Home from the Adventure

The month of January has almost gone, and we are home, back at work, and getting back into the rountine of life at home. This January hasn't been like other years. Normally we are on holidays enjoying catching up with family, and enjoying the Queensland Sunshine. This year, we have been keen to get home, after being on the road for four months. But unfortu
nately, we have been isolated from our home by flood waters all the way up the coast. Life has been pretty crazy in the Sunshine State this year with massive amounts of flooding and devastation. It will take months and years before our State will be able to get back to where it was pre flood days. We have friends still waiting to get back into their houses from the 2008 floods, and now the water has been through their homes again. Back on a waiting list for builders to repair and rebuild. It has been so amazing though to see everyone working together to clean up and rebuild. If any good has come out of this, it is that people are giving selflessly of themselves to help their neighbour, not just in our State but from right across the country.

We were very fortunate to spend a lovely day out on Moreton Bay, the day before all the rain started. Our kids gave us a cruise on the Bay for Christmas, and we were able to take it on our 31st Wedding Anniversary. Such a lovely way to spend the day together. Little were we to know that exactly a week later the bay would be full of debris from the Brisbane River at the height of one of their biggest floods of record.
We went out on the Sea Watch, and were supposed to see Dolphins and Dugongs, but unfortunately we saw neither, probably because of all the fresh water that was in the bay from all the rain that Queensland had been experiencing.
It was a pretty good day to be out on the bay though, just enough sun, and a lovely breeze, meant that it wasn't too hot - There were about 50 of us on the boat, and only a handful of us were from Australia, we had folk from Switzland, Spain, Brazil, Croatia, France, Holland, China, Italy and Japan. It all made for a very interesting day.
Although we didn't take up the snorkling option, as the water was pretty murky and you weren't able to see too much in front of you ( and living on the coast in Qld anyway, we had done plenty of snorkling on the reef in the past) we did enjoy spending time on the beach, and in the water n Moreton Island. A lot of the overseas tourists enjoyed snorkling around the wrecks.

The boom netting was pretty popular on our way back to the jetty. Lots of fun.

We also managed to spend a few days in Brissie and caught up with these guys. We have been very close friends of theirs now for over 30 years. It seems funny seeing Mel with children of her own. She used to come have sleep overs at our place when she was a two year old. Such a beautiful family and such treasured friends. So blessed and honoured to call these guys our friends, and we enjoyed our time with them.

We left Brisbane in the pouring rain, and headed to the Sunshine Coast to catch up with Mum and Dad. It rained solidly there for the next five days, and it was this rain depression that caused the devastation in Toowoomba, the Lochyer Valley and in Brisbane. It also left us stranded on the Sunshine Coast unable to get home. It was a bit of a tryin time for us all, our son in Brisbane in a flood zone ( fortunately they were OK and didn't really suffer any damage, as the water didn't come quite as high as they predicted) and Chloe stranded in Bundaberg, unable to get to us, and unable to get home to work.
Also managed to catch up with my very dear friend Barb. It was so good to spend a few hours with her. Both of us have been on amazing adventures since we last got together. Barb and John spent three weeks in Italy back in October, and we did our Aussie Adventure, so it was good to catch up in person and share some of our stories.

After two weeks of being cut off from all north bound traffic, we were finally able to get back into Rockhampton, two days before Steve was due to go back to work. We came through on the first day they opened the highway, and it was pretty much like driving on a highway through a lake.
As we approached Rocky, we saw this billboard. Considering all the flooding and hardship that folk in our town and area have had to endure this year, I thought how appropriate this sign was for us a a city. It is about choices, and regardless of our circumstances, if we choose JOY and happiness at this time, I am sure that it will help us all as we go about working together to rebuild our community.

The main highway coming into Rockhampton within 24 hours of the main highway being opened.
We took photos a week later ( which I will share) and it was pretty amazing to see how much the water had dropped in that time.
It actually looked very pretty with the setting sun.
Finally after being on the road for four months it was nice to get home. Nothing much had changed, just a lot of over grown gardens. Fortunately things were better than we expected, I thought we might of had a bit of mould or mildrew having had the house closed up for so long, but there was no sign of it. A friend had even come and mown the lawn for us, so we felt very thankful and blessed.

We are extremely fortunate and blessed in that our home is on one of high areas in town, so we did not suffer any flood damage. However, our bees are kept on a property which is in the flood zone, and there were all wiped out. As Steve has kept bees for the past 28 years, it was a huge blow for him to come home to find they had been sitting under flood waters for the past fortnight and completely wiped out his hives.
You can see where the water went up too, and all the debris which has collected on the fences. This suggests that the water was rushing through this area. Two of his hives actually got washed away.
This is the farm where Steve keeps his bees. It must also be quite devastating for a friend of ours who put in many many hours of hard work, getting the orchard planted. Quite a few of the trees died as a result of sitting in water for weeks.
Changes in the water levels after a week.
These photos were taken exactly a week after the earlier photos. There is still plenty of water laying around, although it has dropped considerably in the week, different to the first week of the floods here where the level dropped only slightly.

Life is gradually returning to a bit of normality here. Last night I even managed to get out my sissors, and some fabric and do a little sewing. Will share with you in the next post.