Blogs from Makay, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 2

Sat. 10 June. World Cup looms. Monday night Australia v. Japan. Warm rainy day. Spruiked early (before rain) with strikiing result. No newspaper article. Next week? Stamped stickers at surf club. Watched young in small boats prepare and race. Breeze came in. Steady rain. Lunch read. Hot shower marina. Then stillness; it stopped. Kookaburras fluffed like doonas, their wet weather wardrobe. Watching them watch for food moving about. Nine kookaburras perched in the rain. Sunday 11. Early spruik in Yeppoon then the long drive but very pleasant to Mackay. Rolling country cane fields sprinkled with chains of mountain ridges. Gum trees aplenty. Hunting birds. Then coastal views of many islands. In Mackay vast expanses of sand at low tide. The long pier and ships at anchor. Ground feeding lorikeets with epaulets... read more

Just a quick note to say we made it safely out of the path of Cyclone Larry yesterday. The eye of the storm was supposed to hit land about 50 km south of where we were (Cairns) bringing 280 km winds, so we hoped in our car and drove 9 hours down the coast. As it turns out it was a Category 5 storm by the time it hit Cairns (about 14 hours after we had left) so there's pretty extensive damage. Where we are now it is fine, sunny but with strong winds. -Michelle... read more