…
On Friday morning, we had a 3.5-hour drive to get from Wagga to Hay, which took a good 5 hours thanks to roads being cut as we got to them and a lot of backtracking. We made it to St Mary’s Parish School almost bang on time for our one-hour lesson there, and then had a great time teaching at the Hay event that night… the Hay Services Club was a brilliant venue, with a fab dance floor and very supportive staff!
Saturday, we woke up in Hay intending to drive north to Cobar. We ended up getting to Cowra. If your NSW geography isn’t up to scratch, yes they both start with C and have 5 letters, but Cowra is about 500kms south east of Cobar by road… basically all roads north of Hay were cut. It was Claire’s birthday on Saturday, and despite the chaos of route planning/ditching, Kate did make Claire feel very special by buying unhomogenised milk (as requested), and getting a birthday cake… who needs candles when you’ve got extra long matches.
We are using the Aussie Helpers Dubbo depot as a base this week, which is an absolute godsend… we are so grateful to depot coordinator Katie for letting us stay here. The plan on paper for the coming days is to be at Girilambone on Tuesday, Coonamble on Thursday, and Dungowan for our big event on Saturday. Everyone, keep safe out there. It’s a tricky time for so many to say the absolute least.
Yours in bootscootin,
Kate and Claire.
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