Big Adventure

We decided to revisit the city centre, as we anticipate this will be our last chance this week. It is looking increasingly likely that cyclone Alfred will be hitting later this week. Again we parked up at New Farm and walked from there into the city. The city cats and ferries had all stopped running and had been removed from the water in order to keep them safe during the cyclone. The footpaths were so much quieter than last week, and most of the cafes and restaurants were busy clearing tables and chairs away and securing parasols and plant pots in anticipation of the cyclone hitting. They were still open for business but there were not many customers. We headed straight for the Botanic Gardens alongside the river, where we planned on joining the guided walk of the gardens. It turned out we were the only 2 people wishing to take part, but Katie our guide was enthusiastic as she led us around pointing out many trees, plants and birds of interest. A most interesting walk. We ate a snack lunch at the cafe in the gardens. Unfortunately as Alan finished his sandwich a huge ibis leapt up onto the table knocking over his coffee. The waitress immediately spotted what had happened and quickly wiped up the mess and refilled A's coffee.
We then headed to the convict museum of Queensland. Again we benefited from a guided tour. The building we were in had housed the stores for the convict community. We were shown photos and models of the living quarters for the convicts. The conditions they lived in and the rations they survived on were quite alarming.
We walked back to our car at New Farm, again weary by the time we reached it. Another 10 to 11 miles walked during the day.
In the evening we celebrated Summer's 5th birthday around the dinner table.
Wednesday the children went off to school, fully expecting this to be their last day this week. We went off to Apsley shopping for the ingredients for a curry meal which A planned on cooking. We were lucky to arrive in the supermarket as a new delivery of water was being unloaded. We purchased the permitted allowance of 2 lots of 10 litres. Bottled water is in short supply as people panic buy essentials such as toilet rolls, water, cereal, bread etc.
The cyclone was not progressing as quickly as the forecasters had been predicting, however it was following the predicted route.
Heavy winds and high sea surges on the south side of the cyclone were hammering the beaches of The Gold Coast.
Sand bags were being filled in abundance at SES centres and the news channels went into 24 hour coverage, piling on the expected misery.
The cyclone was hovering around the category 1 mark for some days then lifted to Category 2 with a potential to go to category 3 for a while.
Expected landfall was on Thursday, Maroochydore being the centre point which is where we were planning to start our short road trip.
As the cyclone edged ever nearer the winds grew stronger and the tides to the south of Brisbane even higher. The TV was full of news covering the misery of flooding and beach erosion along the seaside communities.
Everyone was being advised to stay safe and stay indoors, evacuation orders were given to some communities and community halls were given over to house displaced home owners.
Thursday came and went, the cyclone lingered off shore all through Friday at Category 1 before dropping to a Tropical Low and moved overland.
Apparently it was quite windy in the night, we managed to sleep our way through it. Our morning was quite quiet, as we were near the centre of the storm but all to the south of us was being battered by the winds and torrential rain.
Some communities were badly flooded, Lissmore in NSW was expecting its flood defences to burst once again and give them another major incident after the last one 3 years ago.
the TV anchors all found themselves reporting in front of properties which had fallen trees smashed into them and the tales of woe south of the city were numerous.
We took the girls out to the local mall for a bit of fresh air. Where we had walked the other day was flooded as expected, as it is part of the flood relief system, and many trees had lost branches and some trees had come down overnight.
There then followed two days of torrential rain as the storm worked itself out.
We were anxious to start our road trip as soon as possible, so spent the day revising our plans. Instead of meandering up to The Town of Seventeen Seventy we decided to start there and work south.Leggi altro