South Esk Flood
Aug. 16th, 2009 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithWet & miserable day outside. Much more appropriate for posting about floods than yesterday's fine, sunny day.
I dropped into Royal Park on the way up to sister's place yesterday. I'd msged her earlier to see if there was any chance of getting a ride up to Trevallyn Dam to see it in flood. To get to the dam, you have to drive up through Trevallyn, and then right out along this road that goes through a forest reserve. Quite a way, I'm not sure of the distance but more than I wanted to walk. We arranged to go up there about 2. So I caught an earlier bus into the city and walked over to Royal Park to see if it was under water. As you can see above, it's quite above water. It often floods up to the base of the levees (the grey steps).
The Tamar River, the destination of all the water that was running down the South Esk was looking a bit choppy but nothing interesting. I msged sister again and said there's nothing much happening now, and so we arranged to head up there closer to 4.
Beyond the boats though, under the bridges, you can see the foam surging down through the Cataract Gorge.
It's not noticeable in these size photo but I thought it worth walking up to see what was happening. The old mill here is now a restaurant/cafe. The path was up along the front of there, under the first, modern bridge and comes up just on the left of the older Kings Bridge.
By now it's obvious many other people have had the same idea.
Photo from King's Bridge. Not all that interesting here, so I go up a bit further.
As I've said other times, I do like this place. It's a fun mixture of wild bush reserve & late Victorian park grounds, and nicely close to the city.
The river's been partly tamed by the dam upstream, so it doesn't get the wild rapids and floods of earlier years, but it does it best at time.
Not that a 600 px wide photo can really show anything :(
You also don't get the roar and thunder, and the spray over everything *wipes down the back of the camera*
Obligatory looking back towards the bridge photo, with the city behind.
I got held up here a long than I thought, watching the guys with the kayak to see if he'd actually go in the river, so I had to hurry back to catch the bus up to sister's.
The top end of Paterson St is rarely so busy. I think half the city is here.
I did wonder if it was worth even going up to the dam. As I said, it's a way up, even by car. Even without the long drive through the reserve, Trevallyn is built on the side of a hill, and not designed for cars.
The dam supplies water to the power station I visited last year. This is what it usually looks like:
Photo: Scott Davies, via Wikipedia Commons
As we drive up, there is a constant stream of cars coming back the other way. This could be good -- lots of people thinking there's something up there worth seeing -- or does it mean there's nothing worthwhile/it's closed, so they're not staying up there?
Our plan is park in one of the nearby BBQ areas and walk the dogs up to the dam area. According to the map, this is a 60 minute return walk (moderate). It is getting late, the car parks up here are closed at dusk, but the walks times are usually on the conservative side, meaning they don't usually take as long as advertised, right?
We don't get to find out, because a council worker tells up we won't get through that way because he's about to go and close the bridge down. We're not sure what bridge he means, but we accept that we won't get through that way.
So, a new plan. Brother-in-law shall walk the dogs while we take the car and see how close we can get to the dam.
This is when we discover where the other half of the city had got to.
So, we park the car and walk the rest of the way. Hoping it's not too far, but not really having any idea. Fortunately, we come to the gates after about 10-15 minutes walking.
Our first indication of the water is the rain, except it's not raining and, as sister said, it was like snow.
Again, you miss out on a lot with a 600 px photo. It's partly a trick of the light, it wasn't really this dark, but quite dramatic, like smoke rising from the water.
And further on, the source of the clouds.
I dropped into Royal Park on the way up to sister's place yesterday. I'd msged her earlier to see if there was any chance of getting a ride up to Trevallyn Dam to see it in flood. To get to the dam, you have to drive up through Trevallyn, and then right out along this road that goes through a forest reserve. Quite a way, I'm not sure of the distance but more than I wanted to walk. We arranged to go up there about 2. So I caught an earlier bus into the city and walked over to Royal Park to see if it was under water. As you can see above, it's quite above water. It often floods up to the base of the levees (the grey steps).
The Tamar River, the destination of all the water that was running down the South Esk was looking a bit choppy but nothing interesting. I msged sister again and said there's nothing much happening now, and so we arranged to head up there closer to 4.
Beyond the boats though, under the bridges, you can see the foam surging down through the Cataract Gorge.
It's not noticeable in these size photo but I thought it worth walking up to see what was happening. The old mill here is now a restaurant/cafe. The path was up along the front of there, under the first, modern bridge and comes up just on the left of the older Kings Bridge.
By now it's obvious many other people have had the same idea.
Photo from King's Bridge. Not all that interesting here, so I go up a bit further.
As I've said other times, I do like this place. It's a fun mixture of wild bush reserve & late Victorian park grounds, and nicely close to the city.
The river's been partly tamed by the dam upstream, so it doesn't get the wild rapids and floods of earlier years, but it does it best at time.
Not that a 600 px wide photo can really show anything :(
You also don't get the roar and thunder, and the spray over everything *wipes down the back of the camera*
Obligatory looking back towards the bridge photo, with the city behind.
I got held up here a long than I thought, watching the guys with the kayak to see if he'd actually go in the river, so I had to hurry back to catch the bus up to sister's.
The top end of Paterson St is rarely so busy. I think half the city is here.
I did wonder if it was worth even going up to the dam. As I said, it's a way up, even by car. Even without the long drive through the reserve, Trevallyn is built on the side of a hill, and not designed for cars.
The dam supplies water to the power station I visited last year. This is what it usually looks like:
As we drive up, there is a constant stream of cars coming back the other way. This could be good -- lots of people thinking there's something up there worth seeing -- or does it mean there's nothing worthwhile/it's closed, so they're not staying up there?
Our plan is park in one of the nearby BBQ areas and walk the dogs up to the dam area. According to the map, this is a 60 minute return walk (moderate). It is getting late, the car parks up here are closed at dusk, but the walks times are usually on the conservative side, meaning they don't usually take as long as advertised, right?
We don't get to find out, because a council worker tells up we won't get through that way because he's about to go and close the bridge down. We're not sure what bridge he means, but we accept that we won't get through that way.
So, a new plan. Brother-in-law shall walk the dogs while we take the car and see how close we can get to the dam.
This is when we discover where the other half of the city had got to.
So, we park the car and walk the rest of the way. Hoping it's not too far, but not really having any idea. Fortunately, we come to the gates after about 10-15 minutes walking.
Our first indication of the water is the rain, except it's not raining and, as sister said, it was like snow.
Again, you miss out on a lot with a 600 px photo. It's partly a trick of the light, it wasn't really this dark, but quite dramatic, like smoke rising from the water.
And further on, the source of the clouds.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-16 08:13 am (UTC)Yes!