Country style yarns, complete with plea for which motorbicycle to get
I live 500m from what is claimed to be the fastest flowing river in Australia (although I can't find any cites to back that up). We are 30km from the source of the river, which starts on the slopes of my workplace. When it floods, it goes up, then comes down within a day, and it takes 2 days for it to wrap around the volcanic shield of the Warrumbungles, and pass through Coonamble, some 70km from where it started (if fish could fly - since they can't, it must be about 300-400km around the volcanic shield, but I can't find any tables of river length).
Also pretty much everytime whenever it floods, some idiot gets themself stranded or washed away when trying to travel through the swollen river. The volunteer rescue association sure seemed frantic when heading towards the river this morning after we had 60mm of rain overnight (I now will happily eat my hat, after proclaiming that we only got 3mm of the predicted 80mm of rain, and that BOM really need to get their act together). In fact, it can't be too good, because a rescue helicopter just landed at our local hospital (rain seems to invite the idiots -- some P-plater lost their exhaust outside my house, dumping the muffler on my front lawn when they span out at 90km/h in the 50 zone)
For much of the year, the river only flows underground (although many historical bores are running dry and are having to be dug deeper, indicating that we are drying up the river flow underground as well, despite most people thinking that bores are an endless source of water). Curiously, according to a conversation around the bikies[1] table at the coffee shop this morning, for a few hours before the floods arrive, the sand can be heard hissing, as the underground river starts to flow more vigourously, causing the dust to rise too in some places.
I suspect the river shows a tidal bore-like phenomenon (could it even be a soliton?), in that if there is flow already in the river at Coonamble, when the flood arrives, it supposedly arrives as a single wave that increases the height of the river by a large and visible amount, and then the river gradually rises from there.
I love these "outback" legends. Stories like how that if the fridge at the bar somewhere in the Queensland shows condensation in the morning, then the morning glory will roll through in a few hours. Or how mum can predict rain if her fridges start leaking water, her finger or back get sore, the ants start coming out, or the cat won't go outside in the morning. Although I've convinced mum to set up a spreadsheet of her predictions, because I'm pretty sure the last 7 times she predicted rain based on the ant observerations, it hasn't rained.
[1] I got my motorcycle license. Now I just have to find a bike, and learn how to ride it. Any ideas for learner approved (up to 650cc, 150kw/tonne) bikes comfortable for long distance in the cold and wet with a bit of towing capacity (ie, faired tourers with heated grips)? Good for a first bike that may well suffer from a fall (ie, not faired tourers, d'oh)? Value for money (I don't want to go through too many $8000 bikes before I learn to not drop them)? Economical (ie, probably not a sit-up-and-beg tourer, since I'm still trying to live up to my greeny credentials)? Fun, because I work on the side of a mountain?
Also pretty much everytime whenever it floods, some idiot gets themself stranded or washed away when trying to travel through the swollen river. The volunteer rescue association sure seemed frantic when heading towards the river this morning after we had 60mm of rain overnight (I now will happily eat my hat, after proclaiming that we only got 3mm of the predicted 80mm of rain, and that BOM really need to get their act together). In fact, it can't be too good, because a rescue helicopter just landed at our local hospital (rain seems to invite the idiots -- some P-plater lost their exhaust outside my house, dumping the muffler on my front lawn when they span out at 90km/h in the 50 zone)
For much of the year, the river only flows underground (although many historical bores are running dry and are having to be dug deeper, indicating that we are drying up the river flow underground as well, despite most people thinking that bores are an endless source of water). Curiously, according to a conversation around the bikies[1] table at the coffee shop this morning, for a few hours before the floods arrive, the sand can be heard hissing, as the underground river starts to flow more vigourously, causing the dust to rise too in some places.
I suspect the river shows a tidal bore-like phenomenon (could it even be a soliton?), in that if there is flow already in the river at Coonamble, when the flood arrives, it supposedly arrives as a single wave that increases the height of the river by a large and visible amount, and then the river gradually rises from there.
I love these "outback" legends. Stories like how that if the fridge at the bar somewhere in the Queensland shows condensation in the morning, then the morning glory will roll through in a few hours. Or how mum can predict rain if her fridges start leaking water, her finger or back get sore, the ants start coming out, or the cat won't go outside in the morning. Although I've convinced mum to set up a spreadsheet of her predictions, because I'm pretty sure the last 7 times she predicted rain based on the ant observerations, it hasn't rained.
[1] I got my motorcycle license. Now I just have to find a bike, and learn how to ride it. Any ideas for learner approved (up to 650cc, 150kw/tonne) bikes comfortable for long distance in the cold and wet with a bit of towing capacity (ie, faired tourers with heated grips)? Good for a first bike that may well suffer from a fall (ie, not faired tourers, d'oh)? Value for money (I don't want to go through too many $8000 bikes before I learn to not drop them)? Economical (ie, probably not a sit-up-and-beg tourer, since I'm still trying to live up to my greeny credentials)? Fun, because I work on the side of a mountain?