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Published: March 19th 2007
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No name creek...
we made it through this one, thanks to Nic's bravery! This is a retro post, but we wanted to share the experience with you, and the photos tell the story quite well!
We had stayed the night in Fitzroy Crossing, a small township at what was a fording point for the Fitzroy River. Nowadays, there is a one lane bridge, but in days of yore I believe the river was crossed by a ford which could only be used in the dry season.
It had rained all the previous day and through the night - we were in WA and the NT at the start of the rainy season. We had parked up in our campervan, which we named Brutus, in a camping bay which had become a small lake during our afternoon and evening stay. As we drank at the campsite bar (along with the other 2 people staying there), we noticed that there was no traffic on the nearby Great Northern Highway, and began to hear rumours of the road being closed off by floods. No one had told us before that it might not be possible to drive to Darwin from Broome in the wet season, and the campervan rental boys hadn't let on either!
In the morning, we asked around and heard that two german lads travelling in a car had hit a flood somewhere 50kms down the highway after we had gone to bed and had had to return to our campsite to wait for the road to clear. We set off in trepidation, under blue sky, and watched to see what oncoming traffic there would be (as an indicator of the passability of the road ahead).
We only saw some beat up 4WD's and one road train, but we came to the bit of road we thought had been flooded and made it through no worries. As the day wore on, we could see big thunderstorms across the great expanses of sky you get in the outback, although we stayed in the dry on the road. All of a sudden, we came upon a flood in the road at a creek which we have forgotten the name of. We had been told not to drive the campervan into moving water and to walk the road before driving into standing water. I though it would be a good opportunity for Nic to get involved, as I had done the driving, so volunteered
Still rising ...
A roadtrain arrives in the distance.. her to traverse the creek on foot. Once I realised she didn't get washed away, I gallantly drove the van through without splashing her, and stopped to wait for her to climb aboard (after which I realised that we had forgotten to factor in the croc. element you get in that part of the world). And on we rode, eating sweets and singing along to Huey Lewis and The News once more.
We skipped Halls Creek, where we had thought we might stay a night, as it seemed quite a scary township with lots of unsavory types seeming to be hanging around. A man at the roadhouse helpfully said he thought there was a chance that the road was passable to Kunnunara (our next possible stop) but that equally the road could be flooded.
We watched the kms count down to our destination as a couple more hours went by (you really have to go there to realise how little there is to note on a 600kms journey in the outback - i.e. one kangaroo, two oncoming vehicles, maybe a cow and an interesting shaped cloud). Then we came to a problem - 3pm, water on the road
There's Brutus in the queue...
This was our side of the deal. at Telegraph Creek and a few parked cars and campervans.
Following the advised best practice, we stopped and got out to look at the water. It was flowing fast, and markings on the road told us it was already 25cms deep. We talked to a guy who seemed well versed in outback flooding - he had laid stones on the road at the water line to measure which way the water level was heading. A Toyota Land Cruiser piled across, with some difficulty, as we watched, and continued on its merry way. Our man told us the water was rising, so we knew we might have to wait. Eventually, some road trains pulled up, and when you see that even they won't try to cross, as huge as they are, you know to stay put.
And this is a weird thing - where we were there was only hot sun and blue sky - the river had been filled upstream sometime ago. As we watced, the creek rose almost a meter, and only stopped rising after we had been there 90 minutes. All the local opinion was that the water would drop as fast as it rose, and
That's no road!
If you were there, once you realised no lives were at risk, you had to laugh at how useless an effort this was! that we could be on our way in about 90 mins - not so good since it was already gone 4pm, we still had 200kms to go and had been on the road since 9am!
As the water started to drop, an aboriginal guy on the opposite bank of the river to us moved his jeep to the front of the queue, and then walked the river - he was obviously keen to cross. After some more time, he fired the engine and set off. From the minute he entered the water, he was headed for trouble, since he never had the jeep lined up to the road. Fortunately, he was missing on the upstream side, so when he fell off the roadway into the creek, the jeep jammed to the road embankment rather than get washed downstream. He climbed out and returned to the river bank, leaving his jeep blocking the road for the rest of us. It was the most inept effort you could imagine at fording a river, and wisely, all the members of his family had refused to get in the jeep when he drove forward.
As time wore on, some guys in another
We're coming through!
The first road train gets involved ... jeep drove through, then pulled the abandoned jeep clear, after which the roadtrains got moving. Some people in cars and vans followed in the wake the roadtrains created, but we chose to wait another hour.
By 7pm, only a handful of cars and our van remained, and with the water level obviously dropping (although still running fast), the remaining guys and gals made a pact that we would push out anyone who stalled, and we all got through safely. Driving 200kms in the dark in the outback was made less hazardous by staying in convoy (but you can still hit a roo), and we all went separate ways at Kunnanara.
And that's what a day on the roads in the outback rainy season can be like. Just remember that, when you are stuck on the M1 or the A14 next time!
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