Woke up early at 06:15 to find the power had gone out again. Luckily the water was heated by gas so could have a shower.
Some light rain, we headed off aiming to get to a small town on the border of South Australia and Victoria.
Drove solidly for about 3 hours with a couple of stops to stretch, power out everywhere, shops and service stations closed but we’d filled up the previous night – Song’s idea.
Just as well because we only saw one open and there was a queue of about 100 cars.
Got to Port Augusta, a supermarket was open but there was no fresh food but people were panic buying bread, batteries and water. It was like the apocalypse, I half expected to see a zombie.
Back in the car, headed out and it started to rain a lot – we were on the way to the small town but after looking at the map decided it was too risky – petrol would be tight and the road wasn’t brilliant and I was worried about flooding.
We looked at going to Mildura or Horsham – Mildura was closer but Horsham would take us through Adelaide where they had power and petrol, plus it was the main road and less likely to flood. Horsham would also mean we were further away from another storm that was going to hit South Australia again.
The rain was coming down harder and we drove through a few large puddles before coming round a corner and hitting a huge puddle that I didn’t see. Up ahead was an even larger one that I was a bit wary of going through but it was ok. There was a police car in front of another huge puddle and the policeman said I should be ok if I kept to the middle and went slowly. If he hadn’t been there I wouldn’t have risked it because it was bloody deep, but I followed a van through. It was pretty scary.
Went through a few more, not as bad as that one, but the rain was still coming down and I was worried we’d come across a closed road and have to make a long diversion.
We stopped off for lunch at a town just outside Adelaide and also filled up with petrol.
Luckily we managed to get to Adelaide and through, but the rain was hammering down and visibility was appalling.
Drove on, through the rain and listened to the radio which said a worse storm was on the way and would also hit North Victoria near Mildura – so just as well we didn’t go there.
Driving was pretty hairy – dark, raining and trucks hurtling by on the other side of the road.
Eventually got to Horsham at 22:00 – 14.5 hours on the road and 1120 km.