Crazy Stuff

We were lucky, our power was restored early the day after the storm but others had to wait much longer. Some friends stopped by to see how we had made out and mentioned that they were worried about meat and food spoiling because their freezer was rapidly thawing. I said I had room in mine, so they should bring their stuff on over. They came back a little while later with a box full including a frozen kangaroo tail complete with fur! They are big damned things so now when you open my chest type freezer, it looks as if some strange creature dived in head first and can't get out!

Marooned Again!

Here we go again, because of the rains that accompanied Cyclone Monica the 2 roads out of town are flooded again. So we have had no mail, no fresh foods, let me tell you the grocery store is beginning to look pretty bare of greens and the like. We have had newspapers because they are flying them in. The above is a picture of the road to Ubirr, I was impressed earlier in the wet when the water was almost up to the level of the road, as you can see from this photo, it is now completely over the road. Bird Dog thinks it is pretty neat too!


These 2 photos are of the same site but from a slightly different angle. It is hard to believe it can go from a small stream, which by the way, later into the dry, became not much more than a muddy trickle, into a field of water!


I found this photo interesting because you can see on the trees the scars from the burn of the last dry and now they are standing in water a couple of meters deep, what a land of contrasts! The second is just another shot to give you an idea of the huge amounts of water that accumulates in a big rain. Everyone agrees this was a good wet!!! I will double check on the exact amount of rain that has fallen, to someone from the east coast of USA, it was an astronomical figure!!!

The Morning After Cyclone Monica

Well it is the day after and let me tell you it was a pretty damned scary night! The dogs and I spent most of it in the computer room under the desk.

It was cosy but the whole time it sounded like there was a 747 landing in the back yard. They say by the time it hit us it had died down to a category 3 because it had traveled over a fair bit of land to get here. All I can say is that if that is what a 3 is like I can tell you without even the tiniest bit of doubt, I don't ever want to be in a 4 or a 5. There is a lot of damage around town, a tree knocked down the fence in our back yard and almost came through the roof in the living room.


There truly are no tall trees left in town, most aussie trees have a very shallow but wide spread root system because it is so dry, the roots go out to catch every drop of rain that falls before the sun dries it up. Even here where the wet floods the whole place, the trees are designed more for the dry. Also because we are at the end of the wet and the ground is so saturated and soft, it was inevitable that the big ones would succumb.

The saddest thing is that an Aboriginal lady who spent the night in the shelter at the court house, had a severe asthma attack which led to cardiac arrest and her death. She was in her 50's and a very nice lady, a very skilled basket maker and wife of one of the really good artists. Her youngest son is a regular at the shop. I saw him this morning and he was in a daze. You are not allowed to say the name of a person who has died for several years because it may upset their spirit and hinder their trip to the Dreamtime.

We still haven't heard how they fared at Oenpelli or some of the other outstations. The numbers of injuries and dollars lost will not sound impressive no matter what but not because of the magnitude of the storm, rather because the top end is so vast and mostly uninhabited, only 120,000 people in the Northern Territory and 80,000 of those live in Darwin, which was spared this time and about 20,000 more in the Alice so that only leaves about 20,000 spread over the rest of an area about 2.5 times the size of Texas.

So we are fine and Jabiru will survive albeit with less shade. All the locals say it is the first time they can ever remember that a cyclone has hit this far inland with such force. Most residents and the town itself were ill prepared because they just didn't think it would ever happen! Here are the pics to prove it did.

CYCLONE!!!

Well according to the attached forecast, we may experience the edge of Cyclone Monica. We could have high winds and lots of rain again. Jabiru in general and our house in particular sits high so the danger of flooding is not too great. The flood plains of Kakadu have dried up remarkably in the last week but the ground is still very wet so we could get marooned again if there is a lot of rain. And this is a category 5 storm so it is a pretty bad one. It looks like Maningreda and Croker Island are definitely in for it and it could hit Darwin as well. Darwin was almost destroyed about 30 years ago by Cyclone Tracey. Our house is practically all glass and all rooms have at least one glass wall, but I do have some plywood about so we will have to barricade one room if it looks like it is going to come our way in full force. I will keep you posted. In the meantime, here is a photo I took of the sunset last night, as usual, there are pandanus to see, I love those trees!

Latest update, looks as if it is headed straight for Darwin which brings it closer to us. I will put tarps over and tie down loose things outside. This course brings it more over land than sea so that should tame it a bit, but since it is a category 5 to start with, it needs a lot of taming!

