Flood Holiday

[Rebel]

I was 17, just got my drivers license,so a mate & I decided to go on a shooting holiday to Dubbo. Those days it was common to go on shooting holidays. We got as far as Orange and the rain started bigtime. We drove into Molong and as we crossed the bridge it collapsed into the river. We kept driving and ended up on a road with a swollen river. We decided to turn around but it was to late. So here we were trapped with no where to go with six other cars in the middle of the night. Daybreak and things hadn't improved. We sat there for 18 hours. There was a farmer with a fruit truck also stranded. I have never eaten so much fruit in my life. The Army arrived and towed us out and we were off to Dubbo. Booked into a motel which was two storey and asked if we could stay on the top story as the rains were coming. Parked the car on high ground just in case. It rained all night and they only way out of the motel was by ladder as the first floor was under water. We had no where to go as Dubbo was flooded. The only thing that wasn't flooded was the town swimming pool. So we spent 5 days at the pool waiting for the water to receed so we could head for home. I picked up the best suntan staying at that pool. When I arrived home I knocked on the front door and my Mother said, can I help you ? I was so black from the suntan my own Mother didn't even recognize me. So much for a Holiday.

[Green Hornet]

The things we did before accurate weather forecasts. Great story Rebel.

Back in the mid 80's a mate and I headed down to Moruya Heads for a few days fishing and surfing around the breakwall at the river mouth. On the second night an extremely strong westerly sprang up making sleep difficult, so we decided get up early to fish the dawn tailor bite off the wall. 

After catching a few it was time to head back to the camp site and put a few fillets in the smoker for breakfast. When we got back the wind had blown over a huge gum tree that absolutely flattened and destroyed our tent.

Both of us dodged a bullet that day and learnt a few lessons along the way.

 

[Rebel]

No reliable weather reports in those days.

Still they can't get it right these days.

How many times have you gone fishing on a good day and the weather changes ?

I like it when a thunderstorm arrives out of nowhere and spoils the day.

Cheers.

[Green Hornet]

3 minutes ago, Rebel said:

No reliable weather reports in those days.

Still they can't get it right these days.

How many times have you gone fishing on a good day and the weather changes ?

I like it when a thunderstorm arrives out of nowhere and spoils the day.

Cheers.

Yeah, if one good thing came out of the old, unreliable forecasts was it taught me how to read a weather map.

Also chatting to the pro-fishermen and learning what to look for in the clouds, morning fog on the escarpment and similar signs were priceless back then and things I still keep an eye on these days.