Happy Easter!

My Easter was very different this year, I think I might have said that about last year too, buuttt this one was a corker. Due to Cyclone Ita roads and rail to the south were closed meaning on the other side of that water was the stock for the grocery store I work in packing shelves at night (second job and completely thrilling I tell you). Anyway when the rail opened in came the pallets and pallets and pallets of stock. This meant some major catch up needed to be done so instead of night workers we all became work whenever you can start workers. I worked every day, thank goodness I had no Nova. Now Good Friday is the day the shops close (confuses me but anyway) but I started work at 9am and finished at 4:30pm and we finally caught up, yay! I also worked Sat and Mon for my normal shifts. Goodbye long weekend. I sent Mr Sparky off camping with friends because he would be bored as hanging out for the weekend. Goodbye company. I should have been rejoicing really I had work and I had some peace and quiet to watch a movie and read some book but it just isn't the same as an Easter with family, not a bit the same as the chaos and noisiness and fun and mess of family.

Sunday I woke fairly early, hello body please sleep, and feeling pretty alone and low. Out of our bedroom door I spotted some little fellows enjoying the early morning. They lightened my mood, taking photos and seeing beautiful things in nature does that. 

I then decided to head for a walk and see what I could see to relax and to stop me moping.

I then packed, did an Easter delivery for Mr Sparky to discover when he came back home and headed up to the Tablelands for a day/ night camping trip. It salvaged my Easter weekend and it was good to be around people. I'll post more on that later.

So no matter how you spent your Easter and who it was with or where it was I hope you had a great Easter Sunday, a great Easter holiday and great long weekend. Whether your celebration was religious or through being with family of friends, through just relaxing or through heading out into nature I hope it was filled with love, joy, hope, fun and bit of magic.

Ita Follow Up

As Cyclone Ita worked her way to the coast and then followed it south she whipped up the place with some cyclonic winds and dumped a load of rain on the area. She hit the coast as a category 4 (the highest is a 5) and then decreased down to a category 3 but not before ravaging Hopevale and Cooktown. From all reports everyone up there thought they got of very lightly and the damage doesn't look too widespread. By the time she made it down to the Cairns area she was down to a category 1. Now the joke that goes around is that unless it is above a category 1 or 2 cyclone the locals don't bother about it. I can tell you why. A category 1 cyclone is like a windy, rainy day. I have see worse storms in other areas. A category 5 cyclone (which was what was predicted and coming until Ita lost strength is another matter).

Now the deluge of rain she dumped in places did cause some flooding that ultimately cut the main highway to North QLD. It reopened today, the rail yesterday. This meant that until last night/ today there was no new produce, groceries or anything else that gets shipped up here. The shops did well though. Yes, there was a shortage of milk, water, tinned goods, noodles and anything else people rushed out to buy 'just in case' Ita turned up to do her worst. But the thing is everyone should have had them in their house, that is why there was none left in the shops. 

Now a couple of days didn't hurt anyone but sometimes is can be a lot longer. Our very smart premier decided to tell everyone of the north what they already knew, have know for years, that when there is flooding nothing comes into the North (really, he is smart). He also decided a new route needs to be built to get here. Well I have some solutions for him ...

1. Don't send everything grown/made up in the North down South and then proceed to bring it back to put in the shops.

2. Bitumen the road between Charters Towers and the Atherton Tablelands tada! new route made.

3. Don't build roads and railway lines on flood prone areas and if you are going to, build them higher then the highest known flood.

4. Send it by boat, that is how everything gets to the Islands of North QLD

5. Who cares, people have lived with it for years.

Okay so I think that is enough blahing and time for me to throw up some pictures.

Walsh's Pyramid South of Cairns now has very visible waterfalls flowing down it (not so visible in this picture) and some paddocks of sugar cane are now looking a bit tousled or a bit flatter. Mr Sparky said most of it should be okay because it is older and tougher then if it got hit earlier.

The Gillies Highway/ range, the Kuranda Range, the highway North and the highway heading South were all closed but not for too long.

The Mulgrave River swelled almost making it over the Gillies Highway.

By Sunday morning it had already started going down.

But like all rivers and creeks in the areas had a new, rushing lease on life.

The Gillies Range was shedding water with waterfalls found all along the road. There are a few hundred drains that go under the road from these waterfalls to stop them going over the road.

There were also some mini rock slides but nothing too major.

It was amazing to see the Gillies Range with a slightly different look on. So much water and so many waterfalls.

Other then the water in rivers, creeks and the new waterfalls even on the Tablelands it was hard to tell there had been that much rain, let alone a cyclone. We went back down the Kuranda Range and the North certainly copped it a bit more then the South but even then it wasn't too bad.

