We have now had a taste of how wet it can be up here. Late afternoon, early evening last Thursday we had a deluge of rain. We sat on the verandah of the house and watched it teem down with sharp cracks of thunder that felt like it was right above us. All in all we easily had 120 mls plus in just an hour. The poor old Kookaburras were sodden when they came for their mince.
Robin and Pauline have returned home from Townsville. There was no way that they would get through to Nambour so they came home and will fly down closer to the date of the baby's expected arrival if they still can't get through because of the floods.
TV reports tell us that Qld is now 75% under water. You think it can't get any worse than watching what happened in Emerald and Rockhampton and the other small towns as they went under and then you see things like the 8 meter wall of water that rushed through Toowoomba without any warning. If you don't know Toowoomba it is elevated and sits up on a plateau. As you travel north out of Toowoomba the road is a very steep and windy decline and to see that water you have to wonder where it came from. How horrible it is to watch cars, boats even skip bins being washed away as though they were weightless.
Then again if that wasn't bad enough, the Brisbane River floods and we are now watching footage of homes and businesses flooding all along the banks of the river. The river normally meanders its way through many Brisbane suburbs and is a lovely outlook that many home owners have. Now that same river threatens their homes and livelyhood.
A category 1 cyclone has had a devestating effect over a huge area of QLD. This particular cyclone turned into a rain depression and stayed over land rather than go out to sea and loose its intensity out there. I heard that a cyclone needs temperatures above 27 degrees to form. The follow on now is that NSW towns including Goondiwindi (pronounced as Gun da win di) Ipswitch, Grafton and Lismore may also have rising waters threaten them. We already have another cyclone building up but not expected to hit land but as we are told. The wet season has only just begun.
We went to Innisfail today to do some shopping and on our way home we drove through heavy tropical rain, when it rains it pours, it comes down in bucket fulls.
We went on a tourist drive earlier this week going from Ravenshoe to Millaa Millaa where we went to see the Millaa Millaa Falls, we stopped for lunch at Millaa Millaa. We left Millaa Millaa and went through Tarzali and on to Malanda stopping to look at their falls also. All in all it was a pleasant drive and an enjoyable day.
Malanda is a small town about 25klms out of Atherton and is one of the wettest areas on the Atherton tablelands. Its surrounded by lush rolling hillsides, that support a thriving dairy industry. one of the worl'ds largest dairy factories provides the main source of employment in Malanda and is supported by 190 local dairy farmers. There is also a huge theatre in Malanda which began in the early 1920's and is still in use today.
Yesterday we had lunch in the Tully Falls Hotel with Peter and Erica, Robin and Pauline. It was a great meal (definitely worth going there again). The Tully Falls Hotel is the highest Pub in QLD. and sits on the highest point within Ravenshoe.There is one other pub but it sits further down the hill. After lunch we came back here to have coffee out on the verandah. All in all it was a lovely day.
That's about it for now
Love to one and all
Ken and Lyn
PS Sorry folks but I meant to add some photos before I posted this blog so the news is a bit old. Photoes will be with the next blog.
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