Disastrous Weather

November 16:
I played golf this morning just as I do every other Saturday. The forecast was for showers and storms to develop later in the day. We had been experiencing similar weather for many days beforehand, with late afternoon showers bringing thunder and lightning.
Our weather usually comes from the south, and once it reaches us, it tends to hug the Great Dividing Range to the west, with the worst of the weather affecting towns to the north, such as Ballina, Byron Bay, and Tweed Heads.
 
However, on this Saturday afternoon, the storms that battered Sawtell remained out over the ocean, and we experienced the worst weather the area has seen in many years. The storm lasted just over an hour, with twenty minutes of hail, some of which was the size of golf balls. We watched as the hailstones hammered down on our gardens, stripping leaves from trees, cracking windows, denting our awnings, and causing considerable damage to our Bushtracker.
 
Every surface on the van has been damaged, especially the top. It appears that someone has taken to it with a ball hammer; however, the four solar panels on the roof remained undamaged.
We are insured with CIL and have sent a series of photos to Bushtracker on the Sunshine Coast, who will provide CIL with a quote for repairs. A CIL assessor has inspected our van and informed me that we will need a complete re-skin.

 

 

 

 

Canberra to Sawtell

November 4:

A chilly five degrees inside the van this morning. Today we left Canberra after spending the past seven days camped at Exhibition Park. We had visited family and friends over the past week. Heading north along the Barton Highway, we passed through Murrumbateman. It is located 40 km north of Canberra and is surrounded by vineyards that produce cool climate wines. 

We joined the Hume Highway near Yass and headed west for 17 km before turning north onto Lachlan Valley Way. Passing through Boorowa, a small country town of just over a thousand people, before continuing on towards Cowra. Cowra is surrounded by farmland and is a wine-producing region known for its Chardonnay. During the Second World War, Cowra housed captured Japanese and Italian military personnel, and in 1944 Japanese POWS staged a breakout from the camp. This breakout became known as the Cowra Breakout. Some prisoners were killed, some committed suicide, and four Australians were killed.

We stopped in Molong for lunch at the local bakery before heading on to Yeovil. We prefer to take the less travelled road rather than major roads, but unfortunately, the road from Molong could best be described as a goat track and was in poor condition. We set up camp at the showground, which is listed in Camps 7, but there was no caretaker in residence, so we parked behind one of the tin sheds to shield ourselves from the strong winds we had experienced all day. There were toilets, taps, and power boxes, but we chose not to use any of the facilities since we hadn't paid. Like many places where we've camped, we had the entire area to ourselves, apart from several cows in the neighbouring field.

November 5:

A very chilly zero degrees this morning, with temperatures forecast to rise into the thirties and another day of thirty-plus km/h winds expected. Our plan was to camp at the showgrounds in Gulgong tonight, but we've now decided to spend three nights camped at Arakoon, across the bay from South West Rocks, so it was off to camp at Jerry's Plains in the Hunter Valley. The 40 km of road from Yeovil to Wellington was in a similar condition to the goat track we travelled on yesterday. Here, we emptied our toilet cassette at the showgrounds and then refuelled at $159.9 cpl before stopping in Gulgong for morning tea. We passed through Ulan, with its open-cut and underground coal mines, before turning east onto the Golden Highway. The wind forecast proved correct, and for most of the day, we faced a severe headwind. We encountered a semi-trailer 15 km west of Denman, carrying a seven-metre-wide load, and followed it until it pulled over at Denman Gap, allowing the now large queue of vehicles to pass.

 

November 6-8:
Nine degrees at 6:30 with some fog in the surrounding valleys and lovely blue skies. Thankfully, the strong winds we experienced over the past three days now seem to have abated. We passed through Maitland 80 km later and turned north at Hexham before refuelling at Raymond Terrace at 159.9 cpl. From here, we had a straightforward journey north to Arakoon and arrived just after 1:00. We have a lovely site overlooking the bay to South West Rocks.