Australia Day - Deua National Park

WEATHER FORECAST

I came down here a few weeks ago, and was greeted by some "road closed" signs which were a bit rude! Anyway, I came back again with the hope that I would enjoy a nice dry weekend for a change.

I was mostly happy with what I received! At least the roads were not closed this time!

GETTING THERE

With the Australia day being on Monday, I managed to leave early on Friday to make things an even longer weekend. I set off after lunch to make the 300kms journey south. Unfortunately the weather was not looking too good. And as I got closer and closer to the park, I could see lightning and rain off in the distance. I decided to push on anyway as there are plenty of places to stay that are more weather friendly, that I found last time I was here.

I did manage to get down into the valley before any large down pour hit me which was good, and in fact the tracks were in pretty good condition. I was surprised though at how few people were around - being Australia Day and all. I'm guessing they all read the weather forecast and decided to go somewhere else!

BEST CAMP EVER

I managed to secure the best ever camp site in Deua NP. I'm not going to say where it is, because then I will have to fight even more people off it. But shortly after setting up camp, I was hit by the first of several rain storms for the weekend. This was big, violent and with a lot of rain.

MANS BEST FRIEND

The storms dont seem to last too long, so after cleaning up I was able to sit back and watch the Kangaroos grazing on the grass around my camp site. The temperature was still quite high, so I knew that more storms would be on their way.

VALLEY FUN

So for the next couple of days, I didnt get up to much. But I was able to help out a fellow four wheel driver, who had managed to get himself stuck in the Deua River. Due to the recent rain, the base of the river crossing had become quite disturbed, and he managed to get hooked up on some rocks. Didnt take long to pull him out, but unfortunately the engine managed to swallow up a little too much water and was refusing to start. I pulled the couple to a location where they would be comfortable for a couple of days, which would hopefully let the car dry out and recover. On my way out of the valley, two days later, they were gone. Its unclear if the car dried out or if they were recovered.

MORE FJS

Doesnt seem to matter where I go these days, there is always another FJ around. I bumped into Christophe and his family as they were driving around the valley. They were from Sydney and camping at the main camp area, along with only a couple of other campers. I visited them a couple more times over the weekend, we shared some stories and had some beers...It was Australia day afterall!

LEAVING

So after a nice relaxing weekend spent in the valley with good people, and plenty of wildlife. It was time to head back home again. And of course when it comes to packing up time - the rain has to start! I managed to get mostly packed up before it started, then head down to check on Christophe and family. They were just finishing off packing up so we all drove out of the valley together.