No Fish Biting

We went fishing Easter morning but didn't get a bite, so we took a ride to Nourlangie Rock which is the site of some amazing rock art paintings, thousands of years old but so well preserved, they looked as if they had just been done! Here are some pics of the view from the top, not to mention a HUGE SPIDER!

The Big Flood Recedes!

Finally the big flood has receded and it's a good thing, I was starting to feel claustrophobic! So I hopped into the good ole jeep and off I went. I must admit I was a little apprehensive because I had heard so many stories about the flood. Even the big tractor trailers could not go through for a couple of days. Not only was it quite deep across the road, it was flooded for almost 3 kilometers straight. But when I got to the spot, I hopped in behind a road train and it really wasn't bad at all. The deepest point by this time was only about 30 centimeters. That isn't very deep but the danger is that if something bigger and going fast passes you in the opposite direction, I could have been surfed off the road in the wash. But everyone gets out of the way of the big road trains so I just cruised! The first picture is looking out over the flood plain, the second one I took by holding the camera out the window and pointing it back, both were taken while I was driving, I couldn't stop, I would have lost my escort. The third pic is of the parking lot at a restaurant just beside the Adelaide River. The river is very tidal so when the tide was in, it added to the overall problem. I spent the night in Darwin and by the next day when I returned, the road was almost dry but the water was still up to the shoulders on the sides of the road. One more exciting adventure to ad to the list.

Too Deep!

Darius and I and the dogs went out to check on the level of the Magela, a guy came into the store and said it was just covering the top of the depth sign which is about 2 meters plus about 100cm on top of that. But just before the creek there is a floodway on the road that has been running a steady sheet of water but only a couple of cm deep, well this evening it was up to 600 cm which is too deep for my taste, that would probably run in the doors of the jeep. Darius waded out to check and he thought we should give it a try, but I was chicken!! These monsoonal troughs have been creating some fantastic sunsets though, they are cockatoos in silouette.

MAROONED!!!

We are officially marooned and have been for about the last 3 days. No mail deliveries, no nothing that would come in by truck. There is still helicopter transport for medical emergencies and Kakadu Air is still flying in and out. But, there are only 2 roads out of Jabiru, one is to Pine Creek and that is the first picture, the bridge is closed, water over the road and very strong currents. The other way out is the road to Darwin and that is closed at the Wildman River which is pretty far up the road so I don't have pics there. But it is apparently pretty wild! Ian and I and the dogs went for a ride this morning to get a look, we saw 2 crocs, one small (about 1.5 meter) it was sitting right on the road, but was gone before I could turn the camera on and the 2nd was just along side of the road and that was a biggie, I reckon 4-5 meters, he churned the water up pretty good as he disappeared into the treetops, sounds funny doesn't it, but that's what happened! Remember I always say I expect something exotic to come out of the speargrass, well the picture shows a wild horse vanishing into it. As you drive along it reminds me of the bayous in the southern USA where the water is right up to the edge of the road on both sides, One of the park rangers, Ollie, was telling me that in 1998 the water was over the yellow guard rails on the bridge. It is just so hard to believe all this water, everywhere, is going to disappear in another couple of weeks, makes me think the center of the earth must be a giant sponge, not a firey core!

1 Year in the Tropics

Annual Report

Well it is now just over one year that I have been living in the tropics. Here is what I have to report:

I have not worn long pants once during that year.
I have not worn a jumper or sweater once during that year.
I have had no occasion to wear any clothing more formal than shorts during that year.
I have not closed any windows in our almost all glass house during that year.
I have seen the land grow spear grass to heights of 8 feet high and watched it get brown and die then fall beneath the pounding of the "knock 'em down" rains all in the space of a few weeks.
I have seen the fires of the big burns and had them almost envelop me from both sides of the road as I drove home from Darwin in the night.
I have seen the earth get so dry and cracked you would bet that nothing could ever live there again.
I have seen the rains come and cover that dry earth with a couple of meters of water in the flood plains and in the bush encourage the growth of foliage with so many shades of green it makes my senses reel.
I have driven through creeks where the water almost came in the doors of the jeep.
I have seen huge crocs, snakes, lizards, amazing birds, etc. in their natural habitat.
I have floated on boats through tree tops.
I have caught fish over100cm long!!!
I was talking to a lady in the Jabiru Plaza and watched a wallaby baby poke its head out of her pocketbook.
And I have come to know and respect the culture of a mob of people I would never have known had I not moved here and fall in love with the crazy kids too.

I could go on and on because so many unexpected and beautiful and amazing things have happened in this year, instead I will just add an assortment of photos I have taken over the year.