Days 34-39: Cyclone Jasper and Townsville Hikes

 The last few days have been mostly filled with a combination of work and cyclone preparation, as we waited to see where cyclone jasper would hit. This week is a big week for work with a bunch of reports due at the end of the week, so making sure those are getting done has taken up a large portion of my mental energy. 

As for cyclone jasper, Sunday it was looking like it would be a big hurricane hitting Wednesday, projected to be a cat 4. Luckily over the course of the last few days the cyclone de-escalated to a cat 2 and headed North of Cairns. We prepared with getting water, dried foods, batteries and flashlights, luckily none of it was necessary. 

Beyond that I’ve been on some nice walks and hikes around town. The pre-hurricane brought in some lovely cool weather and rain and it’s been so nice to get out and about. Gardens are looking happy and the weather is so comfortable. Dean and I walked the strand and the jezzanine one day for a great lookout of the ocean. 

Another day a wandered through the neighborhoods enjoying all the architecture. The old homes here are often high ceilinged buildings on stilts designed to maximize the airflow in pre-air conditioned days. They have gorgeous green and white textured glass windows which are beautiful and lovely to look at. During windy weather you can open the windows and get a great cross breeze keeping the house cool. Dean and Jenny only have AC in a couple rooms, but hardly ever use it, and even though it’s often around 80-90 degrees outside it never really feels that hot. The sea breeze and tall ceilings keep it cool. 

Yesterday Dean, Jenny, and I went for a 1.5 mile hike at Pallaranda, where an old quarantine station was from the early 1900s. There were grave sites for Vietnamese immigrants who died of meningitis. The walk was beautiful over rolling hills over looking the sea. We watched the storms roll in and it was a great little hike. 

Yesterday we also went and saw the new studio Ghibli movie the Boy and the Heron. I saw it in Japan in Japanese, but now I have seen it in English. It was really great. It’s a bit surreal and intense, as the movies often are, but really beautiful. I had understood most of the movie without understanding the dialogue, but the translation also provided some details I previously hadn’t understood. It was nice! 

Another little trip I went on the last few days was to Giru (pronounced: gee-Roo). It is about 30 minutes away and a small little sugarcane town. There is an “international hotel” there with a bistro and a pub and we got a drink and chatted with the bar tender who is a girl on working holiday visa from Estonia. She was nice and had just ended up in this small town from a job posting, but she seemed happy. We drove around and looked at the mango and lychee orchards, plump with soon to be picked fruits and viewed the beautiful landscapes. It was a great little afternoon excursion. 

I test drove my (hopefully) new car which hopefully I’ll be buying at the end of the month. It’s a little Corolla my Dean and Jenny’s friends are selling. It’s a good little car and I hope will serve me well while I’m here. 

And I finally got all my bank accounts sorted out. Which was an endeavor. 

We also had a nice afternoon tea with a few of their friends as well which as also lovely. 

Overall is been a busy, and productive few days.