Setting Sun Montage

Watching the sun set out here brings back memories of being at home; we would be upstairs engrossed in some silly afterschool TV show, then there would be a yell from dad 'quick come downstairs and look at this beautiful sunset!'  Being your average moody, tempramental teenagers, we would come down the stairs with scowling faces, take a quick look out the door, make an appropiate comment and race back up the stairs hoping we hadn't missed the end of our show.  And do you know what they were absolutely beautiful and stunning sun sets.  The colours were amazing, oranges, pinks, purples, reds setting over the ocean.  Dad had this uncanny knack of being on the balcony at the exact right time to catch the moment.

Being on the western side of Queensland, watching the sun set is different to that on the eastern side.  As it sets the sun becomes bigger and bigger and lately because of the all the burns offs happening it can become this amazing bright pink that looks spectacular as it sets amoungst the gum trees.

Out along the Cairns Rds

Then as I turned to head back to the car,
the moon was rising on the other side



A 'Bush Fire' Sun at Shelfo

Along the road back from Shelfo



Along the road back from Shelfo

Random cloud I saw in the sky that I thought looked pretty cool

Along the road from Shelfo

Rain, river and sky watch

This last week everyone has been watching the sky - you see last Tuesday we experienced our first 'Mango Rain'.

At first we were quite mesmerized by the storm - this is the first rain we have seen in nearly 4 months!  However when we woke the next morning it was still drizzling.  Mango Rain is supposedly meant to be only an afternoon storm. 

Arriving to school under an umbrella, the question everyone was asking the locals was 'is this Mango Rain or the Wet Season?'  As it continued to drizzle throughout the day the group of us driving out to Cairns the next weekend became increasingly worried.

The rain thankfully stopped that afternoon, although this did not completely settle our minds as it continued to rain around the nth of the state and the rives started to rise.  Locals on their way back from Cairns got stuck between Chillagoe and Kowie.  The reports trickling through regarding the state of the road and rivers were as varied as the colours in a rainbow, as is often they case in Kowie. 

On Friday morning one of our teachers tried to drive out with one of the local contractors.  We heard nothing all day until they returned that afternoon after having sat about 40ks out of town waiting and hoping the first river would drop enough to get through.  That afternoon we drove out to have a look.

The road was not in the best condition, there were parts that were quite ripped up from the heavy trucks coming through and there were a couple of small water crossings that we got across easy enough.  Then we came to this......

Not the crossing that made them turn back!!  We had to get around/through this.



We decided to go round not through and made it without any drama.  We continued along for another couple of km's then came to a halt at this usual trickle of a crossing that had risen to 2m's within a couple of days.

We headed back fairly confident that as long as the rain stayed away our trip to Cairns would still be on the cards.  At the end of a lazy Sunday we decided to drive out and check out the road situation...


 

This looked promising

Although with parts of the road looking like this it will definitely
be a slower trip then usual.

 
So far so good - there has been no more rain and hopefully it stays away for at least another week so that we can drive to and from Cairns without any issues.  The trip is our last chance to stock up for the impending wet season with pretty much everything we need until June next year.  So the next few days we will be busy writing all sorts of lists so that we hopefully don't forget anything to important!!

No School - Due to a not so unusual circumstance

So today the school had to be closed to the students due to the fact that the main water system at the school had to be turned off.  Why did this happen?  Let me take you back to last Friday ........

One of our year 7 boys wasn't having the best day at school - he didn't want to go to class even though he had been asked repeatedly by our Deputy Principal, Sir Tal.  To make his point very clear to Sir Tal he decided to find a broken broom stick and threaten him - now while this might sound quite shocking and full on, this is a fairly regular occurrence and most of the time the kid doesn't intend to actually hit (it is usually Sir Tal that gets the brunt of it), they are only 'gammin' and just want to see you flinch and get a reaction out of you.  However as Sir Tal is quite used to this he did not, much to the boys annoyance, flinch at all.  So he decided to take his annoyance out on a main water pipe (thankfully), the pipe burst and the water was shut off.  The police were called to the school to help out with the situation, while they were talking to the Principal and Deputy, the boy was sitting quietly in the office with us, as if nothing had happened.  The kids tempers dissipate as quickly as they flare around here.  They hate you one second, call you every name under the sun, then the next minute they are over it and apologise like nothing happened. 

In usual Kowie fashion, as we are starting to grasp, the part needed to fix the pipe was not available - and you can't just duck down to the local Bunnings and pick it up!  So a temporary fix was done - very temporary it turned out, 15 mins later the pipe burst again. 

Monday wasn't an issue as it was our Student Free Day anyway, however the pipe could only be repaired today so it was decided that the kids would have to stay at home for another day. 

Only in Kowie!!!

September Holidays & Back to Kowie

As our first term at Kowie was coming to an end we were preparing for our first school holidays!  We were heading to Yeppoon to spend the holidays with my family and an extra bonus was that my sister Sarah would be over from London with her new baby little Grace - so as you can imagine I was pretty excited.

The Thursday night before leaving we took the dogs out for a run, as we were pulling back into our driveway the Jimny just stopped - the rear wheel bearing had completely seized up!  There was no way we would be driving out of Kowie the next afternoon.  Pats pulled apart the back wheel to see what our options would be - there wasn't many.  Either stay in Kowie for the holidays (not an option), order the part on line and try and fix it then drive out (wasn't keen on that option) or beg a ride from a couple of the other teachers who were driving out.  Thankfully the four of us were able to make it out to Cairns (not without some dramas) safely on the Friday night.  We then hired a car to get us to Yeppoon.

The 2 weeks in Yeppoon were great, even with all the appointments; doctors, dentist (2 fillings grrrrr), hairdresser you get the idea!  I was so grateful that the holidays timed so well with Sarah and Grace being home.  It was wonderful to be able to spend time with my sister, new niece and also some of my Aunties and Nana.


Gorgeous little Gracie



My beautiful Nana and Grace

Sarah and Grace ready for a stroll on the beach

We were lucky enough that dad was able to drive us and our new quad (more on that later) home.  Unfortunately he was only able to stay a day in Kowie, but this was enough to take him to our favourite place Shelfo - which he quite enjoyed himself, even if he was a bit hesitant about the crocs!

As much as I enjoyed the holidays and spending time with my family - I must admit both Pats and I were happy to get back to our quiet Kowie life.