A wet day in Jamberoo.

Hi everyone (or the one of you that peruses this),

We all probably know about the Big Wet that's infested the east coast of Australia.

Jamberoo's version today was interesting... we received 119mm of rain from 9am Monday 4/2 to 5am Tuesday 5/2 when the rain shorted out our outdoor power-point thus waking us up with the office UPS going off its nut. At 6:30pm Tuesday 5/2 it was up to 161mm since the rain started.

So, silly me: I went to the gym at Kiama. The swamp was full; various creeks were overflowing their banks and it was obvious that if the heavy rain did not ease, I wouldn't get home in a hurry. More's the pity too: I had forgotten my wallet and mobile phone. Furthermore, I was meant to drive my parishioner-cum-self-appointed-personal-trainer (actually, wife-appointed!) Marc in to the gym. But after the blackout I overslept so he'd already left when I drove past his place.

At this point I decided that if Marc was in the gym, I'd arrange to drive back to Jamberoo in convoy with him. If he wasn't in the gym, I'd return home immediately lest I get stuck without money or phone!

Needless to say, Marc was in the gym, so I did 10 mins cardio while Marc finished his big jog and did a big bog, then we hit the weights. Our mate Liam (not pronounced the conventional way; it's Lie-am, as in tell a lie - amm) was there. So was the other Mark, and the bloke from the over 55s development across the road.

We did our weights, paid each other out as we do, and we headed home about 8.15am.

Not far into our trip, we encountered a stranded car in Dido St (no prizes for guessing what the locals call that street). The VT Commodore wagon, with two young women and green P plates was stranded on the causeway as the waters of Spring Creek rushed around it. Fortunately, the local SES base is close by so they were on the scene pronto.

It was slow going behind a delivery truck, up around the bends as we traverse the watershed between Spring Creek and the Minnamurra Valley. There were lots of slow-gos around flooded corners and across overflowing culverts leading into both waterways. The Terragong Swamp was chockers; Swamp Rd was under water, someone was being towed out of Browns Lane and Jerrara Creek was well and truly in flood. The historic 1850s Terragong House was only a few inches above water.

Then we got to Fountaindale Rd, and the stretch between there and Factory Lane was submerged. In the middle of it was the Kiama High School school bus loaded with kids. Ouch! We knew it'd be folly to try to get through, so back to Kiama, then home the long way via Albion Park!

This was not uneventful, either! At Dunmore, the Shellharbour Rd was banked up to the highway due to the railway level crossing being flooded and the crossing gates being down as a result!

Then at the Oak Flats Interchange the exit ramp was under several inches of water!

Finally, the approach to the Minnamurra River crossing at Jamberoo was well and truly flooded! We were so close. 4WDs were going through, and it was obviously deep. Thankfully it was not fast flowing, so Marc and I discussed our options. My car is little, but there was no where to leave it. The Volvo was bit and heavy and Marc had a tow-rope. So he went through first and survived, so I followed! So we made it - only 1 hour 15 minutes late, and some 40km out of our way!

We stayed put all day after that. But the question is, given that the rain continues, do I go to the gym tomorrow?