“Queensland – The Sunshine State”, reads the subheading propaganda on the local car’s numberplates. Sunshine? My *rse! We’ve seen nothing of it!

Given the almost continuous overcast skies and rain to which we have been subjected in New South Wales, we decided to head north across the border and into Queensland–The Sunshine State–and I’ve got to tell you, I’ve never seen rain like this. It has been non-stop, torrential horizontal rain since we began the drive six hours ago. The windscreen-wipers have been on full-speed all day and they still haven’t cleared the water. Top speed on the 100km/hr “motorway” has been about 60km/hr today and we’ve aquaplaned most of the way to Hervey Bay, where Claire has family friends, Ray and Gillian, who have an all-important roof. No way would our tent have survived this; it’s way heavier than Syndey’s recent one-in-a-hundred-year storm.

We were planning a number of coastal town stops along the way to Hervey Bay, but through our waterlogged windscreen we couldn’t even see the turn-off signs to the places, so the any chance of sitting on a beach in our bathers is absolutely out of the question. This is the worst weather I’ve ever seen and it must be pretty bad by local standards, given the water line, road closures, ditched cars and police-operated traffic diversions. (The following day’s newspapers confirmed my suspicions.) Unbelievably, Queensland is still in a state of severe drought…

Well done to our car Don, once again it completed a tough drive without even blinking.