Cyclone Paul

Well a few friends and family are asking how we fared off the cyclone, and apart from 5 inches of rain which was GREAT as we thought the dry had settled in, a little bit of wind we were fine.

John and I had a few days TOIL owing so we stayed at the block at Dundee for a bit of R &R after the week of conference time in Darwin. God those things are exhausting! I think when you are so used to being active through the day and reasonably early bed times normally, the week is a real shock to the system. Living on a dry station doesn't help either as after 2 rums we are both drunk! But we had a really great week work wise and socially.

We thought we would spend a few days fishing but we were so exhausted we slept for 2 days, then rain came in off the cyclone and the one day we did go out for a fish, the tides and weather were really against us. John caught a small GT and a spanner crab. I gotta say this is the first time I have never caught anything at Dundee Beach. But it was really relaxing.

The phones were diverted through to my mobile, and we had a call from the local Minyerri police asking if we were battened down as it may come across us, as as the crow flies we are not that far from the coast. So after that call John started to worry and we headed home. Spoke to some neighbours on the way on the phone and they said they had had 7 inches over night and it was still raining and all the creeks were rising, so when we got to Katherine I was given 15 minutes, yep you heard right, 15 minutes to get groceries, now this was a dilemma, cause what was essential and how long were we going to be rained in for? I gotta admit I did pretty well and raced around and got a fair bit of stuff for myself and the station kitchen and anther family on the station in that time. I think you just get so used to placing your orders that you pretty well always have a basic must have list in your head.

We headed off and the further south we went the darker it got, and we didn't really hit any rain until half way along the Roper Bar Highway, then it was continuous. The creeks had risen but weren't too bad only about .6 of a metre, we have had to go through a lot higher, the hairiest thing was the dirt road or I should say mud road as they had only decided to grade it the week before so you can imagine all the rain on the fresh soil...who needs to go to Disney for a ride.

It rained all that night then eased off the next day. We had a few dry days but it has come in overcast again and is trying hard to rain. We'll take all we can get.

So that's why we are here instead of fishing for Easter. John can't even go to Roper Bar as since the cyclone it has risen to high again and is too dirty to fish. So he is stuck in the house watching Austar and annoying me instead. I am trying to get a bit of craft time in as have not done any since xmas, and get the house arranged as work starts in full swing next week. All staff start back on Wed and it looks like we will have about 20 staff this year, 14 of which will be trainees, so we are making the most of the quite while we can.

Check back tomorrow and I will post some easter goodies that I made today.

Hope everyone has had a great Easter.

Cheers for now,

Kristy