"lesue" Toowoomba to Home the Flood Run

Wet Camp at Dam

Our next adventure was to try and get to Bejelke Petersen Dam Lake Baramba rained all the way . We got a nice site and intend to stay 2 days. A tropical low has formed off Yeppoon and has dumped 300mm on the Gympie area now they are in flood ,we have been cut off to the north and south so will have to stay put.

Bejelkie Peterson Dam

Lake Baramba or right

Road cut to Murgon



Both Ways

 It is now Sunday 9th Jan 2011 and we have run out of eggs and milk so can't make a cake,took a run towards Nanango to find road flooded so too risky they might close the road leaving us stranded and cannot get back to the van so we went up to Goomeri but no eggs or bread, we got some egg mayonnaise and sue is going to try and make a cake out of it,and I will cook a chook for tea, got back to camp and it is still raining.The cake was a hit with custard.

We have just heard that there was a flash flood in Toowoomba which then flooded down the mountain to Murphy's Creek and onto Grantham where it hit very hard and 16 people were lost. That water eventually flooded Brisbane what a mess.

Monday 10 Jan 2011

Bejelke Dam Full

Woke to find the dam had risen two and a half meters overnight . A meeting of all the campers was called were they told us that because the water had flooded the power plant the power ans sewerage were to be disconnected so they would have to evacuate all campers be helicopter within an hour . After the shock had settled down we decided that we would just leave and go out on the road as we were in no danger and were self contained , after a couple of hours they told us it was all off as there are no helicopters available they were to busy with the disaster unfolding in the  Lockyer Valley
Tuesday 11 Jan
A very sleepless night as there were big storms all around us . Tuesday ands Wednesday were restful days just sitting around waiting the word had got put that we might be able to escape on Thursday so we went for a drive in the late afternoon and found all the water had dropped so we returned to the van and prepared for our escape the next day.
Thursday 13 Jan 2011

Cania Dam Full

Headed to Murgon and onto Ban Ban Springs  along roads that were litted with potholes and debris, water over road in several places. Damaged fences irrigaters turned upside down and all the problems a major flood brings with it. We finally got to Cania Retreat at 4.00 and set up camp . Reality was the only van in the park, we must be the first to bring a van through the maze of closed roads. I cooked a chook and we settled down to a peaceful night in our own caravan park .

Cania Retreat

Friday 14 Jan 2011
We went up to the dam to have a look at the 100% capacity for the first time since it was built, and also to get Mobile phone coverage to ring home ,the news  wasn't good about sues mum so decided to break  camp and head for home. We had heard that the road may be opened into Rockhampton either today or tomorrow it had been closed since we left at Christmas so we headed up to get in the queue, about 15 minutes out from Rocky they broadcast on the radio that the road was opened to all traffic so we just drove straight in which completed our Christmas trip 2011 Floods run a very wet Christmas to remember.
We covered 3727 km and cost $803.49 in fuel.

Christmas 2010

real free camp Childers

Well this Christmas takes the cake for being the wettest on record,the monsoon trough came down and has set an anchor out, some areas have recorded up to 19 inches. Any way we finished our Christmas trading with the best Christmas we have ever seen and planed to get away to possum park near miles but the road is flooded at Theodore, so a trip down the new England highway was plan B, sues mum got sick so we decided to stay a few days till the rain cleared up.Then with 300 to 500 mills of rain everywhere plan B turned into plan C which is the Pacific Highway. Well we left on Tuesday and got through to Childers where we stopped for the night in a car park due to road closure at Isis River, it has been raining all day. The next morning the road was opened so we headed south through a severely potholed road. The freeway through Brisbane was a welcome relief with an overnight stop at a caravan park only recently reopened at Tyndale just north of Grafton, finally the sun was shinning and the afternoon sunset saw us have a pleasant night.

Tyndale

The next day we passed through Coffs Harbour where we had traffic light trouble pulling the van up on an amber light seems like you have to go though the amber. We arrived in Newcastle at my Brothers place late afternoon and set up under the big tree for a 3 day stay and New Years with my parents.

Nundle

Robs place Newcastle

Wool Mill

Chaffey Dam

Leaving Newcastle we headed up to Nundle 30km south of Tamworth, it is an old gold mining town and also has a working Wool Mill, we did a tour through the plant taking the fleece from the raw stage through to the ball of wool ready for sale which was a very interesting process. After a 2day stay we headed up to Chaffey Dam and came across some canoeists they are BOG members NIKNOFF it was good to place a face to the name, a rain storm interrupted our stay so we continued into Tamworth through very heavy rain refueled and drove up to Cranky Rock rest area 8km east of Warialda.



Cranky Rock

 Cranky Rock is a rest area come camping area with 3 power points for caravans, a caretaker runs the kiosk with a nights stay costing $20. The walk up past the animal enclosure with kangaroos and emus to the lookout is a must .

Cranky Rock Gorge

Some rain overnight but has cleared this morning so we headed up to Glen Innes where it started raining again and turned cold 15deg. The plan was to go to Leslie Dam up though Tentafield to Warwick but the rain is so heavy all the creeks and gully's have become torrents of waterfalls all through this area with major flooding this has meant the Leslie Dam has had to be released and has flooded Sandy Creek so NoGo, plan B head to Toowoomba we did and the road was closed behind us.so overnight in toowoomba and yes it poured all night.