Rotary Friendship Exchange (RFE) photos

 I copied some of Gary Marshall's photos (Gary was our Team Leader on the RFE) and printed them below.

This is my favourite sign!!!  I would really like to have one like this in my garden. 

In Port Macquarrie they had these on every table at dinner and we took this one, which is shown sitting on the dashboard of our team bus.  Hans and I took it at the end of the trip and I'm bringing it home.

Hans giving the team presentation at one of the clubs.  Could be in Port Macquarrie.

Dick and Lou bought these hats for each of us, and we wore them with great joy and panache.

A frontal view of my dolphin kiss.  I'm obviously enjoying it as I even closed my eyes.

Back to Hervey Bay

This is the only flooding we encountered on our drive back to Hervey Bay.  And see that blue sky?  First blue sky we've seen in two weeks!  Actually, we had lovely weather yesterday at the Reef, but other than that, it's been very, very rainy.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/residents-evacuate-as-flooding-grips-much-of-queensland/story-e6frf7l6-1225977082293

Whew!  We're in Hervey Bay, back in the same Best Western we stayed in over Christmas and we're going to settle in for a week here.  We have free internet (a real bonus) and we're across the street from the beach, though I can't see it from our window cause there are too many trees and a park between the street and the ocean.

A little further down the road I noticed a Rotary Park which appears to have grilling facilities, so we may make use of that later on in the week.

It's SO GOOD to be out of the rain.  The last two weeks have been pretty wet and we've just been one step ahead of the flooding.  Our Rotary friends in Forster had recommended we come back from Cairns (where we never went due to the weather) via an inland route, taking us through Emerald...Obviously, that was out too as to date, Emerald has been the hardest hit and is totally evacuated because it's completely under water.

For the last 36 hours I've been itching to leave Mackay but we had booked a day on the Great Barrier Reef for Thursday, the 30th and I'm so glad we did that.  It was fabulous!  The weather there was great, the first sun we've seen in two weeks, and the snorkelling was outstanding.  The stinger suits...not so outstanding.  Thankfully, there are no pictures.

So when we made the decision to leave Mackay this morning, we left pell mell taking only a few minutes to head down to the internet shop and make sure that there were no urgent messages and also to check that the Best Western in Hervey Bay had a room for us. 

We got through Rockhampton by the skin of our teeth.  One of the roads was already down to 1/2 a lane (see photo above) as the second lane was under water and the remaining lane was slowly sinking, but we just followed the traffic and we all got through okay.  It wasn't deep yet, so no problem really.  Just slow.

On our way up 4 days ago, we had forded some deeper water north of Rockhampton and that had miraculously ebbed so other than the little portion I wrote about above, we drove through no water but the radio was full of dire warnings that the Bruce Highway would be closed this weekend, probably Saturday and possibly even this afternoon.  So we felt fortunate to get through when we did, which was around noon.  I was already mentally preparing myself to be a "helper" if we got stranded at an evacuation center in Rockhampton. In my fantasy we made it to the local TV news as Canadian Rotarians, on a visit to Australia, now stuck in the flood and lending a helping hand at the shelters.  Just as well that fantasy didn't come true.

I was feeling a little pressured to get south as quickly as possible, but then I'd sober up and remember that had we been stranded, it would only have been a small inconvenience.  Those poor people all through Queensland who have been flooded out, I can't even begin to imagine what that must be like.

So here we are, warm and dry in a nice little 'apartment' unit at the Best Western with fridge to chill our midnight champagne, which we'll have with strawberries, pate and crackers.  It feels good to be safe.  And dry. We even have a mike to heat our barbecued chicken because after driving for 8 hours, Hans would just like to relax and drink some wine and not have to go back out for dinner.  I'm all for that myself.

Happy New Year everyone.

Ninja Snorkellers

Because snorkelers lie on the water with their arms and legs spread and their face just under the surface, it isn’t actually possible to tell which people are snorkelling and which are dead.  Those turquoise blobs you see are live snorkelers and one has hot pink fins. 

