We were on our way home today, coming back to the coast after a few days away out west. Last night we stayed with family in Canberra and learnt that a landslide had closed the road we needed to travel. 
You can see by the netting used to cover the rock face that these slips are common, and the netting catches smaller rocks, preventing them from rolling onto the road. It seems the King’s Highway is always being upgraded, but being a narrow heavily-used highway that winds precipitously down from the tableland to the coast it is often closed for short periods due to accidents or landslides.
People on the coast go to Canberra, the nation’s capitol city, for all sorts of work, family, medical, cultural and business reasons, while Canberrans escape to the coast as often as they can. However for this weekend and a few days next week the link is broken, businesses who depend on the traffic are closing early and putting off staff, holiday makers are not arriving on the Nature Coast, and travelers have to find a long way around.
The usual trip for us from Canberra takes 2 hours 15 minutes, and covers 168 km. Our first option was to travel through the Araluen Valley, on another notorious road, known for long-lived blockages. Our son in Moruya phoned to say the Araluen Road was also blocked after heavy rain, closed in both directions. Then he used Google maps ‘directions’ function to check our alternatives. To go south and take our chances on Brown Mountain (which is reduced to one lane in a section that has also suffered from a road slip) would get us home in about 4 hours 10 minutes and cover 334 kms.
Oallen Ford, bridge/causeway on the Shoalhaven River
Driving north on the Turpentine Road would take us 4 hours 40 minutes and cover 306 kms. This was our choice, not knowing how long we might be held up on the one-lane section of the Brown Mountain road into Bega. The road crossed the Great Dividing range by following ridges, gradually dropping down to the coast. There was a spectacular crossing of the Shoalhaven River where the old timber bridge was almost underwater, and the river ran strongly across the concrete culvert ford.
After a longer than expected trip are glad be safely home from our wonderful week away!
Amazing pics! Glad you found a way and made it home safe.
You could use some good bridges, this one looks a bit precarious :), glad you found a way home, looks like a scenic route always a better choice when one has a camera, nice images, MJ
writers’ block for highways ?
haha! nice idea carl 🙂
That rock slide looks like it could have been a real tragedy, had the timing been right. Scary! A little more rain, and I suspect that humble little bridge would have been useless.
you are so right, lucky no-one was hurt by the rockslide, and lucky for us we got over the river crossing, we were getting keen to arrive home!
Wow! Stunning shots hon. Glad you made your way back home safely. Landslides are very dangerous. 🙂
*hugs*
Ahh the power of nature and the smart thinking of a son with internet access! Good to hear you are back safe and sound 🙂
thank you claire … yes nature is awesome as we frequently see in the movements of mountains, seas, rivers and winds! we were so grateful to the son who took the trouble to help, warms the heart 🙂
All’s well that ends well, right? Adventures when you least expect them are sort of like Life in general I say. Glad everything worked out well for you.
thanks doug, it was an adventure! we saw a new waterfall too, and watched but did not photograph some lovely birds 🙂
Holy tomoly! That landslide is scary. Glad no one was hurt. Great capture of it on the roadway. Wow!
thanks margie, that mountain is scary too …. lots of hairpin bends!
shocking landslide – be glad that you weren’t there when it tumbled down!
indeed, and what a long drive back out before you could take the detour!
That looks bad! Glad you got home safe!
Wow! That is some slide/blockage! Glad you were able to find a way around and arrived home safely. 🙂
That is some story and photos to accompany it. It must have felt really wonderful to be home.
Especially after crossing that bridge!
you are so right, it was such a long way around, we go up the mountain again this weekend, so doubly appreciate the more direct route now …. no dodgy bridges either!