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Araps under water?

Dtb

8-Mar-2012
10:19:25 AM

Hi all,
A few friends and I are heading down to Araps from Sydney on Saturday for what is hopefully a week of great climbing ......but.....

1. Does anyone know if the roads down are open because of the rains? I was looking on the Vic weather site and it looks like a pick-a-path adventure book with roads closed all over the place. Anyone traveled there recent, know the best route?

2. Does anyone know what condition the campsite and road into Araps is like, how much rain has the place had, is it a mudpit or a free running stream at the moment?

We are heading down pretty lite and minimal but dont want to be stuck under a garbage bag in shorts and tshirt shivering for a week. Any beta would be great.

ajfclark

8-Mar-2012
10:29:53 AM

Hasn't actually been that much rain in Horsham. I was out climbing on Sunday and it was all pretty dry at the mount.

Decoy

8-Mar-2012
10:52:37 AM

I'm planing to drive down from Sydney tomorrow.

These are the two sites you need to watch:

http://livetraffic.rta.nsw.gov.au/desktop.html
http://alerts.vicroads.vic.gov.au/

Currently it looks like the Hume Hwy/Freeway is open all the way down to Seymour, from there just cut across to Bendigo and beyond. Little bit longer but avoids the major flooding areas.

Eduardo Slabofvic

8-Mar-2012
11:10:51 AM

My experience has been that the cross country route from the Wangarratta area (Bright to be exact) going via Violet Town, Murchison, Eagle Hawk, St Arnaud, Horsham is only half an hour shorter than going down the Hume Highway to the Melbourne ring road then up the western highway to Horsham. I'm not sure where road closures are exactly, but the floods of 2010 forced me to do the Hume/Western combo, which is when I discovered the time difference.

Clearly the distance is longer, but the design speed and ease of the road is higher makes up for it.

Dtb

8-Mar-2012
1:12:47 PM

Hey guys, thanks for the reply's.

Hey Decoy! umm, thanks for the hints, but how bout you tell me when we start the drive on Saturday!

lacto

8-Mar-2012
2:39:31 PM

only use the ring road out of busy hours as can take hours to go from the hume to western highway so your half hour extra could easily expand . probably the only dodgy bit would be between violet town and murchison but probably all gone by now Roos on road are the main danger

Climboholic

8-Mar-2012
3:10:53 PM

I grew up in that area and if the Broken River was peaking at Nathalia yesterday then I'd expect the Goulburn River to peak at the Murchison bridge this weekend. I wouldn't risk it - just take the Hume/ Western Ring Road route.

Normally the direct route is much faster. It's only marginally faster if you stick to the speed limits on the backroads, which very few locals do.

IdratherbeclimbingM9

8-Mar-2012
3:14:16 PM

On 8/03/2012 Climboholic wrote:
>Normally the direct route is much faster. It's only marginally faster
>if you stick to the speed limits on the backroads, which very few locals
>do.

I am impressed, especially given that you don't seem to ride a motorcycle!
Heh, heh, heh.

Wendy

8-Mar-2012
5:42:46 PM

Malcolm gets to Buffalo in 5.5 hours via those backroads ...

There were loads of bits of road wiped out from St arnaud through to Violettown last January. I have no idea what they are doing now, but someone had created a very helpful googlemap showing them all. I think it was linked to from vicroads.

lacto

8-Mar-2012
7:36:17 PM

On 8/03/2012 Climboholic wrote:
>I grew up in that area and if the Broken River was peaking at Nathalia
>yesterday then I'd expect the Goulburn River to peak at the Murchison bridge
>this weekend. I wouldn't risk it - just take the Hume/ Western Ring Road
>route.
>
>Normally the direct route is much faster. It's only marginally faster
>if you stick to the speed limits on the backroads, which very few locals
>do.
I actually grew up in nathalia and climboholic doesnt have a clue . the goulburn at murchison peaked at minor flood and has dropped the broken creek takes weeks for water to flow down and always peaks well after the broken river and goulburn . As the rain was all over the area and not just the hills all the small creeks filled up and lots of water lying in table drains and over the road but not really flowing . I dont think you will any problems from water as the campaspe , lodden , and avoca are all below minor flood level everywhere . Hopefully the levees at Nathalia holds as there will be 450mm through my parents house if they break and I haven't been able to get all the furniture above this. Looks like it has probably peaked now as was at 3.24 m for 4 hrs and 3.25 for the last 5 hours

Eduardo Slabofvic

8-Mar-2012
8:36:34 PM

On 8/03/2012 Climboholic wrote:
> only marginally faster
>if you stick to the speed limits on the backroads, which very few locals
>do.

Watch out for the Bagshot level crossing - I've been pinged there on there occasions

Kieranl

8-Mar-2012
9:15:56 PM

Saves a lot of time if you can totally miss Bendigo by cutting across thru Elmore to Bridgewater

There are 12 messages in this topic.