It’s hard to tell while underwater, but we were covered head to toe. There were racks of colourful lycra bodysuits in every size and we were required to pick one and squeeze into it before heading into the water.  Because, you know, there are stingers in the water.  That’s jellyfish, in case you’re wondering.  Most are harmless, however a sting from a jellyfish known as the Irukandji can require emergency medical treatment.  What they don’t tell you is that the emergency medical treatment may save your life, no guarantee, but you’ll certainly suffer unbelievable pain. For days.  And days. And you could still die.  So no one argued about putting on the stinger suit. 

The suit had a hood and idiot mittens with thumbs.  And they don’t come in black.  Our choices were various colours from pale pink to hot pink, turquoise or blue.  Hans and I each chose a turquoise one and let me just say, if you think pulling up your wet bathing suit is hard, try pulling up a skintight body suit that’s still slightly damp from the previous day.  We wrestled ourselves into our suits which is much like stuffing a sausage casing with ground meat,  pulled on our hoods, and then Hans and I decided to each don a lifejacket.  I was glad I did because occasionally, the water was quite cool and the jacket made a huge difference in keeping me warm.

I discovered I scream the same way whether I'm about to be devoured by a great white shark or if a hand touches my foot.  I swallowed a lot of water.  But I did see some fabulous things, some I’ve never seen before and even those that I had, these were bigger.  Enormous.  For example, we saw huge clams the size of a small car, with fat indigo lips that pulsed open and shut.  Vast areas of blue-tipped staghorn coral, the tips as pale blue as a robin’s egg and coming to life under the sun’s rays.  Large mystery fish, striped lengthwise in many colours and being groomed by tinier fish.  And schools of pencil thin silver and blue fish that flashed in the sun and disappeared as they abruptly changed direction.  It was absolutely magical.

This is the pontoon against which we docked, and where we picked up our snorkelling gear.

There’s a semi submersible sub that will take you around another part of the reef so you can look at the fish without getting wet.  We did this after our snorkel and there was a tiny little black and white striped fish that fitted itself against our window and drafted in the sub’s wake.  It’s little tail was vibrating a mile a minute and I swear it was enjoying itself. 

Oh, and the gourmet tea that I referred to in an earlier post?  It wasn’t.  But we had a pretty decent lunch:  thinly sliced grilled steak, chicken skewers, sausages, caramelized onions, and several salads.  Later in the afternoon they served chocolate cake and cheese and crackers with tea.  So it was okay.

We had a great time.  The snorkelling was terrific!  If we come here again, we’d do it in June – their winter – when there’s no danger of stingers and we can snorkel without wearing those hideous Ninja suits.

George the Groper.  This fish is HUGE.  You can read how big they get and this was just a little fellow, probably the size and weight of a man.  Very impressive.

Rain and Shine

It was a dark and stormy night. 

Shortly before 5:00 a.m. we left the house for the two hour drive to Shute Harbour, a little past Airlie Beach, where we were to board a catamaran for our trip to the Great Barrier Reef.

It rained harder than I have ever seen. 

If rain were fired out of machine guns, then we drove through thousands of machine guns pelting us intermittently on our drive.  Thank goodness it was intermittent.  Now and then it would let up, even stop momentarily giving us a ray of hope but it was just reloading before bombarding us some more.  And it was still dark for the first hour, making the driving even hairier.  I didn’t talk to Hans at all because I knew he was concentrating hard on the road.  It was an awful drive, and ditto on the way home except that now there was oncoming traffic and the lights were not only blinding but reflecting off the wet surface making it difficult to see where the road was going.

But then, as dawn gradually lifted the night, the clouds also parted and we could see blue sky.  By the time we reached the end of the road at Shute Harbour, the sky was mostly blue with only some cloud.  Lo and behold, a perfect day.

And it got better.

Here we are at Hamilton Island where we picked up more passengers.  It’s obviously a place of not only many expensive yachts but clearly some of the rich and famous fly in.

The Little Fockers

It’s been a bit wet so last night we did something we don’t do often enough.  We went to a movie.

They weren’t showing the movie with Colin Firth, The King's Speech, and the other choices were mostly for kids.  The only one that appealed was a sequel to the Fockers with Ben Stiller.  The movie was good for some laughs, which was just what was needed and we left happy.