More waterfall photos to come but of a different waterfall.

Ita is on her way

Well Far North QLD is on alert. Ita is on her way, no not Ita Buttrose, Severe Tropical Cyclone Ita.

I can't imagine what people further north are thinking and feeling. Most people around here are thinking 'just in case' and 'we'll see how it goes'.  I know Mr Sparky isn't all that worried.

The town, Cairns, that is, has gone mad. Bread, milk, water and fuel are the hottest commodities and they are getting in shorter and shorter supply with everyone hitting the shops. Mind you I am sure the shops are getting in extra stock, I hope they are anyway.

I had already filled my car but yesterday I had to go shopping, we just needed food as I hadn't bought any in a while. I went early, the best idea ever. By yesterday afternoon when I dropped in to the shop to get some cream to go with a lime pie (convenience of living in town) on the way to a BBQ the supplies of bread, milk and water had been decimated and the lines at the petrol stations were horrendous. 

Everyone is glued to maps predicting TC Ita's path. There are ones on BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) like this one from 5:09am this morning.

There are ones on the US Navy site, like this one warning #12, along with many other maps and predictions.

AND they are always changing. Here is the 7:09am update.

AND are very different looking, well they seem to be getting more similar now. And here is the warning #13 update.

I wonder which will be right. It goes to show that even with technology today cyclones are still pretty unpredictable. I did read somewhere that they are like a naughty kitten, you never know what it will do next. Sorry to who ever I stole that from, I can't even remember where it was from other than it was to do with the last cyclone. Anyway so things aren't much different to when people first arrived other than the warning that it is coming and an idea of where to.

Meanwhile Ita is around 220km North, North East off Cairns, the news is trying to panic everyone, it is raining, there is a little breeze and life is going on as per normal for a lot of people.

I hope everyone stays safe.

Birds, Birds and more Birds

Last weekend one of the places we visited had extensive aviaries. They have a love for native parrots and have quite a collection a beautiful birds.

Sorry for the not so great photos of some of the birds I saw but I was mostly taking them through the holes in wire.

There were Australian Ring Neck parrots or Port Lincoln Parrots ( I think) which were very pretty.

There were also Red Winged parrots which I have seen before at the Wildlife Dome.

There were the very familiar Rainbow Lorikeets who were on the loose but I caught them coming back for a feed.

I thought the Cloncurry Parrots were very pretty. They are another type of Ringneck parrot.

There were Major Mitchell Cockatoos a bird I have never seen in the wild.

Another bird I can't remember seeing in the wild are the Eastern Rosella. Mr Sparky also thought they were a gorgeous bird and so different in colour to the Crimson Rosella found on the Tablelands. This fellow is the iconic bird on Rosella brand condiments. 

There were some Pale Headed Rosellas as well, another I don't think I have seen.

The Bluebonnet parrots were interesting looking fellows with their fluffy hair style. This one just wanted to be the only one in the shot, following my camera around.

Then there was the aviary of finches, so many of the cute little things moving from place to place.

Hiding out in among the finches were also some Western Rosellas that are very similar in looks to the Eastern Rosella. Yet another bird that was new.

Now I can tell you I am no bird expert and at the time I didn't have a clue as to what most of these birds were other than assumptions because 'that one looks to that one' or because they were well known or I had seen them before. Sooo hopefully my quick research pulled the correct birds' names. Anyway I enjoyed seeing them and my dreams of having a budgie (not allowed pets here) have expanded to some other pretty parrots as well.

Mining

On the weekend we headed to the Tablelands again. We spent a bit of time diving around visiting people Mr Sparky knows and seeing new places in my case, revisiting places he hasn't been in years in Mr Sparky's case.

Mr Sparky is into adventuring and 4x4ing in his two wheel drive, low car. One place we went through is Herberton. Now Herberton is not so green and a little rougher than the green, smooth Atherton area. Now it is an old mining and you can just imagine it being a thriving mining town in it's hay day, nestled in the gullies and perched on the rocky hills surrounding it.

Mr Sparky remembered that you could check out old mine shafts in the hills around the town and after a bit of searching (we did a lot of that on the weekend) and a gamble that it was the right rough looking road, we found some mine shafts. There were no signs pointing the way and I had never heard or read anything about them in the tourist information. It was fun, a bit of an adventure and good to see something new.

The shafts were spotted among piles of rocks and were well camouflaged. We only saw a couple on the way up the hill but the different angle on the way back down revealed a few more.

It was quiet and nice to feel like I was back in the bush. There was even a little friend for us sun baking on a rock beside the track.

We want to explore some more but are thinking a higher vehicle could be a little smarter option if we want to keep going along the various tracks. They are pretty rough with wash outs and drops, a bit of fun navigating.