Mr Douch has logged countless hours flying over the Illawarra and South Coast and has seen it in flood before but never anything like this.

"This is the first time I have been flying straight after a flood,'' he said. "And I have never seen the Shoalhaven like that.

"The conditions were just perfect and I was quite taken aback by it.  It was like a real inland sea.

"The landmarks you knew, were not appearing. you could just see the trail of the river and the treeline. It was quite surreal. 

"I didn't know where to look next.''