Life after Yasi - Returning to Cairns

Having survived Yasi, we decided to stay in Ilfracombe until the following Monday morning, the7th of February, when a check of the weather and RACQ websites finally showed that the roads were open back towards Cairns. Off we set again, initially heading for Charters Towers via Longreach, Winton and Hughenden.

On arrival at the caravan park we bumped into an old boy, who had been there when we first passed through. This guy is a terrific old gent of 82, who only started travelling a couple of years ago. You’re never too old to start!! He heads round on his own, pulling a good-sized van with his 4x4. He’d also done a bit of a runner from Yasi but was back in Charters Towers for a few days before heading south for a family wedding. Good on him!

We only stayed the one night in Carters Towers, leaving the car hitched up for an early morning departure on Tuesday. Restrictions on some of the roads saw us decide to head for Townsville and then travel up the coast road and make our base in Cairns this time rather than on the Tablelands.

Heading up through Cardwell, Tully, Mission Beach and Innisfail was like passing through a war zone. The cyclone had certainly left its mark on these places. As we drove through the people looked numb as they tried to come to grips with the devastation. We took no photographs for our journal. It just didn’t feel the right thing to do. We pulled into Cool Waters Caravan Park in Cairns around 1530 that afternoon.

Cool Waters is pretty close to both our old houses in Cairns, and therefore not far from our great mates Susan and Tony. I can feel the hangovers already!!

We aim to stay in Cairns for a few weeks as Sheila is helping her old boss re-establish her own consultancy business. Hopefully this will bring a few bucks our way to top up the coffers after the Yasi Episode. There is currently not much paid work around the Tablelands as a lot of the crops have been affected by the weather. Volunteering is OK for a short period but unfortunately it doesn’t pay the bills. Still we will take the time to service the Land Cruiser and Kedron as well as plan our next sortie which hopefully will be at the end of the wet season and towards some gainful employment.