After meeting Nemo and Dora on the reef (I know, should write more about this once) and seeing the platypus on the tablelands, it was slowly time for us to move inland. So we got up one morning and set out for the long drive to the red center of Australia.
We had heard about a cyclone being on ist way and expected to hit the coast 4 days later, but as we drove away the forecast became more dramatic: this one was gaining force and was said to be the worst cyclone to hit Queensland since records are kept. Whole areas were being evacuated, even the whole hospital in Cairns was transferred to Brisbane by plane! On the radio there were messages to the population, telling people to barricade and make supplies of food and water, they were getting ready for an immense natural catastrophe. And we were thinking: oh my, were we lucky to leave the area before this! But this system was so big it did not slowly dissolve inland like a “standard” cyclone, from a strength 5 (on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 meaning winds of around 300km/h) on the coast it kept on going west, still provoking massive rains and 150km/h winds over 500 km away from the coast. And the further away we drove, the further away the weather warnings were being issued….we had Yazi on our a….! So we kept on driving….not that there would be a lot to do between Cairns and Alice Springs, but this was an extra incentive to go west, because the storm was gaining terrain on us. Finally we reached Alice Springs, and then the storm passed….and went around the city. We are 2 lucky campers.