Why Does It Always Rain On Me?

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It's all a bit odd.  We had received dire warnigs about the weather in Townsville but set out anyway.  For 55 miles we 'enjoyed' the odd shower but nothing to get excited about, then stopped at a gas station for lunch.  The heavens opened.  We weren't too bothered until a lady from the Red Cross came over to explain that she was working on setting up evacuation centres in Townsville.  She seemed genuinely worried about us cycling 15 miles into town (though not worried enough to offer us a lift!!).  We headed on anyway but with a tinge of trepidation .

It WAS pissing down and the flood waters either side of the road were rising noticeably but we made it through fine and headed to our hotel where there was no sign of any sort of emergency.  Then we put the TV on.  Townsville is headline news!  It seems that parts of the town are under water and people are being rescued by inflateable boats.  The current weather is a 'one year in a hundred' event....yesterday they were saying Townsville might see a metre of rain in a week.......now it is over the weekend.  A METRE.....In TWO DAYS!

Luckily we have a 1st floor room.

It seems that we may well now be screwed.  The road is closed to the south and will stay that way for at least 2 days.  The train isn't running, the bus service is suspended, rental cars are not available and we are running out of ideas.  As things stand our plan is:

1/ drink some beer
2/ have dinner
3/ possibly revisit 1/
4/ sleep on it
5/ feast on the fixed price hot breakfast buffet
6/ cry

The good news is that we have nearly two weeks to find a way to Brisbane and the option of last resort is sit tight until the train or bus starts running.  Bugger.

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