A Drive in the Country

KISA had Friday off so decided to go for a little drive in the country to put the required klms on the car. We set off about 7am and headed north. After stopping in Ayr for coffee and Ingham for lunch we found ourselves late afternoon in the bustling metropolis of Cairns.
It was pouring with rain. Very hard. In fact it had rained so much that day that there had been flooding, cars drowned and a landslide on the Kuranda Railway which had derailed the train. We were planning to go on that tomorrow. Drat.
So we checked into the Cairns Colonial Club. This is what $99 gets you there if you flutter your eyelashes at the check in counter.
We had this living area. See KISA surrepitiously standing out of shot relected in the mirror door? Lets cross Film Director off the list of alternative occupations, shall we? That led into this kitchenette, which had 12 wine glasses in the cupboard. So technically that is permission to hold a party, right? A separate king sized bedroom, with king sized bed. And a teeny tiny bathroom in which to hold said party. We were very happy with this find!Well the rain did not let up, so we decided that Cairns was a washout for sight seeing and decided to head inland. So we gave up the fabulous room and headed to Atherton, where it was very misty, and travelled on the Gregory Development Road to Charters Towers. The views were great and on a fine day would be spectacular. The tablelands were lovely and we promised ourselves to come back with the camper and stay a while. Not far from Ravenswood, the highest town in Queensland, apparently, we came across a wind farm at a place called Windy Hill. Oddly.

We stopped for a look, these windmills are quite large and make quite a loud buzzing noise. They provide power for the towns of Atherton and Ravenswood. Quite impressive setup. See the mist rolling in? By the time we got back to the car we couldn't even see the windmills, it came in so quickly! The scenery changed somewhat out of Ravenswood, and became more scrubby. Everything was green from all the rain we have had lately, and the soil was a deep red. Everywhere were these huge fat termite mounds.

This is the shot I took before the previous one, I was trying to catch the termite mound, at 90km per hour (KISA stops for no one) and got this TV instead. Guess the termites couldn't fit it in the mound.The road was being upgraded so there were lots of road works and road trains ferrying dirt and gravel for the road works. They had 4 trailers on them and you had to leave the road to let them thunder past. A few cattle wandered across the road at a few points as there were fences down on one of the properties. We spotted this red cliff somewhere near Charters Towers. It looked more imppressive in real life. This is what $99 gets you in Charters Towers. Admittedly it was a lot tider the evening before, but we might have lingered longer there if we hadn't felt so ripped off. This was a cabin in a caravan park for heavens sake. At least they had a McDonalds, so we ordered breakfast and a couple of large coffees and hit the road. It was great drive, very green, no traffic, we overtook 3 vehicles going our way. That was all in 360klm till we turned off to head to Mackay. There was a lot of this straight stuff, KISA and I loved it, it was all new ground for him and for me.

Remembering Jessica Anne

When your child dies, you bury the future.

More Cyclone Pics

Once it was safe to venture out, we went to check on the unit. It was fine apart from the back garage door which leaks so there was water everywhere in the garage. Not enough to do damage though.
Amazingly Mackay came through relatively unscathed. Most damage came from trees, either knocking down fences or landing on roofs. A couple of roofs blew off, but most people had prepared well and most of the work is in the aftermath. Chainsaws were going everywhere and there were long queues at the tips. There was quite a bit of local flooding as well. This is the gooseponds creek in flood along Malcomson Street. And from Bedford Road. All the walking track was under water.

After checking on the unit, we got into our working gear and dragged this tree out of the pool. There was another one underneath it.

It was covered in green ants too, that just made the job that much more unpleasant. They get very nasty when provoked. And dragging their tree out of the pool seemed to provoke them a lot! KISA chain sawed the trees up and the fallen palm stalks up and we stacked the debris by the pool fence.

Then we went to A&P'splace to help them clear their driveway. Their chainsaw runs on electricity. Which is great when there IS electricity!

Some very big trees had fallen down like this silky oak.

And lots of branches from nearby trees. They also had a power line down over the drive way. Thaey had dealt with that first.

Shredded leaves were blasted along the sides of the house. We had this at the unit too. Amazed the windows held out.

KISA, P and L clearing logs. A & I helped too, lucky they have lots of land to stack them up on.

I was feeling smug that we had palms and how well they held up in the storm, till I looked over A &P's drive and saw what fell on their neighbours'house! Two huge palms, just like the one in our front yard!

What a great start to Sunday morning for these guys. Water everywhere as well inside.

Getting there, those logs are very heavy. And the ground was muddy and slippery.

Once that was done we went home for a shower and tried to cool down with no fans and no air con. It was not easy.
I got out the crochet I am doing for Son 18. It is coming along well, but hard to do when it is hot and sticky.

