Everyday is like Sunday

Beach 2 weeks ago

Another small report from a rainy Burrum Heads.
The last couple of days have not been quite eventful. Either it's too wet to go outside or it's really warm and humid. Normally in the day I get up at about 7 'o clock, grab some coffee, see the morning news on the computer and I'll do some genealogy, for Kat's family or Kat's uncle. Eat, drink, go the pub for an hour and then some reading. Finished Huxley's Brave New World and now I'm plundering John's (Kats dad) bookcase and started reading Cell by Stephen King. The slow days are good for my goal to finish the BBC's Big Read before I die.

Kats picture of the frog

The nice thing about sitting outside in the breeze is also, that you can see some amazing animals around. Besides the annoying Cane Toads (Bufo Marinus - Buf voor Intimi) which are destroying the country, we see a lot of gecko's which can make a hell of noise for a small animal. When you think that there's a big bird inside in the middle of the night, it usually is a gecko.
Also sometimes we see the green tree-frog, beautiful birds (like the kookaburra), spiders and butterflies, all of which we're trying to take some good pictures of.

Soldier Crab Army

This morning Kat and I went on a little ride on our tandem to the beach. The weather was already 32 degrees at 10 in the morning, that the beach was the only reasonable place to go. Unfortunately it was low tide, so we had to walk at least half a kilometer to get in deeper water. Very fun was watching the THOUSANDS (literally) of soldier crabs running around. It's a big black army (hence the name) running over the beach and when you come close, they dig themselves in the sand.

Soldier Crab

We had a good time in the warm water and left just in time when the new thunderclouds rolled in, 'cause now its showering again.
From a soggy soils of Queensland, we wish you good days :-)

And here are some more pictures Kat and I took over the last few days.

More Army

Kat Today

Me on the tandem

St. Andrews Cross Spider

Kookaburra in the park

The Beach

Water, Water Everywhere

Greetings from a very wet Queensland. Most of you probably followed all the floods on the news. Lots of deaths, people being evacuated, 73000 people without electricity, and according to the reports, the worst is yet to come. The flash floods have now hit major cities like Brisbane, and they might be used to heat and drought, but since 1974 not to floods. To give all you people from Europe some idea of the scale of the chaos is here from the Guardian:

Queensland has been in the grip of floods – blamed on a La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific – for several weeks, and an area the size of France and Germany has been affected

Meanwhile, up here in Burrum Heads it's still ok. We have a lot of rain, but no floods. All around us (Bundaberg and Rockhampton to the north, Maryborough and Brisbane to the south) all the floods have hit, but up here at the coast we're still quite safe. (Look for interactive map here)

What we notice here is that we've been cut off from the rest of the country. All the roads have been flooded and there is almost no way in or out of the village. There is no mail untill at least monday, no newspapers, and food is on ration. You're only allowed one loaf of bread and one packet of eggs each, for instance. People are stocking up food, for the end is not in sight.

In between the rains, we have had sunny days as well. Last Saturday we went on a little trip to the dam around here. It was a massive sight to see. The lake was overflowing and the dam was almost not able to hold the water. The forest surrounding it was overflowing as well (see the top picture of this post.)
The bumpy trip up there (the roads are not as good as they used to be) was very interesting as well. Hundreds of thousands of trees, almost black in color, being used for the logging industry. The trees are almost black because of former forest fires, but they seem to have recovered quite well.

After that we went to the (now unreachable) town of Maryborough. A real interesting town to see. Buildings from the late 19th and early 20th century, some well preserved, others a little less. I was not able to take a lot of pictures for we had to leave pretty fast when the storms were about to hit, but I'll definately head over there when the weather gets better.
Well, that's about it for now. We will be safe aound here, although right now, another big storm has just started and it's raining big time again.

A New Year

One of the roads in Burrum Heads

It's a new year and the weather has changed in Burrum Heads, while some parts in the area have snakes and crocodiles swimming in the streets (and no, this is no joke) we're having sunshine and 34 degrees.

So the next days we're going to explore more around. Kat and I both want to start the year right and are going on daily walks through and around the village. We're starting off slow, but the walks will be longer and more beautiful when we get into it. Funny thing I noticed is that around this area, there are no pavements. Sidewalks are grass, so I always have the feeling we're walking through people's yards, but apparently, we're not.

Pepe and Precious

We usually take the two dogs Pepe (named after Pepé Le Pew) and Precious with us.
It's really nice to walk around here, but for the rest the town is quiet. The real social place to be are the local Pub and the community hall.

Kat and I will both be trying to get a job in Burrum Heads Pub and Hotel/Motel asap. Kat got her Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) and Responsible Service of Gambling (RSG) last week so she will be able to work in a Liquor Licensed and Gambling premises anywhere in Queensland.

The gambling is actually really necessary here. All the pubs, great and small, have a huge amount of pokies (slot machines), kino and all different kinds of gambling around. You're able to bet on almost anything you want.

In the meantime I have been busy with genealogy and hope to get some work with that around here as well.

Our Front Yard

We celebrated New Years Eve in the pub as well and it was crowded. Everyone from all around the area and all the people staying at the camping parks around here were there. There were almost no fireworks though. Fireworks are outlawed in most of Australia and you need a special pyrotechnic license to use them. I know some of you would find that heaven, but I missed the big colors and explosions in the sky at midnight. (People who want to sign a petition to legalize fireworks in Australia: click here)

Close-up

At midnight we celebrated the new year and Kat's birthday and had a great evening. Met some great people from Maryborough with a starting band in need of a drummer, so who knows. Every Beatles needs a Ringo.


Well, the next couple of days Kat and I will be getting out more and do more. Finally the weather is good, so expect more pictures and more stories soon