I had said in Fiji that I wish I could witness first-hand the power of a cyclone. Well Mother Nature has given me a nice birthday gift. And what an experience it was. But before I go on talking about cyclone Carlos, let me talk about the kind of impact category 5 (the most destructive power in the scale) cyclone Yasi had on our journey from Adelaide to Darwin.
The remnants of cyclone Yasi were already inland when we left Coober Pedy on February 5 in the morning. Our destination, Uluru, was straight on the path of Yasi, which had by then already been downgraded to a category 1 storm (winds up to 115 kilometers an hour).
As we approached Uluru, it became obvious that we had crossed path with Yasi. The gusts of wind were tossing our campervan left and right on the road. When we parked over for the night, Ania was extremely worried about the campervan tipping over and falling on the side. The next day we reached Uluru where we stayed for two days. It poured down heavily a few times but there was no sign of any flooding.
It is on the road from Uluru to Alice Springs that we encountered our first flooded roads. However, the water over the road was not deep enough to prevent crossing. So far so good.
But everything changed in the Western Macdonnel Ranges west of Alice Springs. We had planned a two day trip in the ranges to enjoy the many great swim holes, canyons and hikes in the area.
We were only about 15 kilometers west of Alice Springs when we realized that we had once again crossed path with Yasi: the main road was flooded.
There was a fairly strong current that cut the road for about 30 meters. I asked my chief navigator to test for depth. The response was 10 centimeters. We decided to go ahead and drive through. We made it. Phew!
The big hurdle came about 100 kilometers west of Alice Springs. We had to hit the breaks in a hurry when we saw the massive current that was sweeping across the road. Another campervan was also parked on the side of the road. We all looked at each other in amazement. A 4WD service truck popped behind us. The workers warned us: don’t even think about it. Our journey had to end here. There was no way around this. Bummer!
This was not the last time we had to change our plans because of Yasi.
On the road north of Alice Springs, Ania and I had decided to noodle for zircon and garnets at Gemtree, which lies about 140 kilometers north-east of Alice Springs. When we arrived at Gemtree we asked about noodling in the area. The lady who operates the tours told us that the dirt road to the gemfield was impassable. Bummer again!
We continued our journey north and realized that Stuart Highway itself was flooded for hundreds of kilometers. The water was never deep enough to warrant road closure, but traffic was definitely slower at times. I could hardly imagine our fate had we been here 6-7 days earlier. We would have definitely been stuck at the nearest roadhouse for days.
Once we reached Tennant Creek we knew that we were out of the danger zone. What we didn’t know was that we were about to cross path with a new cyclone.
In Katherine we heard a worrying weather report: a tropical depression was forming just west of Darwin, our final destination!!!
Our plans for the last days went up in smoke. We had planned to go to Kakadu National Park, but the lady at the visitor centre in Katherine told us that the road between Jabiru and Darwin was completely flooded.
Ania and I then decided to go to Litchfield National Park.
This was also a bad idea. We heard a weather report just as we were about to get on the road to Litchfield National Park: the main road into the park was under two meters of water. Two meters!!!
When it floods over here the authorities are not only concerned with flooded houses, businesses, and plantations. They have a serious threat to contend with: saltwater crocodiles.
Saltwater crocodiles are the biggest and most dangerous crocodiles on earth. They’ll attack anything that enters the water or gets close enough to it. During the dry season (May-October) crocodiles are restricted to major waterways such as Adelaide River and Mary River. But everything changes during the wet season. Because rivers are flooding crocodiles are free to roam pretty much everywhere in the Top End. There are pictures of crocs lurking about in the middle of downtown Katherine. That’s how dangerous it can get.
Oh you’ll hear stories from Joe who was brave enough to swim in a random creek during the wet season. Maybe. But the truth is that swimming in a random creek in the wet season is akin to playing Russian roulette.
Back to our journey – When we found out that going to Litchfield National Park was a bad idea, we decided to sleep at the nearest rest area and make plans for the next few days.
It was pouring down and visibility was near zero when we arrived at the rest area. And what did we discover when we reached the rest area? Why that it was flooded of course! A creek about 50 meters away had exploded throwing a strong current in all directions.
We were in deep poo. We felt that making a dash for Darwin was premature considering that the cyclone was closing in on the city. Besides, driving in such heavy rain was nearly impossible. We had to stop for the night.
With most of the rest area under water, we decided to park in the highest part of the rest area where water had not (yet!?!) extended its reach. We parked the campervan in a way that allowed us to make a quick exit should the water level keep going up.
Ania and I got out of the van and surveyed the area. We kept away from the water edge because the part of the rest area that was under water was technically croc zone.
We anxiously watched the water level (from the safety of our van) for the next 5 hours. We were safe as long the water was not going any higher.
We decided to put the alarm clock in the middle of the night to check on the water level. Stress and nervousness made it so that we checked every hour of the night. We wanted to be absolutely sure that we remained on safe ground. At 7 am we peeked outside and realized that the water had actually receded in the night. Lucky us! It could have easily gone the other way though.
The morning report was serious: the tropical depression had now been upgraded to category one cyclone Carlos. Darwin had also apparently been hard hit the night before. After our morning tea&coffee, we decided to head for Darwin and bring back the van a full two days before originally planned. Our reasoning was that cyclone winds can easily bring down trees. We had full coverage for the campervan apart from a critical area: the top of the van.
Our Adelaide to Darwin trip ended a bit prematurely but safely.
Unfortunately we never managed to get onboard a cruise ship to see crocs on Adelaide River. It may have a blessing in disguise as we were told in Darwin that Adelaide River had flooded. Wise decision not to go!
No comments:
Post a Comment