Not Before Time

More rain overnight – and this was the sky when I got up just after 5 this morning – glorious colours, shame it promises more wet stuff!

We’ve had more rain over the last couple of days, but with sunny, clear spots here and there. It’s good in one respect, but the humidity is really high. The night before last there were a couple of heavy downpours and the power went off about 6:30am yesterday morning for a few hours. We thought, rather than sit inside a hot van we’d head off to the supermarket and get a bit of grocery shopping out of the way. I think just about all of Mackay was without power. Traffic lights everywhere were out. I must admit, people were really good at the lights; everyone was being very courteous and careful before going through. It was good to see. It was still drizzling when we went out – here’s a couple of photos taken from the car. The first one is showing traffic lights not working, the one with the low cloud is showing the peak of a hill, the clouds were very low over it, and the other one is the Pioneer River which is up quite a bit.

We went to Mount Pleasant shopping centre which is just north of Mackay, and the power was on there which was good, it also meant the aircon was on We got there about quarter to 9, and by the time we left half an hour later the place was really busy, and I think it was more because of the airconditioning than the shops being open.

At least it had stopped raining when we left, and there was blue sky and sun. We took the little truck and opened the soft top a bit – I saw these 2 different types of undercarriages while we were driving –

Good bye 2010, Hello 2011

Another year has gone already. It’s been nearly 5 years now since we got on the road, but it’s gone so fast it hardly seems like it, and at this stage we can easily see ourselves doing it for another 5 years at least.

We’ve had a break in the weather today :-} It hasn’t rained since yesterday morning, and while it’s still hot and humid, today we actually have sun and a nice breeze, so we’ve been able to put our outside chairs and table out in the sun to get completely dry and hopefully get rid of any mould that might be lurking in the crevices. David has also tidied up a bit around our site, and organised some more protection against the rain which is sure to come in the next few days.

We went in to town yesterday, and everything was fine in there, no flooding or water damage that we could see and the town was busy enough. Mackay is certainly a lot better off than Bundaberg and Rockhampton to the south of us and Emerald and Theodore to the west. Those towns have been hit really badly with rivers tipped to peak at record levels early next week, so it’s not over for them yet. A terrible ending to the year for a lot of people. Then there is the clean up to be done :{

I hope that 2010 was a good year for all of you and that 2011 brings joy, happiness and good health to you all.

Well, probably like the rest of the state, we’re both heartily sick of the rain. I had some queries from friends the other day after they saw the news showing the damage in Mackay, but fortunately we were outside of that part of the town and it wasn’t as bad for us. We really only had the heavy (torrential!) rain, not the winds which was good. Apparently the damage was caused by a mini tornado around the Harbour Road area of town, and while it only lasted for 20 seconds, apparently it caused a fair bit of damage. Here’s the link to the story if you want to read more about it http://www.dailymercury.com.au/story/2010/12/28/mini-tornado-terrifies-family-frousheger-storm/.

For the last few weeks, there have been road closed signs up on the flooded roads around the area, and yet, even after 2 people have died in the region because they ignored those signs, just on Sunday alone, 22 Mackay idiot drivers (unfortunately there are a lot of them around here!) were charged driving without due care (for ignoring the signs). Unbelievable! They seem to think because they were in a 4WD vehicle that the signs didn’t apply to them!

Seems like Mother Nature is going a bit crazy all over the world this year. Europe, and now the US, is having a difficult time with record snow falls, and there have been so many earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic activity. I think she likes to remind us occasionally that we really are pretty much insignificant in the scheme of things.

We had Christmas lunch with our friends Kerry and Glen who live about 20kms west of Mackay. The rain was really heavy all day but we had a lovely relaxing seafood lunch and really enjoyed our day. Here’s a couple of photos of their back yard during the rain, and also the Pioneer River which was up really high.

And here’s some photos of the drive home – the young guy was having a great time on his jet ski, on the road!

Sorry about the last photo, it’s really bad, but it’s more to show you the weather – we arrived home to that.

David’s off work now until next Monday, so if the weather fines up (it’s supposed to by Thursday I believe), we hope to get out in the little truck and do some fishing and sightseeing. Meanwhile we’ll try and waterproof the area around the van a bit more using some tarps and tent pegs. The van itself is holding up well, no leaks or anything, but it’s a bit harder keeping the slab area dry. We’re looking forward to some dry, sunny weather so we can open up the van and get everything aired out a bit

I hope you all had a great Christmas, and that you’re now taking the time to relax and recharge

I was going through some photos today and found some (ummm, a lot!) that I haven’t shown here, so this update is a mix of stuff we’ve seen or done over the last couple of weeks/months.

Like the rest of the eastern half of the country, we’ve had so much rain here we’ve started to feel waterlogged ourselves – and that’s not an exaggeration! With the humidity here my body has decided to try and suck up as much moisture as it can, fluid retention is a bitch! But it’s not just us (ok, me) that’s suffering. These butcher bird babies and their mother have been trying to find somewhere to keep out of the rain and by the looks of them they aren’t doing very well in finding a dry spot.

I’ve been watching this little family since the babies first left the nest. They used to hang around the picnic table just outside the van. Talk about kids carrying on at meal times – these 2 babies gave their mother hell when she brought food to them. She used to really push the food down their throats, probably to shut them up! They are very cute though.

Finch Hatton

A few weeks after we got to Mackay we found out that Sue and Colin, friends from Roma, were also in the area, staying at Finch Hatton where Colin was working the sugar and Sue worked in the local pub.

Sue and I got to catch up a few times for lunch and we also managed for the 4 of us to visit the Finch Hatton Gorge, which is between the Eungella National Park and Mackay.

There are a couple of really good walking trails within the gorge, and we did the shorter walk (just over 3km return) which takes you through the rainforest to a really pretty water hole at Araluen Falls. The day we were there the weather was perfect for both walking and a swim, but unfortunately we didn’t have our swimmers, and I think everyone else had the same idea so it was pretty busy. I’d like to do the longer walk which takes you to the wheel of Fire Falls and we’ll do that another day, preferably on a weekday when it isn’t so busy. There’s a huge variety of trees and shrubs as well as fungi. Here’s a few photos from the walk.

After the walk we drove up the range to the town of Eungella (pronounced young-galah) and had a couple of cold ones and lunch at the Chalet which also boasts great views over the Pioneer Valley.

The Gooseponds

A few days before I broke my arm, I took the camera and went to the Gooseponds, a waterbird sanctuary. It was a really warm sunny day, and midweek so I had the place to myself which was great. I was really surprised at the variety of birdlife – there were heaps of different types of ducks, egrets, herons, turtles, and dragonflies.

Cape Hillsborough and Surrounds

We went out for a drive to Cape Hillsborough one day – it’s less than an hour up the road and it’s a beautiful area. The road in to the Cape also takes in the seaside villages of Seaforth, Ball Bay and Halliday Bay. There’s a great caravan park with accommodation and van sites and I think we’ll head there for a weekend once the weather is a bit better.

Queens Park and the Orchid House

Queens Park in Mackay is part of the Botanical Gardens and there is also The Ken Burgess Display House there (usually referred to as the Orchid House). There are roughly 600 varieties of orchids or a rotational display there – oh, and because it’s a very moist environment, lots of mozzies!! I love this place (despite the mozzies) and have been there a couple of times already. Here are just a few photos of the park and the orchids on display. The photos of the orchids could be a lot better, I’m really surprised at how difficult it is to take a decent photo of something so beautiful.