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Is anyone else finding facebook is somewhat taking over any desire to blog? It's bizarre! I seem to be spending far too much time on there. Instead of reading blogs, or summing up random events, or destressing by posting on here, I jump on facebook and randomly respond to or write wall posts and other such things. Which is fine, and social, and great fun ... but it's infinitely more temporary, or "of the moment". I feel like I'm losing the record I usually have of my life. I like being able to look back over what I've been doing in past years. I don't really want to lose that! So new resolution - I need to start posting more often.
To begin with, I need to post about my day on Moreton Island yesterday. In the rain! It was soooooo wet! In fact, I should probably start this with a weather update. The weather in south-east Queensland has been so insane! A week ago a group of Guides from the UK (including Annette from Sweden who I lived with at Pax) arrived in Brisbane for a weeks stay in "the sunshine state". Needless to say, the long awaited rain also arrived on Sunday. It hasn't rained in months ... not properly at least. We're in drought, and have been for a record length of time. So the rain was rather welcome, by all but the travellers of course.
Anyway, a week later and it's STILL raining! Not so much today, but we haven't had this much rain in years. It's been raining so much, that now we're dealing with flash flooding! Not so much here in Brisbane, but it's pretty severe just north on the Sunshine Coast (near where Annette and the UK Guides were staying until they flew to Tassie today). There are reports of up to 700mm of rain in places inside 24 hour periods! It's massive! So, so, so wet! The Noosa river rose about a metre overnight a couple of days ago. Crazy!
Needless to say, SES has been keeping busy. I haven't been called up yet, but there were eight people from my local group up on the Sunshine Coast last night helping out, and a few more went up today I believe. Loads of sandbags to fill, and residents to help out of flooded houses and so forth. There are plenty of flood boats out in action, and loads of roads cut off by water complicating the situation. People are stranded, and some fools are trying to drive and getting stuck. Sounds crazy!
Anyway, despite all this insane weather, we (Annette, the UK Guides and I) went to Tangalooma yesterday! We were meant to be going on a whale watching cruise, but it was cancelled. They said dolphin feeding would still be happening though, plus in the morning on the news they were saying the rain should be clearing around lunch time.
So, we went! We took the 10am ferry across to the island. Good trip over ... a little bumpy, but not bad. It was showering lightly this morning, but not too much. It almost looked like it was going to clear up too!
However, it didn't! It kept raining. Got heavier at times. Stopped raining once ... but started again shortly after. Basically, the entire day was wet! So we were on this gorgeous, sandy island at this lovely resort ... and we could hardly leave the cafe area. It was too wet! We had a fabulous day, but I wish the travellers could have all seen it the
way it would usually be ... gorgeous sand, blue skies, lots of sunshine, heaps of fun! Rather than the grey skies and insane wet!
Oh well, no point complaining about it now. We had a blast all the same. We went quad biking for a while ... which was loads of fun! We all had our own bike and followed the guide around on the beach for a bit then up the hill to a specially designed track and through a heap of puddles and stuff along the way. I'd never been on a quad bike before, but it was great. Super easy, and hilariously entertaining.
We kept running into each other ... or rather, I could find my break easily enough, but the girl behind me (and the one behind her) less so, and they kept running into me from behind and pushing me forward into the person in front ... rather funny! One girl had trouble steering at one point and nearly rode into the sea! Then at another point one girl got bogged, and in the process of trying to get out her wheels threw sand all over the girl behind her. All so funny!
The others were all super prepared mind you ... being English, they're obviously used to the rain. ;) They all had wet weather gear - jackets and waterproof pants too. I had one of my hooded jackets from London, so my top half was fine, but I was in jeans with nothing else to protect my legs. And it rained the entire time we were out on the quad bikes! Serious rain too ... getting in my face as we were riding and everything. By the time we got back to the resort my jeans were absolutely sopping. I felt slightly better to discover that many of the English girls' wet weather pants hadn't worked ... so they were all wet too. ;)
At the very end of the day was the highlight - we got to feed the dolphins. Of course, this meant getting very wet again! We were all under the impression that we'd get wet up to about thigh level. We just had to wade in, hold a fish under the water, and the dolphins come in and take the fish out of your hand. Simple. Our legs would get wet, and our arm to our elbow, but otherwise we thought we'd keep relatively dry. Big mistake!!
It was still raining when we fed the dolphins! Perhaps not particularly heavily, but it was still wet! And the water was really choppy ... lots of waves and so forth. So when standing on the beach waiting to go out and have our turn, we noticed that we'd be getting wet a little higher than expected - more like up to our waist. I was still in regular clothes on top! I'd only prepared my lower half for wading, thinking that was all that would get wet. But we walked in as far as our waist, so in no time my tshirt was wet. Then a big wave came ... and we hardly had time to turn around before the wave crashed into us and I was drenched head to foot! Even my hair was drenched! Oops!
It was still fun though! We fed the dolphins, and it was the most incredible experience! We weren't allowed to pat them, but they came right up to us to take the fish. I fed one called Echo ... and he was beautiful! A regular ... he's about 15 years old, and has been feeding at Tangalooma for over ten years. The water was really murky because it was so choppy, but he rubbed against my hand a bit as he took the fish, so I could feel him there. So beautiful! They came up out of the water a bit as they were coming in and out too, so we could see them a bit then at least. I'd love to do it again one day when the water is clearer ... usually you can see them in the water too apparently. And one day ... I'd love to swim with them! Such gorgeous creatures!
Anyway, after that, we raced back in and changed/dried off as best we could (difficult, considering most of my clothes were now sopping wet!), and headed to the boat. The trip back on the ferry (a 20m catamaran) was pretty rough! Apparently they nearly postponed it on account of the weather - still being rather windy and rainy of course. I have never in my life been seasick, and I've been out on rough seas before. I love the water ... I feel so at home out there. But I can't in all honesty claim I didn't notice the rough seas this time.
We were being thrown about all over the place, and it was dark, and we couldn't see a thing out the windows. Plus we were watching tv, which I don't think helped. We were all mucking around chatting and having a great time ... laughing continuously and the UK girls were squealing every time we bumped (which was rather often, at least at first). It certainly wasn't terrible ... one of the staff was handing out sick bags at the start, and insisted it would be bad and we may well need one, but none of us did. I have to confess I was a little queasy though. Not horribly so, but it was a bizarre feeling!
I guess we were lucky to get home ... they did cancel some trips earlier in the week, and watching the news when I got back last night regarding the weather and flooding on the sunshine coast, it's not surprising the seas were as choppy as they were. Oh well, it was still a great trip back! And far more interesting than it would have been if the seas were flat! And in spite of my surprise in the morning that the trip was going ahead at all, the day turned out to be a rather enjoyable one. Far more so than staying home and studying! ;)