23rd September – Wednesday
Late yesterday afternoon a severe thunderstorm moved in, with virtually continuous lightning and thunder for more than five hours, as well as rain and high winds. Shortly after 6.00 pm, the rain turned to hail – the size of the hailstones were nothing like we have in Tasmania! It was a rather nervous time standing at a window, listening to the large hailstones hit the roof and Perspex windows, and also watching them bounce off the car. (The photo is of a few hailstones grabbed quickly from the door mat.) The wind shook the caravan all night and Les even got out of bed about 5.00 am to check we were still secure. Daylight brought more wind and rain – and also showed us a very muddy car!
Fortunately, the dust had moved on to Sydney overnight and we sat about waiting until nearly 9.00 am before deciding to hook up and leave. The wind was still very gusty, but coming from the west – the rain just came down. The drive to Canberra was fairly tense owing to the conditions, and the actions of one driver who tried to overtake in the face of an oncoming truck and then ran out of room. Another coat of duco and we would probably still be upside down on the side of the road. Some very ungentlemanly language was heard to be uttered!!!
TomTom navigated us safely through Canberra to the Crestview Caravan Park at Queanbeyan. In the last couple of weeks, she has started notifying us of nearby churches – not sure if there is a message there! We didn’t do much this afternoon, made sure we knew where the bowls club is for tomorrow’s game and wandered around a shopping centre for an hour, even managed a bit of Christmas shopping.
Late yesterday afternoon a severe thunderstorm moved in, with virtually continuous lightning and thunder for more than five hours, as well as rain and high winds. Shortly after 6.00 pm, the rain turned to hail – the size of the hailstones were nothing like we have in Tasmania! It was a rather nervous time standing at a window, listening to the large hailstones hit the roof and Perspex windows, and also watching them bounce off the car. (The photo is of a few hailstones grabbed quickly from the door mat.) The wind shook the caravan all night and Les even got out of bed about 5.00 am to check we were still secure. Daylight brought more wind and rain – and also showed us a very muddy car!
Fortunately, the dust had moved on to Sydney overnight and we sat about waiting until nearly 9.00 am before deciding to hook up and leave. The wind was still very gusty, but coming from the west – the rain just came down. The drive to Canberra was fairly tense owing to the conditions, and the actions of one driver who tried to overtake in the face of an oncoming truck and then ran out of room. Another coat of duco and we would probably still be upside down on the side of the road. Some very ungentlemanly language was heard to be uttered!!!
TomTom navigated us safely through Canberra to the Crestview Caravan Park at Queanbeyan. In the last couple of weeks, she has started notifying us of nearby churches – not sure if there is a message there! We didn’t do much this afternoon, made sure we knew where the bowls club is for tomorrow’s game and wandered around a shopping centre for an hour, even managed a bit of Christmas shopping.
1 comment:
Those are big hailstones! At least you've made it to Canberra, so I guess you're just about on the home stretch. Enjoy wandering about Canberra Centre for more retail therapy...
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