Thru the eyes of Road Warrior Stefany
So these last few days have been very interesting. Our itinerary called for us to arrive in the Whitsundays and enjoy some time on the beach in Daydream Island. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans. Churning off the east coast of Australia was the strongest and largest storm in Australian history, Tropical Cyclone Yasi.
Edna, Adri and I are no strangers to hurricanes. Down in Oz, they are called cyclones and actually spin the in the opposite direction of hurricanes. I’m assuming it has something to do with the changes in hemisphere. I just find it amusing that we flew half way around the world to experience a Cat 5.
Meteorologists called for Yasi to make landfall in Cairns, which is where we began our adventure. Luckily, we were already scheduled to leave about 2 days before landfall. So we boarded our bus and headed down the coast to Airlie Beach. This is a town on the mainland adjacent to Daydream Island. The original plan was to ride out the storm there. So we headed to the grocery store and stocked up on food and water. It was so interesting explaining and reassuring all the Canadians and Europeans on the trip about what to expect. Hurricanes have always been a part of life that I sometimes forget how scary they can be for those who’ve never experienced them. However, they were all great sports about the whole thing. Stocked up on supplies, we headed back to our hotel and had a cyclone party. Always fun!
When we woke the next morning and watched the news, we learned of the massive reach of this storm (about 1000 km). We were about 500 km away from where the eye would make landfall, so that morning we climbed into the bus again and continued our journey southbound to a town called Yepoon (Insert plethora of jokes here) where we met up with another tour group.
Around 6 pm, feeder bands began to make landfall. We felt some of the affects here, but nothing alarming. The group actually spent the night having another cyclone party and searching for kangaroos. Seriously…they are all over this resort!
This morning we awoke to blue skies and a nice breeze. So today’s plan is to hang by the pool and try to spot some more kangaroos.
Tomorrow: Langmorn Station
