Going away for a bit...

     I'll be going on a northern safari to Ravenshoe. There I will be interviewing for the opportunity to run a wildlife centre called Eagle's Nest. I'm going to make it into a bit of a road trip and maybe hit some cool parks on the way back! Just me, the pooch (Rosa) and the wilderness! Wish me luck and I'll be back next week!

The aftermath of Yasi: Tulley/Mission Beach

     This part is by far the worst of it. It's odd, after seeing so much destruction you become somewhat desensitized. As we made our way past Cardwell to Tulley we saw many destroyed forests and farms, the destruction seemed endless and right as we enter Tulley we see defiance in the face of the storm.

 This house was all boarded up and ready to roll! They seemed to have fared pretty well, I guess they actually were cyclone ready.

 

This one didn't do so well and neither did about 70% of the town for that matter

The SES removing dangerous debris

AJs removing what used to be the rainforest that surrounded Tulley

    It's amazing and sad to see someone's home flattened, leaving only a small skeleton of what once was a family's security

Hey mister, I found your roof!

                      This mill is what most people who live in Tulley work for, it got a pretty good beating too.

                                 Downtown Tulley, bent and tattered but still kicking; even got some sales going on!

           There were several very large and old trees that greeted you upon entering Tulley, this is what is left of them.

                This image sums it up in Tulley for me. Houses ripped apart, lives drowned, rainforest stripped.


      Mission Beach was probably the most depressing for me. I care about human life, don't get me wrong, but it's the destruction of nature and specifically ecosystems like the rainforest that really get to me.

                              A river crossing that used to be surrounded by thick rainforest vegetation.

Critically endangered cassowaries inhabit this stretch of rainforest and will have to survive on feeding stations as their food has been blown away. If this effects them, what other animals are being effected?

 Again, once lush and green, now just bare sticks.

       As we drove down the coastline we encountered some patches where the road was either blown or washed away.

  
The rainforest looks more like a deciduous forest in winter. I can't believe this was ever a thriving ecosystem and wonder if it ever will be again.






The forests are smashed on so many levels, some of just stripped, some of it bent, some snapped and some just completely flattened. I've never seen anything like it in my life. It was like a F5 tornado half the size of Texas just dropped down here.

     The important thing to remember is that for being the largest cyclone to hit Queensland in it's known history, loss of human life was minimal and being that these rainforests are ages old they must have seen a storm or two in the past and come back. Nature finds a way, or at least I pray.

           All bad things come with a silver lining, mine was coconuts. I LOVE coconuts!!! Thanks Yasi and the cool kids at Frosty Mango. They lost all of their ice cream BUT, they have heaps of coconuts! I'm about to enjoy one in my hammock. Australia is still awesome. :)

The aftermath of Yasi: Cardwell

      We decided a few days after the cyclone, still without power that camping might be a good idea, as would a trip up to where the eye of the storm passed in Tulley. So after laying my carpets out to dry we set out in the afternoon (arvo) to go on an adventure!

             We set off up the A1 (Bruce Highway) with the intention of camping at Wallaman Falls
for the night before heading the rest of the way up to Tulley. Neither of us had been to Wallaman before so naturally we got a little lost once we got out into the back roads. We found our way though and ran into a farmer on a four-wheeler who told us we probably couldn't get to the falls because of all of the downed trees. That didn't deter us, we carried on. We did come across some trees in the road but my trusty leatherman tools sawed right through them and on we went. Then came the cattle, all hanging out on the road and with them, their manure, which was being flung like splatter paint all over my car. It smelled like something was burning as it would heat up on the muffler underneath.

                                 You see these signs on Bruce Highway up the coast towards Cairns.


          We came across a low water crossing that had a creek running over it. Robbie got out to check the depth and what was ahead. We did this ofcourse by the light of my headlights. He came back and concluded we would need to turn around as there were several large trees in the road past the creek. We went to start the car and nothing. We ran the battery down and therefor sealed where we would be setting up camp that night.

            Always the creative chef, Robbie made his "roadside special".

The next day Robbie walked  6k and happened to run into a farmer named "mouse" that jumped the car. That was lucky, we were 20k in at the base of the mountain so had he not just happened to see him coming out of his drive, he would have had a very long walk ahead of him.

              We stopped along the way to Tulley to take pictures of the destruction. This whole thing collapsed on four cars, the pillars that held it up flew straight through two of the cars. That is some serious wind to do that and we hadn't even gotten to Cardwell.

This shed fell ontop and crushed this 18-wheeler

 

The fella that lives here was in the doorway looking into what is now, his very exposed livingroom

  This was just outside of Hinchinbrook marina where several yachts were destroyed. That's a refrigerator that got blow across the highway.

Banana plantations were flattened

             It speaks volumes as to what you are about to see that the sign directing you there was flattened too

                                                This was an inn we saw as we drove into Cardwell

                                         Roofs blown off and trees without leaves, this is only the beginning....

 The army was sent out to help with the cleanup and assist in any rescues, here they are all lined up next to a cane field.

The aftermath of Yasi: Townsville

      I was pretty surprised, after enduring a long night with howling winds and a massive frog orchestra to awake to chirping birds and partly cloudy skies but not surprised that there was no power and soon no water (council sends out an sms to your mobile to keep people aware). Pretty strong gusts were still coming through and rain in bands but still, we felt the need to explore the damage across the city.
    My neighborhood fared pretty well with tree damage and fences knocked down and the odd tree on a house but oddly enough, not bad in comparison.

This is where smart happens: Old flatmates trying to fetch a gum limb off of the power line. Glad I'm not with that lot.

This is right around the corner from me.

A friend's backyard who lives on Castle Hill. There used to be several trees here and that is his laundry tree in the foreground.

                                             It blew the leaves right off of the frangipani tree.

                                                          Coconut palm right into the house.

                                            The storm surge caused alot of flooding along Ross River.

      The Strand (which is one of major beachfront tourist attractions) got the worst of it. Naturally facing right into it that was to be expected and the day before the army (AJs) went knocking on doors to enforce compulsory evacuations. The Strand also got the massive storm surge, forcing sand into buildings and covering roadways. So many trees were down. This is mainly due to the English way of planting pretty trees instead of natives and with the sandy soil and clay underneath the roots could only spread sideways not down, which makes them more prone to topple in high winds.

                           So how much time do you think it will take to get the sand out of those carpets??

This was a decorative whirly-gig, I knew it would be destroyed, pieces of it were thrown all over the place. I'm glad no one was near this death contraption.
    

      It will be some time before Townsville looks the way it did, an estimated 50% tree loss. I love green, maybe I'll move north, oh wait, the rainforest blew away... :(