This trip is full of variety. The Balloon ride was canceled because of wind and unsafe conditions. We canceled shopping because of the heat. Today we experienced a lot of change when our winery trip collided with major brush fires near Melbourne.
Now our overall plan is changing. We were supposed to go to Port Douglas, just north of Cairns, on Tuesday (February 10). From there we’d visit the Great Barrier Reef and a Tropical Rain Forest and generally hang out at the beach. Remember that in Australia, North is hotter than South - thus going North to Cairns is similar to going to Florida.
Northern Australia, however, has experienced torrential rains over the last couple of weeks, with many cities in Queensland flooded. They had a cyclone (i.e. hurricane) about a week and a half ago, and another is forecast for later this week. When you call the hotel and the excursion companies, they say, “Oh, yes, we’ll be open. It’s just a bit of rain, nothing to worry about.” I can’t help but remember that’s what they told us in New Orleans as Hurricane Gustav bore down on the Crescent City.
Qantas, on the other hand, has put on their website that we should expect delays beginning Wednesday and through Friday. That doesn’t bode well for having a good time in Cairns.
Based on that information, we’ve modified our travel plans, figured out that we can get our room in Sydney earlier than expected and modified our flights. We’ll be going to Sydney on Tuesday rather than Cairns. We'll miss out on the Great Barrier Reef, but on the other hand if there’s a hurricane even a few hundred miles away, I can’t imagine that snorkeling is going to be the smartest activity to undertake.
It's all an adventure, we've just changed the location.
