Cyclone Country

It is certainly amazing to think of the time that has passed since we left home (5 months!).

And during that time, but prior to us getting there, the eastern states have succumbed to horrific floods and a very nasty cyclone.
It is equally amazing to see the road repairs, construction work and natural regeneration of vegetation that has occurred in that time.


What's left of a pine tree plantation near Ingham


As for people, it is difficult to gauge - on the surface most seem to be 'getting on with it', but how the deep emotions and affects of the devestation and scariness are being played out ... there must still be lots of stress! Human nature is a funny thing tho'...one lady from Mission Beach, near to where the cyclone was at it's worst, said to me "Oh, yes the cyclone was terrible, but I think those poor devils down south with the floods had it much worse". Don't you love the relative and 'elastic' nature of compassion!!



Cardwell foreshore - trees beginning to reshoot


On our trip, from Townsville to Cairns, there were kilometres and kilometres of land that has been affected by the cyclone. And I guess when a cyclone is several hundred kilometres wide, and intense, a lot of area is going to be in it's path!! There is obvious devestation to vegetation, crops, tree plantations, roads, buildings - lots of bent iron, doors off sheds, tarps on rooves, road signs bent over, neon signs with the 'insides' out of them, undercut beaches etc, etc. but generally, life is going on, the place is being tidied up, repairs being made (insurance assessment is the hold up for a lot of people), nature is doing it's thing with regeneration and ...banana supply will be back to normal by September, so a local told me today!!

There are simply acres and acres

of banana plants between Mission Beach and Innisfail. These ones look to have recovered somewhat from Yasi (they're not flat on the ground anyway!) but I'm presuming they usually have many more "hands" of bananas (covered in the plastic bags visible  throughout the crop

We stayed in Mission Beach for a couple of nights, enjoying the ambience of a scenic spot (despite cyclone "attention"), filled with tenacious, community minded people who exude the impression that they have faced off against the elements and won!!

Dunk Island, off Mission Beach - still recovering from Cyclone
Yasi and not yet opened for business. The forecast for this
reopening is not until April 2012! There was obviously
 significant damage.

We certainly supported the local economy at Mission Beach... making a few 'purchases' at the local Sunday morning market and the "surf shop".

The "boys" showing us how it is done

 

Flying our newly purchased, 'steerable' (!??) kite on Mission
Beach. Buying one without a frame was a great idea, as it had
quite a few hard landings!



Although this house didn't appear to have suffered too much damage,
it looked like the tidal surge, at the time of the cyclone, looked had
pushed sea water within a couple of metres of it.



On one end of Mission Beach, the trees had been stripped and the
palms pushed around - like this one, palm trunk left half buried in the sand



Further along the beach, the palms, still had many of their green fronds
attached, even if their roots were exposed and their trunks a little "wonky"!

The sunrise was still pretty "speccy" tho'!

One of the buildings left untouched in Mission Beach, was the Church building, shared by the Uniting and Lutheran Congregations. A quaint little church building, with lots of light and air coming in with glass and louvres.

Arriving at 9.55am, we'd missed the 8.00am!? Uniting service, but right on time for the 10.00am Lutheran service.  Two visitors from Papua New Guinea, the Wright family from Loxton, SA and us, more than doubled the numbers of the regulars.

It was great to, again, meet another travelling family and do some "story sharing"! We have earmarked a timeslot in the next couple of days to catch up with them in Cairns, before they head West and we continue North.

I think we need to earmark Mission Beach, and surrounds, to make another visit to, in several years time. And providing they haven't had 'another' cyclone, to see the changes and progress made.

Lily's much loved new bag, that she purchased for herself (most of it!!),
at the Billabong shop in Mission Beach.