The gathering storm

Last night the clouds bunched up and gathered strength for another blow.  It's not too bad in Mackay actually, but lots of communities west of us are completely cut off.

Are we there yet?

The signs made me laugh. They put into words what I was wondering myself, because it was a long drive from Hervey Bay to Mackay.

Driving to Mackay

Worst Flooding in 100 Years!

Yes indeed, this is true.  We have nothing to compare this to but the radio was right. 

When we left Hervey Bay this morning to head north to Mackay, Gypsy, our GPS lady, took us the fastest way.  That shortcut took us to within 3 kilometres of the end where the back road merged with the Bruce Highway.  But 3 km from our goal, almost spitting distance, the road was closed because part of it was submerged to a 12” depth.  We didn’t even consider risking it:  lonely back road, virtually no traffic, no cell phone…bad news if we got stuck.

We had to backtrack, go back to our starting point (damn!) and even a few kilometers south of where we started out in order to get onto the Bruce Highway.  This set us back one hour which was our first dilemma since we had about 700 km to cover that day. 

Second dilemma?  The Bruce Highway between leading up to Rockhampton is a *(&^%#@ slalom course.  They don’t call it that, but they do warn you:  “Potholes next 110 kilometres” reads the flashing sign.  After you complete the 110 km, there are more signs:  “Potholes next 50 km” and so on, all the way to Rockhampton. 

Hah. They don’t want you to lose heart at the beginning by saying, “Deep and Abundant Potholes randomly spaced on this entire highway for the next 700 km.  Try to dodge them without swerving into oncoming traffic and killing yourself.  Good luck.”  This section of the highway is a disgrace, and it’s a national highway.  Some stimulus dollars would be well spent here.

We did have to cross some water but there was a line of cars ahead of us and we watched them all make it through though it looked deep, so we followed.  It worked.  Whew!

Golf?

Sadly, this is what greeted Hans when he tried to go golfing in Mackay.  A local told Hans that he hasn't been able to golf for the last 2 weeks, and probably won't be able to play for at least another two.  Bummer.

Still bad flooding

The TV news is full of the state of emergency declared just west of where we are, where towns have been completely cut off as all their roads, and the town itself, are pretty much submerged.

So, we've cancelled our trip further north towards Cairns and instead will stay in Mackay an extra day or two.  That should give enough time for the highway south of us to clear of water.  It's passable right now, I hear, but "with care" which means there's still water in the low lying bits of the highway.   We forded some on the way up here - I have photos, but can't upload them right now as I'm on a public computer and I didn't save the photos to a stick.  Will try it later this afternoon.

The good news is that despite the rains which are on-again off-again daily, it's very, very warm so the rain is not at all unpleasant.  It's all an adventure!

Worst Flood in 100 years

Drove through flooded streets to get to Mackay and then it continued to rain heavily on us last night.  Really hard rain.

No internet where we are so don't look for too many updates.

Eli Creek

 You can see there are no real swimmers in the creek today.  It looks muddy, but the water was actually crystal clear.  It's all rainwater, and quite safe to drink.

Our last stop was Eli Creek where, under sunny conditions, people were eager to swim.  You can see in the water below Hans that one of the ladies is still wearing her rain poncho, so most people were not that eager to swim today.  I stayed in the bus.  It was just pouring down, hard, and I was only just drying off from my swim in Mackenzie lake.

Beach Drive

The Pinnacles.  They are reputed to have over 70 different colours.  Quite beautiful, really, and not unlike the Hoodoos we have in Alberta.

Part of the tour includes a beach drive.  As you can see, the rain was still coming down but it actually made the beach drive the smoothest ride of the day.

Along the way, we saw lots of tents set up in the bushes across from the sandy beach.  Ugh.  Mostly tents.  Wet, waterlogged tents.   "God, I miss those days," I said eyeing the miserable campers.  Not.

A wreck.  It has a name, but I'd have to go on the 'net to find it out so, it's just a wreck.

Rainforest and Mackenzie Lake on Fraser Island

Here we are huddled under our umbrellas and wrapped in towels as our guide talks to us about the rainforest.  The good news about the rain is that while it was unpleasant, the alternative on a sunny day is hordes of mozzies and sandflies.  So overall, I think we were better off.

