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Meeting the locals …

Published on by FJB

DSCN4053 (1024x768) Day Two and we meet some of Kangaroo Island’s most famous inhabitants  … honey bees brought to the island around 1880 from the Italian province of Liguria.  In 1885 the island was proclaimed a bee sanctuary, out of range of bee flight from the mainland, and they are now believed to be the last remaining pure strain of Ligurian bees left in the world.  They are renowned to be be a gentle and industrious bee and I can certainly attest that their honey makes a delicious ice-cream.

At lunch, we meet another famous resident at Andermel Marron Cafe … this time however they are not so industrious.  In fact they are lying on my plate covered in a chilli and lime dressing!!  Again delicious.  Thankfully we decided to eat before our live marron viewing, as they turned out to be rather attractive in spite of looking vaguely like one of those big black shiny garden cockroaches.

We ended the day with a walk at Vivonne Bay, which was voted Australia’s most beautiful beach.  It’s definitely very pretty, but I think there are plenty of rivals for that title, including some of the beaches on the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales.

Kangaroo Island …

Published on by FJB

DSCN3990 (1024x768)Day One of our Kangaroo Island visit and already we are obsessed with the comings and goings of the KI ferry which we can see from the deck of our rented holiday house. Mum swears that the lights of the first ferry woke her up soon after 5am, but I neither heard nor saw anything …

The maximum today was 35C – a bit hotter than we were expecting – and the island is very dry, but the air is pure and free from pollution and the roads and beaches are un-crowded.

Highlights … beautiful views across Backstairs Passage from Cape Willoughby Lighthouse and then a delicious lunch at Dudley Cellar Door. I would normally run a mile from a pizza topped with fish and seafood dressing, but their Whiting Pizza actually tasted rather good, and the view from the tasting room has to be one of the best in Australia. A paddle and a pelican sighting at Baudin Beach and an expedition to Island Pure Sheep Dairy for cheese, yoghurt and labneh finished off our day.

After the storm …

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DSCN3933 (1024x768)There was a time last night when I thought that the predictions of my doomsday neighbour were about to come true … the storm turned out to be even worse than expected with winds well in excess of 100Kph, multiple power blackouts and torrential rain. Over 300 mm has fallen in the last 48 hours and it’s raining again now.

Update: I’ve uploaded a short video of the height of the storm taken from my veranda …

Today the town is in a bit of a mess. Bellingen is cut off in every direction … even Crown Street at the end of my road has turned into a small weir. The river level rose to 9 metres overnight – which was last experienced in the historic 1974 floods.  The Old Butter Factory, where I work one day a week, is flooded and inaccessible.  The four lovely Tulipwood trees in my driveway were blown horizontal and may not survive.  The town is littered with fallen trees, branches and leaves.  Every now and then, a helicopter buzzes overhead, and chainsaws can be heard in the distance as some residents start the clean up.

Going under again ….

Published on by FJB

It’s going to be a BIG ONE, and this time the Bureau of Meteorology got it right …

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Town was busy this morning as everyone stocked up on essentials.  At the post office a worried man came rushing in to see if his two Queen Bees had arrived.  Luckily they had, although I doubt that there will be much hive-building going on this weekend.  Now the bridge is closed and under water and town is all but deserted.

The big wet tropical low which had been lurking off the coast moved on-shore at around 9:00 am today and it’s been pelting down non-stop ever since.  The ground is already saturated, the water has nowhere to go and the forecast is for 300 mm plus ….  this looks like being a repeat of the major flood event of 2009.  So far, the new drains under my house are doing their job and I should avoid any more structural damage, although I expect to see fallen trees if the big gusts of wind continue.

It looks like being a long, wet and slightly stressful weekend …