Trip to town

Yesterday we ducked in to town as we knew the creek was down and that the river was going down and crossable. We had to take two 44 gallon drums with us to get fuel, as well as an empty gas cylinder to exchange.

The journey in was uneventful, but we did come across some showers at the end of the bitumen. By the time we arrived in town, it was pouring!! We whizzed around and did our jobs getting supplies, mail and fuel amongst the most important. Nathan was invited to stay and play with some mates (thanks Frankie and Joy!) which was better that him racing around in the rain too.

Two hours later we headed home, only to discover it had rained on the black soil. All was okay until we got to the creek and from there the rain had been heavier. We so much weight over the back wheels, we soon became "stuck" and thought it wiser to stay where we were rather than end up in the table drain well and truly bogged.

We called on a neighbour and he headed our way in a 4WD tractor....thank goodness, as we were still about 15km from home. Other friends came along in their vehicle arriving just before Greg. Dougal pulled us back on to the road and stayed ahead cutting a track for us.

Greg kept a lookout until we were out of sight and then he headed home. The paddocks were full of water and it was incredible to see it pouring out of them and down into the table-drain, creating miniature waterfalls! Greg had measured 18mm at home but it was far wetter where we were.

Martin commented that he hoped there'd not been any rain at home. "Not one your nelly," I replied, "after going through all of this we'd better have got some!" Finally we got to the boundary fence and next minute we were kicking up dust!

It took us 4 hours to get home...normally a 45 minute drive. The eagerly awaited Christmas gifts are now wrapped and ready to pop under the Christmas tree tonight.