Cyclone Kirrley

 Okay, I’m on the road, and will try to start posting more since I’ll be up to more adventures. As I head south it will start to cool down, and I’ll actually be able to do stuff outside again when it’s not 5am without nearly dying of heat stroke. 

This week was an adventure, but not in the best way. We got hit my cyclone Kirrley. It was nearly a direct hit, category 3 cyclone. The days up to it were filled with the failed hope that it would reroute and go hit someone else, but as cyclones go it wasn’t too bad.

In the days prior I took advantage of the cool weather going on some nice afternoon hikes and this bush curlew tried to scare me away from its partner and baby. 

 It hit Thursday evening, shortly after dinner. We watched out the windows as the tops of trees snapped around us as the wind whipped about. Around 7:30 we heard a big thump and something rolling off the roof. It turned out the lid of a ceiling vent tore off the roof. So Dean grabbed a ladder and climbed way too high up to the top step to look into his 10ft ceiling. His intention was to pull himself into the ceiling which was at his shoulders. I thought it was the most ridiculous idea I’d ever heard and also felt certain I couldn’t do it. Luckily, his attic is filled with insulation so he determined that it would not be productive to try to get up there and I didn’t have to fight with anyone about the danger of the idea. While he was on the top of the ladder the power went out. 

We got out the battery candles and watched the storm as it whipped around the neighborhood. When we got tired of watching the trees with back-and-forth, we got out our candles and began a game of Scrabble. I of course whooped them. 😉 by the time the game was over we all tottered off to bed wishing to have some air-conditioning or a fan to cool the very, very hot weather. The night wasn’t so bad at least not as bad as the nights to come because there was a nice strong breeze, and as long as you could ignore the cracking trees and the occasional rain, it was all right.

We woke up to still no power and assessed the damage of the house. We found that Dean was able to climb up on top of the roof instead of inside and tape of garbage bag over our new hole in the roof. We were lucky that there was not much rain with the cyclone . Following that adventure, we put it around, picking up trick trees and cleaning up the yard following the storm. I spent most of the day on a lawn chair in the shade in the windiest spot I could find just trying to avoid as much of the heat as possible. It was Australia day, and of course it wouldn’t be Australia day without a leg of lamb and Lamingtons. Lamington are a dessert maybe Australian or British, which is made of a yellow sponge cake which is cut into squares and coated in a thin layer of liquid chocolate which soaks into the cake the cake is then rolled in coconut flakes, making a delicious sweet dessert. Luckily, Jenny had premade the cake the night before before the power went out and had kept it in the freezer. For lamb, we marinated it in herbs and spices and Greek yogurt and grilled it over charcoal for an hour. we had a delicious meal despite the lack of power. Once again we played Scrabble by candle and the second night was a bit more brutal than the first. Mosquitoes ate us alive and the temperature was in the upper 80s but felt like 90s with 80% humidity. The occasional breeze was the only saver.

The next day was the most brutal, we removed most of the branches in the yard and put them out, and at the end of the day we finally went looking for ice for the cooler. We were very lucky and found some at the grocery store and were able to save a little bit of the food that had been on the freezer although most had to be tossed that night was the hottest night yet now this whole time I had been taking three or four showers a day and two in the middle of the night but the last night I took four showers that night there wasn’t a lick of breeze. It was a brutal night. I hardly slept at all and same with Dean And Jenny but we were saved at 5:30 AM when the power came back on and we could turn the fans and back on and cool off, that was a long painful night.

With the power back, I started to prepare for my departure, running some errands and picking up groceries. I got ready to head out of town ready for my newest and exciting adventure. I’ll be sad to leave Dean And Jenny it’s been an absolute delight staying with them. They’re wonderful and we had a great time hanging out playing games, watching movies and going on all sorts of cool adventures , I’m so glad I got to spend this time with them. It was truly such a delight getting to see them and their friends and just enjoying some time.

Oh, my favorite Aussie phrase of the week: “sparrows fart” meaning “early morning”