Getting the best of the rain

Canberra is a relatively dry and sunny city but as is the case in most places it also rains. This past weekend the forecast was looking ominous - cool weather with steady rain. The weather folks were taking this storm seriously and issued lots of flood warnings as the higher than usual amount of rain was going to coincide with the biggest tide of the year. And true to foreboding predictions all the rain and waves and tides have been a blow to parts of Sydney and to the residents of many coastal homes. Canberra is far from the coast, so safe from the potential devastation of high tides but just as vulnerable to rain. And rain it did. It rained some of Friday and all of Saturday and all of Sunday and part of Monday. We like to spend our weekends outside but decided to take advantage of the rainy day on Saturday to bulk up on groceries, spend hours at the swimming pool, cook and play board games as a family.

For Sunday we had planned on hiking up Black mountain with another family. We knew the it would rain but I suggested we go for it anyhow because it seemed a shame to let the rain ruin our fun. Sunday morning it was pouring buckets and I thought our new friends might opt for a change of plans but we were lucky to have met another family who are just as tough, or crazy, as us.

So we put on as much rain gear as we could find and headed for the botanic gardens. By the time we walked to our chosen meeting spot we were soaked through. As were our friends who courageously bicycled over. The gardens were unsurprisingly rather empty and quiet. Until we showed up that is with our four adults and six energetic children all eight years old and under. And so soaking wet we started our trek through the gardens to the trail up black mountain making bets on how many other people we would encounter. I figured we would last about half an hour before children or adults started to whine and we all called it a day, but, it turns out that we are an impressive bunch. The children for some reason stayed fairly chipper, or at least decided not to whine, despite being cold and wet. The two year olds walked on their own for a surprising hour before agreeing to be carried. And up and up we went and the more and more soaking wet and impressed I got. And I am extremely proud to say that we all made it to the top of Black mountain where we got to pat ourselves on our soggy backs and eat oranges and chocolate as we stared off into the blurry rain and fog.

Our journey all the way up and down took three hours. Three hours where the rain never ceased. And we learned that peer pressure can be good. And that we are really happy that there are other families like us willing to go for three hour hikes in the rain. Hiking in the rain in the winter is both exhilarating and also really quite cold. Children are impressive. No rain gear is waterproof after three hours of heavy rain. And poor Aurora learned that it is best not to wear cotton leggings when your parents drag you on a hike in the rain. I asked the kids if it was fun to hike in the rain and they thought about it and said " yeah, but it was cold" so for next time we know we all need wool outfits so we stay a bit warm while wet. For those interested, in our three hours through the popular botanic gardens and black mountain we saw four other people.

Gardens with black mountain tower in background and exploring children on a drier day