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After huge amounts of rain fell most places North of Canberra last week we decided we would try and find some water on Saturday. The original plan was to head to Glenbrook Creek in the Blue Mountains, a Class IV creek which rarely runs. There was no gauge but there had been a huge amount of rain in Penrith so we agreed to check the overnight rainfall at 7am and make a decision. When I checked the BOM I also noticed the Kangaroo river was at 0.90m compared to 0.60m that it was at midnight, so we decided we would go for the Kangaroo river instead, a little closer. After turning off the freeway near Moss Vale we started going through massive puddles, paddocks were flooded, dams were overflowing, on a couple of occasions the width of the road was covered in 6 inches of water. By the time we got to Hampden bridge the river was at 1.2m, a good level. We went into Kangaroo Valley to grab a pie for lunch before heading to the put in. As we again crossed the bridge the river was visibly higher.

About half way between the take out and the put in we came to a creek crossing that was a little deep for the car, so we had to walk the rest of the way. To our surprise, the level at the put in was similar to the previous time we were there, somewhere in the vicinity of 3m. The whole way down there was only a boulder or two to be seen, every thing was underwater. Rather then tight, tricky manoeuvring between boulders the rapids turned into huge wave trains. There were few eddys and not many opportunities to get the camera out and take photos and video. The photos we did take are below, and I will soon put together a video of the action.

Click below to see the photos.