Cyclone Monica in Australia

So our weather luck ran out in just about the most spectacular fashion it could have... We landed in Cairns a day before Cyclone Monica. Yeehaw. Before you start getting worried, the cyclone actually hit a few kilometers up the coast, so we were spared the destructiveness and only got the rain. We've had about 36 hours of it, mostly torrential. Kuranda where we spent our first night got 191mm, mostly while we were there. That's a LOT of rain.(their monthly average for April is 200mm to put it in perspective). And that was just 24 hours, the rain still hasn't stopped. We got up to Kuranda on the tourist train, which was really pretty--the rain hadn't really started yet. Once it did though, it caused a landslide that closed the train for the afternoon runs. Just snuck through. Now we're heading south(we were supposed to head north to check out Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation, but there wasn't much point what with the weather), and I'm just checking to make sure roads aren't closed, 'cause of flooding. What excitment! The novelty wore off after the first 24 hours of rain, I think. My fingers are actually pruney 'cause I've not been totally dry since the rain started.

So, now we're chasing the blue skies, and hope we'll find some before long!

As far as driving goes, I think it's gone really well considering it's the first time we've driven in over a year, the van is standard, no power steering, we have to drive on the left side of the road, and oh yeah, we were driving through the edge of a cyclone. Not bad at all! Haha. We're off to try to find some waterfalls, which should be quite impressive today.

Cheers!