Goodbye summer, hello autumn.

The weather had really warmed up as we approached the official end of summer. The temperatures had topped 32c and it was also very humid, with hazy sunshine. I had once again cycled down to Nobbys Beach and had a fantastically cooling swim but elsewhere the storm clouds were gathering and rain was afoot.

My friend Denise was travelling with her son Ryan and his fiancée, Sabrina to their home in Narrandera, NSW and asked me if I wished to join them to see some more of the state. As well as a break for me from Newcastle, I would also be a back-up driver for Ryan who was a relatively novice driver and had not previously driven this far. The journey was 700km (434 miles) and we calculated that it would take us about 8 hours including comfort stops.

Denise lives in Cardiff and I caught the train from Newcastle, a short 15 minute journey. I dread to think how long the journey from Newcastle to Cardiff in the United Kingdom would take!

Flooding at Ganmain,NSW.

Murrumbidgee river in flood.

Gudagai, NSW.

Dine and feet wash at Gundagai, NSW.

We had intended to leave at about 12am but, due to some last minute maintenance being undertaken on Ryan’s car, we didn’t get away until just after 3pm. Heading onto Highway 1, we drove past Wyong and Gosford before reaching the Sydney suburbs. Skirting the city centre we picked up the M2 motorway and then Highway 31, better known as the Hume Highway, which we would follow towards Canberra.

The weather had deteriorated and the rain was now quite heavy. This added to failing light and rush-hour traffic heading out of Sydney slowed our progress somewhat. As darkness fell completely, the rain intensified and reports of flooding began to filter through for the areas that we were heading towards.

I am used to rain but this tropical style downpour was a newer experience. When we stopped for a break the warm air combined with the heavy rain was actually quite refreshing. I was wearing just shorts, t-shirt and sandals but it wasn’t a problem. Going inside an air-conditioned restaurant however was. I was bloody freezing, especially with being wet, and this was more reminiscent of home. I took my snack outside onto the covered terrace to eat.

We turned off the Hume Highway and picked up Highway 41 towards Junee. By now I was driving Ryan’s car and the roads were more twisty and narrow with lots of surface water. There were not many other vehicles on the road and this at least made driving easier as you didn’t have to cope with the reflection of headlights combined with the rain.

By the time we arrived at our destination in Narrandera it was 1am and the summer had officially ended. No kidding I thought as I paddled to my motel room, autumn had begun in the Southern Hemisphere.

I slept well and surprise, surprise it was still chucking it down when I looked out of the window at 8.15am. Denise and I met Ryan and Sabrina at a local bakery for tea and toast before saying our farewells and starting the long haul back to Newcastle.

We took the same route home and in daylight you could see the extent of the rainfall as the fields were pretty waterlogged. We hadn’t gone far before we reached a small town called Ganmain where the road to Junee was blocked by the emergency services. They told us that the road ahead was flooded, but after establishing where we were headed, allowed us to continue with care but that instead of turning towards Junee we would have to take the road to Wagga Wagga (pronounced Wogga Wogga) and pick up the Hume Highway there. The road we had travelled on in darkness late the previous night was completely underwater and closed. Some communities were cut-off with their homes flooded. This was the case in much of Southern NSW and Victoria that day.

The centre of Ganmain was flooded by the river having burst its banks and we stopped to take some photographs of the raging torrent. Sandbagged buildings with water lapping around them were much in evidence and the local news station reporters had arrived with cameras to capture the drama for national news casts.

We negotiated the roads without too much difficulty in Denise’s Toyota Land Cruiser and were soon at Wagga Wagga and then onto the Hume Highway.

We stopped for lunch at a famous watering hole called ‘Dog on the Tuckerbox’ at Gundagai. The origins of this well known stopping point on the Hume Highway would appear to go back to the pioneers who were exploring south and west from the colonial headquarters in Sydney between 1830-1850. These early pioneers were searching for the source of the Murrumbidgee River, and used carts pulled by bullocks to carry their supplies over the rough and hazardous terrain and were known as ‘bullockies’.

They would stop at Gundagai whilst waiting for water levels at nearby Muttama Creek to subside and the bullocky’s dog would sit guarding his master’s tuckerbox (food store) and possessions while he was away from camp. Through songs and a poem accredited to a bullocky known as Bowyang Yorke, the legend was born. Quickly, this story spread through the colony and in 1932 the then Prime Minister, Joe Lyons, unveiled a monument to those early pioneers featuring the ‘Dog on the tuckerbox’.

We ate at the quaint ‘Train Stop Café’ where old carriages serve as dining tables and a myriad of old collectables (not me and Denise!) can be seen and purchased. The rest of our return journey was completed uneventfully and with periodic downpours, arriving home at about 9pm.

I was just in time to watch the last 20 minutes of the opening Rugby League clash between the Newcastle Knights and St.George Illawarrah Dragons of Sydney on television. Played at the Hunter stadium before a sell out crowd of a little over 29,000, St.George stole the points with an overtime drop-kick golden point after they finished level at 14 points each during normal time.

An enjoyable if wet and tiring couple of days, experiencing at first hand the flooding drama affecting southern New South Wales and Victoria at this time.