Perfect timing

Perfect timing is sometimes the most important thing when it comes to experiencing the awesome power of nature. After two days of wild weather culminating in floods, road closures and trees coming down, I managed to get out for a quick 45km ride this evening. I left a little later than usual because of time I had to spend doing other things, but that may have been for the best. I headed for Little Nerang Dam, but at the crossing of Mudgeeraba Creek near Austinville, some sirens illuminated a "road closed" sign.

A quick discussion with a council worker told me I had arrived around 10 minutes after the water had fallen below the road level (although not by very much as it turned out), so I was able to continue. A little further along I turned off, and started climbing the gorge to Little Nerang Dam, this was where the ride really got interesting. My eyes for the moment had to focus on avoiding some debris, which took a little more work than expected due to some thick fog that covered parts of the ride, but my ears were given the treat this time. On one side of the gorge I could hear cascading waterfalls, on the other, the torrent that Little Nerang Creek had become.

On reaching the summit and descending right to the dam wall, it got even better. Little Nerang Dam simply wasn't designed to hold the volume of water that was now flowing in from the downpours in the mountains around, and the gorge below had flooded. Somehow some ambient light had made it's way here (from where I don't know, there was no moon up), and I could clearly see the torrent cutting through the gorge between Mt Nimmel and the Wunburra Range, the former shrouded in cloud.

Yet away from the power of this torrent, the other side of the dam wall was the complete opposite. The almost total lack of wind in the valley had given the lake an appearance not unlike glass. There was not a ripple in the water, and I could clearly see the reflection of Springbrook and the surrounding hills. In the sky, there was a clear view of a million stars above. All of this, was just a matter of perfect timing, and nothing more.