The day it rained...

Was about 4pm at work when the view outside suddenly darkened to almost black. Then the rain kicked in, almost normal at first then torrential. With the rain brought about the worst storm anyone had ever seen. We all went to the workshop entrance to see how bad it actually was. I could see my bike was completely surrounded by a vicious stream of water. Before I knew it, it was time to leave, rain still equally as persistent. I don't know why I put my gear on inside because within 15seconds, I was soaked through.

At first the puddles/lakes were just under a foot deep but given that my workplace sits on a hill which leads down to my home, this was only the start. Further down the road, all the traffic had stopped - a bus was turning round after being told it was impassable. The bus was followed sheepishly by some cars leaving me with a choice to lead the rest of the traffic round the bends to the obstruction. I decided to continue... It took about half a mile to find the issue. Water was about 2 foot high, everyone had stopped. Being on a bike I decided to give it a shot by going up the now submerged pavement. I managed to go through it quite easily, probably much to the annoyance of the watching motorists.

I continued down the A1 which was submerged at points but nothing too bad. Then i got to the slip road. It was about 2-3 feet deep at point - there was no point even trying.

I had to go back on myself, going against traffic on the dual carriageway (everyone had stopped and got out of their cars). I ended up going all the way round Newcastle. It took 2 hours to do a 25minute journey!