Erldunda to Alice Springs

Hello all,
After sitting for 2 days at Erldunda, hoping for the weather to break I decided to make a run for it. Yesterday afternoon there was a massive thunderstorm which swamped the Camping area at Erldunda.............but watching the weather radar, things were getting worse.

Last night about 10.30pm, the skies erupted, followed by 5 or 6 hours of continual thunder and lightning and heavy rain.

Yesterday's storm in sunny central australia

yesterday's storm

Apart from very little sleep, I fared a lot better than several others in tents and camper trailers. A total in excess of 65mm of rain fell overnight, I made the decision to make a run for Alice Springs. My thoughts were, if the roads end up being flooded and closed that I would rather be trapped in Alice than at a Roadhouse.
In the morning I slopped around in the rain and mud to pack up before any roads were closed. I am glad I made this decision, as I saw something I didn't think I would ever see........the Finke River in flood. The Finke is one of the oldest Rivers in the World and normally dry.

Finke River in flood

Finke River in flood

 The rain continued all the way to Alice, with water over the road in many places, and it is still raining as I type this.................

water over the road

welcome to Alice

When I lived in Alice for a year in 1989 I saw the Todd River flow twice, locals saying if you see it 3 times it makes you a local. Upon arriving in Alice the Todd River was flowing............that makes 3 times for me.

Todd River flooding over the causway

 The forecast is for another couple of days of these storms, so I have bunkered down in Alice for a couple of nights, the Eastern Mac Donnell Ranges have escaped a lot of the rain. I plan to head out there first for a few days,when I leave Alice, while all the roads dry out in the West Mac Donnell Ranges. I was a little concerned about my timing for Alice, I was worried I might get quite a few days in the high 30c range. I certainly didn't expect torrential rain............
Bye for now.