Day 77

2nd March 2022

The Long Drive

We’ve put our car in for a service, which meant today the kids and I had to drive Liam up to the mountains for a meditation retreat he’d booked.

We knew it was wet but thought we’d still make the most of it and have a good day, drop Liam off and head home.

Road trip, right?!

It was going to be a big day, so I packed lots of snacks for the road.

We were 30 min into the trip when we came to a standstill.

Oh no! There must be an accident we thought. How awful. 😔

Wrong.

It was a landslide.

We sat in traffic for almost 2 hours with no way to turn around. 😒

We were eventually re-routed back the way we came, and so we thought we’d go another way.

Wrong.

That road was closed due to another landslide!

We decided we could bypass that road and head around a different mountain and then back up to the highway.

It was pretty scary.

There was so much water.

The narrow road over the mountain was made even smaller by a fast-moving torrent rushing down one side.

Enormous pools flooded the road.

We pulled over to check the road closures. They were everywhere. There was news of people in trouble all over the state. More and more roads closing & fallen trees and landslides.

“This is ridiculous!” Liam said frustrated. “It’s not worth it. Let’s go home.”

“Maybe we can put you on a train?” I said hopefully.

Nope.

The trains weren’t running because the track was under water.

We’d been driving for 3 and a half hour hours and we were only 30 minutes from our house! 😂

We told the kids we were headed back home. They were equal parts disappointed & overjoyed.

We stopped to stretch our legs and get hot chocolates for the kids & then we headed home.

As we made our way back over the mountain, we went through an enormous section of road that was almost undrivable. As we rounded the bend, the emergency services had arrived to close the road.

We only just made it through.

5 minutes later and we would have been flooded out!

No ‘school work’ today, other than learning the word torrent, not to take unnecessary risks & that packing pot noodles with a thermos of hot water is always a good idea! 😂

Everyone is tucked up in bed now.

The wind is expected to soar tonight.

Fingers crossed we don’t lose our trampoline!