Having sat out a wild night, we awoke to find that the New England Highway was cut between here and Tenterfield. The lady in the National Parks and Wildlife Service office in Glen Innes told me that on the way home to Dundee last night she had seen three poplar trees blown away as she drove up the highway.
We decided to go down to Grafton on the Gwyder Highway and then on to the Kerrs at Ashby.
We checked a the Police Station before we left and they said "No problems, just a bit of debris on the road.
We had a really wild ride to the top of the range with incredible rain and high winds. At one point I stopped to move a big branch across the road only to have the car that had been following us pull out and drive right over the branch.
Down the range itself was even more exciting with trees half way across the road every few hundred metres in some places. The rain was still a deluge but the wind had dropped.
Eventually we came out at the bottom of the hill under the clouds into a quite pleasant condition. As we drove towards Grafton we came upon a river running a banker, incredibly wide and swirling along as a though it was late for an appointment with the sea. This was part of the northern rivers floods which have caused problems in many parts of northern NSW over the last day or two.
We see quite a lot of road kill but some species make more of a impression than others mostly because of their rarity. Sadly, we saw a Spotted Quoll on the road through the Mann River valley.
When we reached Grafton, I looked in on the Tourist Info Centre to check on the state of the roads only to find that the Pacific Highway is cut both north and south of Grafton and the only way to Brisbane is via Glen Innes and the New England Highway!.
The other piece of advice was that Maclean was expected to "go under" soon and that if we got into Ashby we probably wouldn't get out again.
We decided that, discretion being the better part of valour, we'd find somewhere on the high ground in Grafton to stay until the flood passes.
I had always thought Grafton was a pretty poor sort of place but when we eventually found the caravan park, it was quite extraordinarily nice. All the site are beautifully grassed (though ours is a drive through site with bitumen right through because of our weight) and the grounds are spacious, well kept and generous. There is even a lake with water lilies and all next to our site.
We settled in for the duration and turned on the cricket.
We went into town to look at the flood.
There is a park on the banks of the river at the end of the main street of town. Normally there is 20 or 30 metres (60 - 100 ft) of grassy bank down to the river 7 m (23 ft) below. Today the water was lapping at the edge of the park.
I don't know what I expected but I was amazed at the utter calm. There was no rushing water, no people busy doing flood protection stuff, nobody panicking. I know the forecast river level was below the level which would have flooded the town but even so it was spooky how quiet it was.
The rowing club boat house was almost totally underwater with just the roof showing. All the boats had been moved before the flood onto the lawn in the park.
We decided to have lunch at the bistro in the Crown Hotel. The deck, normally set out over the river bank, was actually out over the water so we watched the remains of peoples gardens float by as we ate. The meal was very good and we decided to dedicate it to the third of February which is as good a day as any to celebrate.
With the flood still with us we took another lay day and watched the cricket.
We are still flooded in with the highway north cut at the Alipou Creek right in South Grafton. We'll check again in the morning.