Due to a change in family plans we ultimately decided to ignore my previous advice and travel to Canberra for Xmas. We left early on the 20th to avoid the Xmas travelling throngs ..or should that be nongs … and went for inland via Bylong Valley Way for a few days, unwinding at our favourite NSW country town Rylstone.
This turned out to be a good plan as there was no traffic and the town was pretty empty of tourists. We took our time which as per my earlier posts on this thread was mandatory. The roads out here are screwed beyond repair in many places and there is going to be a massive injection of federal funding required to fix this stuff. Think about it. This is infrastructure that’s been built up over a century and has been destroyed over months. I’m not optimistic about the future if this continues to happen.
If you enlarge or zoom this pic it’s bad . This is rebuild stuff and at the bottom of many sag curves in the vertical alignment of the roads.
Anyway two things. One is, we are going to make a point of visiting all the little towns out here again on our travels as soon as practicable. They need the cash influx from travelling folk and tourists as they are hurting quite a bit . So if you’re looking for a weekend away don’t overlook them. These country towns are great storehouses of history and wonderful places to visit. We got out of Eugowra about 8 days before it went under last month but we’re heading back soon to throw a few dollars around to help it get back on its feet and have donated to the flood appeal. Just watch the roads as I’ve mentioned.
Second thing and it always comes up after such disasters, be careful if buying cars in the next few years. Flood damaged cars will be on the market both privately and commercially. No doubt about it. It’s not hard to clean up a vehicle but the long term damage to electrical components particularly modern computerised stuff is going to bite you in the donkey in short order and there will be tears before bedtime. It happened to a friend of ours on a commercially bought car and there was lots of hassle. The type of vehicle that Investigator owners might like as tow cars e.g. dual cab 4wds will obviously figure in the common types. We are always careful not to go through water deeper than our axle hubs, as per pics I put up earlier, but submerge a differential without diff breathers and it can cause your hot diff to suck in cold muddy water. Most city slicker 4wd owners are not even aware of the problem and it can lead to long term damage if diffs are not drained, cleaned and refilled.
Don’t ignore the fact that city cars may have been driven through floodwaters to get out, or rural cars may have been shipped, relocated and reregistered in urban locations as camouflage .
Just sayin’.
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