Fraser Island is a World Heritage Site since 1992 as the largest sand island in the world!  There is NO soil on Fraser Island, only sand, so scientists find it incredibly interesting that a sub-tropical rainforest can be supported by only sandy.  There is decay from leaves and dead trees which add nutrients, and apparently that's enough. 

This is Mackenzie Lake, one of forty of Fraser's freshwater lakes which are perched in the tops of sand dunes high above sea level.  This is quite remarkable given that there are only 80 such lakes in the world. Lake McKenzie is by far the most popular and probably the most picturesque, and it's quite large at 300 acres. These perched lakes are entirely composed of rainwater and have no fish.  I went swimming in it, even though it was pouring rain, and I was told it was about 24 degrees.  What the heck, I was going to get wet anyway, right?

"There's carpet on the ceiling, in case you bump your head.  Or, you could wear the seat belts."

This was our introduction to the moster truck above, equipped with seat belts - and we all wore them gratefully - as we set out on the sand tracks of Fraser Island.  Truly, the bucketing rain today filled all the little dips and valleys on the sandy road with water and in parts, the road was a river.  A real river. 

"Oomph!" came the involuntary grunt from our driver as we hit a particularly rough spot.  We were bounced around like I've never experienced before, but it was fun! I did ask the driver after lunch to provide some vomit bags but none were needed. Whew.

Actually, the worst part of the bus trip was the screaming baby at the back. Where's a  dingo when you need one? Really, parents who bring their babies on a holiday should not ever be allowed to travel with a group.  I mean that quite seriously.  Evidently, even the driver had had enough at one point as he suddenly turned on the radio, full blast.  I mean, FULL BLAST.  We all jumped, then giggled.  The baby stopped screaming.  The radio was turned off.  The baby remained quiet.  We all sighed deeply and relaxed.  We never heard the baby again.  God bless the bus driver.

Boxing Day on Fraser Island

We were picked up at 7:20 a.m. (yikes!) and taken by ferry across to Fraser Island, about 35 minutes away.  It was a pretty miserable rainy day but, the good news is that it was so warm we didn't really mind the rain.  Well, not much anyway.  It made the ferns glisten.

Our first stop on the island was a walk through a sub-tropical rain forest.  I thought it very appropriate that it was raining as we walked.  Thank god our hosts in Brisbane lent us an umbrella, which Hans and I shared when we were stopped to listen to our guide but when we walked, Hans graciously let me take it while he relied on his Tilley hat to keep dry.  That didn't really work well for his t-shirt, LOL.

The rainforest was breathtaking.  Ancient trees draped with strangler fig vines and wrapped in moss.  This is a world choked with life, a riot of veetation where the solemn silence of the forest today was broken only by the patter of raindrops.

Schadenfreude

Hmm.  Not exactly a word you'd associate with Christmas but I must say, it feels wickedly good to hear on the news that it's cold and snowy in many parts of the world.  Sorry!!

Christmas Day

An echo from the past. 

"Are you going to the playground today?" asked our neighbour as he watched us walk our little girl to the park.

"Maybe," she replied shyly, "if I'm good."

Above, Hans is indulging his inner child.

Tiny Bubbles

Champagne (hey, it's still Christmas), a good book, and snacks. 

We did get to walk on the beach this morning.  It's pretty hot and muggy here in Hervey Bay and we let the waves wash over our feet to cool them down.  But when we got back to the motel, the pool just looked too inviting to ignore.  Plus of course there was the added lure of Christmas champagne.

Christmas Eve

And so this is Christmas Eve.   Smoked salmon, brie, champagne, baguette... Dinner fit for a king, plus lovely flowers to brighten the table.

Santa's not coming to Hervey Bay cause it's raining too hard, though we are getting moments of hope with a little sun.  But hey, we have good food, good wine and each other.  Oh, and internet!!  It's all good.

Christmas flowers

Our hosts in Brisbane, John and Janet, bought us this lovely flower arrangement to take to our hotel over Christmas since we'll be without a tree, or family and friends.  That was the most thoughtful gift even, and moved me to tears.