Steve and Dee's Australian Tour

We have had a week to ten days of rain, pretty cool 26 most days and the same at night. In 7 days we had 605mm of rain. Cyclone Dylan went South, cyclone Edna & Fletcher went North across the Gulf of Carpentaria. With all the rain we decided to take a day trip back out to Cape Tribulation, it was raining and the wet season!!! Absolutely stunning every way you looked, there were water falls, small & large, run offs, tree's down, landslides, rocks on the road, you could see where the water had been up over the bridges we were driving on. Difficult to get photographs as not many places to pull of this narrow bendy road. We continued up part of the Bloomfield track, we seemed to be the only people on the road. This may be because every time you got out of the car, we got hammered by mozzies!!!! It only takes one bad mozzie to get Dengue fever!!! We went to the Daintree Tea Plantation, stopped for lunch at PK'S went down roads we hadn't been down before. As we were driving along a snake & bird came out of a tree over the car onto the other side of the road, the bird was obviously after the snake!!! After this I wound my window up, in case one come in!!!!!

Also the other morning whilst getting ready for work, I noticed something keep moving in the garden & driveway, well it was crabs, about the size of Steve's hand, every time I tried to get a photo, they went bush!!!

This is normally a car park & picnic area.

The size of this Bamboo is incredible, 100mm thick.

Here we go, this is more like it. (North of Mossman).Flash flooding.

The water was receding quickly, look at the weed on the railway line.

Look at the cloud.

The Daintree ferry in the rain.

At first we thought it was a Crocodile but no just a logadile!!

Water Fall.

How pretty!!

Taken from Alexandria look out.

Stunning topography!!

Steve at the look out.

More water.

Daintree Tea Plantation.

Located in the heart of the Daintree wilderness. The moist tropical climate & high rainfall of around 4,000mm per annum, along with the alluvial red soils combine to make perfect growing conditions for this unique tea. No insecticides or fungicides are used. Full bodied flavoursome, unblended Australian tea captures the aromas of the surrounding rain forest. Daintree tea was established in 1978, by the Nicholas family, who still own & operate the business. Their home is nestled amidst the rain forest over looking the tea plantation. From picking to packing takes less that 24 hours.

Steve with is Daintree tea at the Plantation.

Tea leaves on Tea plants/bushes.

Plenty of water.

Nice.

Land slide, Tree on road, No signs to say road hazard here!!

Another water fall.

More water.

The snake that dropped out of a tree.

A very BIG spider.

A tree OVER the road.

How pretty?

More water.

Just a big beautiful tree on the Bloomfield track.

Steve at one of the creek crossings on the Bloomfield track.

It's moving fast & with force.

Me!!

The ute is on dry land.

Can you see me??

Cape Tribulation and the bush is still in the way!!

Another small water fall.

Picture perfect.

Lucky we were able to squeeze through!!

Another hurdle accomplished!!

More water.

Lush!!

Steve at Cape Tribulation Beach.

Cat's Whiskers.

Thornton Beach

Weevil lily.

Yes more water falls.

Wonga Beach.(South).

Wonga Beach. (North).

Pretty.

Last week there was a fire in the power board of the hotel across the road from the Meridian hotel.

The fire engine was on the scene very quickly, however the power went off at Meridian & guess who was stuck in the lift.............yes Steve for 1 hour 30 minutes!!! In the dark with no fresh air or water, it gets extremely hot in the lift very quickly!!! The electrician was called and couldn't do anything as Ergon problem!!! The electrician told Ergon, a man was stuck in the lift, Ergon told the fire fighters or rushed across ready for a rescue!!! so we had three fire fighter's and next the arrival of two paramedics ready to perform CPR on Steve if necessary!! Eventually the power came back on and Steve was very happy to be released. Still at least he was getting paid!!!lol.

Fire engine & Ergon.

Steve on his release, with two firemen & two paramedics!!!

Ergon trying to fix the problem.

Although we are supposedly in the wet season, we have still not had a large amount of rain and 70% of Queensland is in a drought. Here they seem to waist a massive amount of water compared to other states we have been in.
We have been on cyclone watch now for a week. Cyclone Dylan is on its way, today we had the bad news, we will not get it, it is expected to hit Townsville & South, tomorrow morning (Friday 31st Jan). So we have had king tides and even had a bit of surf at four mile beach, although no beach at present. I had the day off today so have been for a walk around town to see what is happening.
The topography is stunning around here, every way you look.