The weather looked pretty good for the drive up from Sydney. We booked in to a park at Stockton Beach A great place. Just out of town and right behind the beach.
Unfortunately a pretty serious low pressure system arrived about the time we did.
Sunday afternoon we received a message from the SES telling us to pull down awnings and secure any loose items... this is getting serious! We were battened down, windows closed and all secure by about 8pm. We were getting serious rain and the wind was strengthening. The wind strengthened through the night with gusts up to 120km recorded at the port entrance, about 500m from where we were. The van was being buffeted. I though of filling up the water tanks to add another 180kgs of weight but yours truly only weighs 85kg and might have been blown away. So we put up with the buffeting and the noise and the rain which was now coming in horizontally. We didn't get much sleep but in the morning we discovered we were still on the same site (alone) so we were pretty happy. We also discovered the guy on the site behind us had moved his car to shield his own van during the night so we had the full force right on the back of the van.
Our mates (Glen and June) took us out for the day, north to Port Stephens, then back into town for lunch, the lookout and some of the southern beaches. The weather was wet and getting windier but the company was excellent.
Monday night was a repeat of the night before but windier and wetter. We had our car behind the van to break up the wind as best we could. The morning arrived, we looked outside and there were trees down all over the place, minor flooding in the park, non of the services were working, power, water, etc was out.... but we had prevailed. My major concern in the whole matter was that we got hit with something, but we didn't
The guy next to us, in a pop-top, had it lowered and was watching it move up and down half an inch and wondering when it was just going to "pop", which it didn't. It wasn't the weather to be out camping in.
We drove out midmorning Tuesday heading north. There was minimal flooding along the coast but there were trees down everywhere, mostly cleared. There were potholes everywhere. We were careful.
Yep, it was windy.
Newcastle Port
Stockton CP on Tuesday morning
The weather map showing the wind on the Sunday night.
Unfortunately a pretty serious low pressure system arrived about the time we did.
Sunday afternoon we received a message from the SES telling us to pull down awnings and secure any loose items... this is getting serious! We were battened down, windows closed and all secure by about 8pm. We were getting serious rain and the wind was strengthening. The wind strengthened through the night with gusts up to 120km recorded at the port entrance, about 500m from where we were. The van was being buffeted. I though of filling up the water tanks to add another 180kgs of weight but yours truly only weighs 85kg and might have been blown away. So we put up with the buffeting and the noise and the rain which was now coming in horizontally. We didn't get much sleep but in the morning we discovered we were still on the same site (alone) so we were pretty happy. We also discovered the guy on the site behind us had moved his car to shield his own van during the night so we had the full force right on the back of the van.
Our mates (Glen and June) took us out for the day, north to Port Stephens, then back into town for lunch, the lookout and some of the southern beaches. The weather was wet and getting windier but the company was excellent.
Monday night was a repeat of the night before but windier and wetter. We had our car behind the van to break up the wind as best we could. The morning arrived, we looked outside and there were trees down all over the place, minor flooding in the park, non of the services were working, power, water, etc was out.... but we had prevailed. My major concern in the whole matter was that we got hit with something, but we didn't
The guy next to us, in a pop-top, had it lowered and was watching it move up and down half an inch and wondering when it was just going to "pop", which it didn't. It wasn't the weather to be out camping in.
We drove out midmorning Tuesday heading north. There was minimal flooding along the coast but there were trees down everywhere, mostly cleared. There were potholes everywhere. We were careful.
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