I just wanted to let Aussie readers know that the ride crew and I are safe. Victoria is experiencing a major rain event where it has been raining heavily since Wednesday night. (It is Saturday here now).
I was lucky to get mobile reception high up on a ridge on Tuesday and saw the deteriorating weather forecast. They were predicting up to 120mm of rain over 3 days in the area I’m riding. I knew I needed to get out of the high country lest I get stuck by fallen trees and flooding and a saturated tent.
So we came down off the Great Divide on Wednesday, camped in a random spot that night at the forest edge, got about 7mm of rain overnight, then rode hard in a break in showers to get to Rawson on Thursday morning.
And it has been raining pretty much since then – very hard at times. There has been about 70mm in total to 9am this morning and another 20-60mm forecast for today.
Luckily, I was able to get a small donga for $50 a night at a quirky and mostly dead caravan park in Rawson. That does not break my weekly $250 budget and has kept us safe, warm and dry (except in trips to the toilet, as the donga has no ensuite).
My ‘campsite cubby is the third one down in the pic below. I’m standing in the camp kitchen with an amenities block to the left. Bike is in the camp kitchen.
You can see rainfall totals predicted in the photo below – we are on the left side of the darkest red/purple.
The rain is meant to ease by late tomorrow morning, so I hope to move on to Heyfield on very gluggy roads tomorrow afternoon. We are getting down to our final bits of food and have not done laundry since we left Albury, so we are really needing a service town pronto!
So this rain event will see some places get three months of rain in three days. Melbourne had almost a month’s worth of rain in one afternoon on Thursday. It feels a bit deja vu to the far western NSW ride where I kept getting stuck by rain in June and July!
However, I’m still feeling happy and positive about this ride, even with long-term forecasts indicating a wetter than normal October.
I’ve had a heap of fun so far and my butt has come good and I’m starting to feel stronger on the gravel climbs with less grunting and energy required. I’m loving the downhills and getting my bike handling skills back up to scratch.
I’ve already felt that joy and connection and state of ‘flow’ that I always sync with on the high country rides. I’m so ready to get back out there for more!
So, yep, we are safe and dry and just hanging out for now.
And yes, we definitely felt the 4.8 magnitude earthquake last night, as the epicentre was just about 90 kms from here. It was a big jolt that woke me, a second smaller jolt and then a few seconds of good shaking with the first jolts accompanied by a low roar that sounded like it came up the valley.
The earth systems are very active in Gippsland this week! Hopefully there are no more updates required and I’ll write up an awesome tour on the flip side in a few months time. See you then! Keep your fingers crossed we can move on tomorrow.
