Driving to Mackay

Worst Flooding in 100 Years!

Yes indeed, this is true.  We have nothing to compare this to but the radio was right. 

When we left Hervey Bay this morning to head north to Mackay, Gypsy, our GPS lady, took us the fastest way.  That shortcut took us to within 3 kilometres of the end where the back road merged with the Bruce Highway.  But 3 km from our goal, almost spitting distance, the road was closed because part of it was submerged to a 12” depth.  We didn’t even consider risking it:  lonely back road, virtually no traffic, no cell phone…bad news if we got stuck.

We had to backtrack, go back to our starting point (damn!) and even a few kilometers south of where we started out in order to get onto the Bruce Highway.  This set us back one hour which was our first dilemma since we had about 700 km to cover that day. 

Second dilemma?  The Bruce Highway between leading up to Rockhampton is a *(&^%#@ slalom course.  They don’t call it that, but they do warn you:  “Potholes next 110 kilometres” reads the flashing sign.  After you complete the 110 km, there are more signs:  “Potholes next 50 km” and so on, all the way to Rockhampton. 

Hah. They don’t want you to lose heart at the beginning by saying, “Deep and Abundant Potholes randomly spaced on this entire highway for the next 700 km.  Try to dodge them without swerving into oncoming traffic and killing yourself.  Good luck.”  This section of the highway is a disgrace, and it’s a national highway.  Some stimulus dollars would be well spent here.

We did have to cross some water but there was a line of cars ahead of us and we watched them all make it through though it looked deep, so we followed.  It worked.  Whew!