I hope it is finished in time for winter in Brisbane. On Monday we checked on the unit again and WOW it had had the power reconnected! So we packed up what was left of the food that hadn't gone bad and a few clothes and pillows and went round there, unpacked the camping gear and set up camp in the air con! Bliss!! You will note such essentials such as coffee machine and kettle! It was very uncomfortable at the house as the humidity was in the 90s and not a breeze to speak of. And the neighbours were getting generators so it was getting noisy! And of course a TV. We had spent Sunday night trying to catch a breeze by candlelight playing I Spy With My Little Eye. It was good to finally see the news to see how Proserpine and Airlie fared as they copped the centre of the storm. My Step-sis and her kids picked this weekend to visit Mackay. Great timimg! Luckily the house where they were staying didn't lose their power at all, so they were relatively unaffected by the drama. They popped in to visit on Monday afternoon and check out the unit. Aren't these good looking young people???? Not surprising when you look at their beautiful mother. Who will not pose for photos so I had to sneak this shot.She prefers the other side of the camera.

We survived the cyclone. The house survived the cyclone. D&M are ok, as are A&P&L. No damage to D&M and A&P&L have a live power line, power pole and heaps of fallen trees on their property. No damage to the house apart from a wet carpet.
But it was a wild ride! I spent most of the night looking out of the windows listening to the wind howl and whistle and feeling the house shake. Frightening and thrilling at the same time. The power lines did so much dancing about it is a wonder the ones in our street stayed connected. Many didn't. We lost power about 11.30 last night and it is still off. The storm is still raging outside in a milder form and the rain is just bucketing down. We have water inside downstairs as happened after the floods. The pool, which had 12 inches of free space after we drained it yesterday, has overflowed, filled with mud and has one fallen palm tree and the top of next doors cow tucker tree in it. There are leaves and debris everywhere. Our pool shed survived as did all our plants minus one palm. Amazing stuff. We have no TV so don't know what is happening out there. Our radio broke when someone dropped it in the dark. We have internet when we need it thanks to the UPS but it is going off after this post to conserve the battery.

The wind and rain started to pick up aroud 4 or 5 yesterday afternoon.

KISA prepared for the cyclone as any IT Geek would...downloading Microsoft MSDN

and listening to music on his media centre. All the deck furniture in the kitchen, dining,

And lounge rooms!

The cyclone hit around 1.40am this morning so no photos due to the dark. This is the deck at first light. Rarely gets wet, this morning there was not an inch of dry spot.

The pool, some work here once we have power and no rain.

Still raining buckets, the ground was sodden before it all started. Next door lost his tent thing, can't believe he didn't dismantle it. Sandbagged front door. Kept most of the driven rain out.

We will check on the unit when it is safe to venture out. They are advising everyone to stay inside as fallen power lines are everywhere. Will post more photos after an excursion.

It has started.

Well it is nearly 10pm and we have finished getting ready. All the outdoor stuff is inside and the wind and rain is really lashing the house. Once the red section hits it will sound like a steam train is in the house. Power is still on thank goodness. Don't think I will be able to sleep much. KISA is already asleep, nice to be a man!!

Battening Down

Cyclone Ulili is on her way. We got up early this morning and went to the harbour and filled up ten sand bags we got from Bunnings. These went across the pool where the water gets in and across the back garage door at the unit which seems to leak. Also across the front and back doors as we are expecting torrential rain with destructive winds.
We drained the pool as far as we could and brought all the outside stuff inside. We took my car to the garage at the unit and cleared a space for Daves in the shed. We picked up 3 x 20 litre water containers and our torches etc plus a tarp, some ratchet straps and some rope from our camping gear stored at the unit. We also brought the car fridge and the spare 12 volt battery unit back to the house. I had already stocked up on non perishable food, so we are all set. We are charging all the stuff that needs charging, so now we just wait for the fun to start! It is windy and stormy looking but nothing out of the ordinary yet.
Will keep you posted...

Weekend Jaunt up the Road

We went for a little drive up the coast on the weekend, to Townsville. We needed to put about a thousand clicks on the speedo so we wouldn't have to pay tax on our lease (complicated) so on Saturday we got up bright and early, picked up Macca's drive through breakfast and hit the road.
We arrived in Townsville about 11.15 or so and went looking at spas. At the first shop, we noted the stock floor was empty and we were told they were all at the Home Expo at the showgrounds. So we went there, as everything we were hoping to look at was displaying there in one spot. How convenient! And lots of campers and gear as well..At about 2pm it started to rain so we headed for the accomodation we had booked on wotif.com. We were very happy with Seagulls Resort.
We went for a walk alongside the beach and then relaxed till dinner which we had in the resort's restaurant. The gardens and surroundings are lovely and at night lit with oil torches and fairy lights.
We had a very enjoyable meal as well. KISA had battered fish, chips and salad, and I had a seafood risotto. We started with sharing some spring rolls, washed down with a bottle of Merlot. Tres civilised!

"Someone" forgot the camera and we had to use KISA's phone camera so the quality is not up to the usual standard.

KISA found this bit of stuff at the bar. Apparently she is quite a fixture!

After a good nights sleep in a surprisingly comfy bed (you do take your chances in hotels sometimes) we took ourselves up to Castle Hill for a look around. Mackay doesn't have anything nearly this high. Quite giddy making really!

You will note the beard has been drastically trimmed. He was starting to look quite colonial!

Looking north, this was the only sunlight we saw all day. It pretty much rained the rest of the day once we got closer to home.

KISA on the westward side. Never realised what a big place Townsville was till you look at it from this perspective. Castle Hill appears to be one big pink granite rock!

We headed home afterwards and arrived about 1ish. We had a lazy afternoon, listening to the rain on the roof!