Cyclone Alfred

 As some of you might be aware, we recently had the first fully blown cyclone to hit Brisbane in fifty odd years. Cyclone Alfred wandered its way down from the tropics slowly heading east-south east until it got to the latitude of Brisbane, about 500km off the coast. Then it stalled for a day or so. Then began it's slow track west.

We had about a week of predictions/heads up that it WAS going to hit the coast somewhere around South East Queensland as a category 2 storm. 

We didn't panic buy like many...well, not food or toilet paper....

I did move the uninsured bikes out of my shed into the much safer garage that is located under our house. Track bikes and Lucy's Z650.

 It was a bit surreal here in Brisbane as I watched the predicted track maps and as Alfred got closer and closer. 

Doesn't look like much on the radar!

The winds were strong though.

Apart from some windy periods (maybe up to 30 knot gusts) it wasn’t very cloudy. In fact we had plenty of dead calm and sunny conditions.

Not so for the Gold Coast and northern NSW though. They were on the southern side of the approaching cyclone and were hammered with high winds and torrential rain for about two days - while we were still enjoying sunshine - and there were many power losses due to trees across the power lines and the beach erosion on the Gold Coast was significant.

Friday afternoon and with it predicted to hit us Friday night I put the drone up to have a look around. Looking south east towards the Gold Coast it looked very dark. Normally we can see the high rise buildings on the Gold Coast just to the left of Mt Stayplton and its white dot of a weather radar on top.(centre right of photo)

Looking east towards the Redlands (Redland Bay/Victoria Point etc) it definitely looked close! It was just moving sooo slowly at between 4 and 7km/h. I couldn't go very high as the wind aloft was obviously a lot stronger than on the ground. I could here the drone motors surging hard to hold position, then I got a strong wind/land immediately warning. Things were hotting up!

Getting real now!!

Things got real on the Friday night when the winds really started kicking up a gear. I have a huuuge (30m/100ft) iron bark gum tree (eucalypt) that is less than 20m from the back corner of the house. I was pleased that with the direction of the wind, if it did come down it would go down across the neighbour’s back yard (and not their house or mine!)

The offending tree looks small here but is huuge! The wind was coming from the bottom of the photo, thankfully. 

Another angle of said tree. 

I went to bed that night to the sound of howling wind gusts and rain on the roof. Waking at about 5am Saturday it was strangely dead calm. A couple of hours after that the wind picked up again and the rain teemed down. I think we had the eye pass over and now we were getting the winds from the other side of the cyclone. Luckily again, the wind was almost an easterly which IF that big gum tree came down, it would lay just on the bottom side of my shed. 

I just had a few small branches down. Nothing thicker than say, your arm but plenty of small stuff.

Saturday afternoon we sat on the deck watching the wind in the forest behind home as the rain teemed down. We watched a couple of huge gum trees (eucalypts) come crashing down in the neighbour’s backyards! Luckily the wind was blowing them away from their houses so only a couple of fences were flattened.

Late Saturday afternoon we lost power. Bummer, as I had taken my generator down to a friends place in Redland Bay who had lost power on Friday night. I couldn’t go ask for it back now! As it was we got power back 20 hours later on Sunday afternoon whereas they lost it for three days so their need was much greater than mine. I just told the kids not to open the fridges or freezer at all - well, except very briefly to grab dinner Saturday night which was a simple affair of bbq sausages in bread, cooked on the bbq. Desert was individual puddings, heated up in water boiled on the little portable camp stove.

 Having all the camping gear made the inconvenience of no power a non event. The main issue was having no internet and hence no news of what was going on during the day around South East QLD. That was a great reminder that all of this electronic media is useless without electricity. Something to ponder....

Considering the wind and amount of rain we had it was surprising to see that only one house in our street had a tree on the roof. Our houses are all surrounded by trees! In other streets around here there were quite a few trees down across roads but they had already been cleared by SES volunteers.

Going for a walk around the house on the Sunday I was almost landed on by a Rainbow Lorikeet. I stood still under a branch and it came down, hanging upside down, within reach, just looking at me.

Just prior to his acrobatics. 

It then landed on the ground and hopped around me and between my legs! I called Will to bring some parrot food out and we placed some on the garden bench and stood back. The Lorikeet and his mate came straight down to feed on the seed. The poor things were pretty knackered from the wind and rain and it was a very cool interaction with these storm survivors and otherwise wild birds.

While there was clearly a lot of damage in places from trees coming down on houses and power lines, beaches eroded and general flooding across the city, the ~ 4 million residents in the path of Alfred got off pretty lightly. Thankfully it was only a Cat 2, not the Cat 4 or 5 they get in North Queensland!

 I’ve got to say I’d be happy to wait another fifty odd years for the next one to hit here!

Cheers.

Spring Has Sprung

 This one is a little out of left field for me as I am not usually a flora or fauna watcher but here in Brisbane in Spring you can't help but notice the Jackaranda trees blooming everywhere. Their bright purple flowers are like a beacon right across the city and suburbs. I also thought Geoff might like it. ;)

New Farm Park, which is right on the river, nestled alongside the city of Brisbane has a large concentration of these beauties and I thought an early morning ride to catch them during sunrise might make for an enjoyable pedal and some great photos.

Having the paths to myself, in the cool of pre dawn, was delightful and I made it to the park with plenty of time to spare. 

So, as I had three batteries for the drone I had a play around with it. I don't get it out much and needed the practice!

Pre sunrise, killing time

In fact, because of a hill on the other side of the river it took the sun quite a while after the "official" sunrise to poke it's head up and bring the colours out on the Jackarandas lining the park's ring road.

The sun finally peeking over the hill.

I set the drone to take time lapse photos and even though it doesn't have a great camera. I was happy with the results. I mean, how can you not take great photos when you have these trees to work with?!

The ride back to the car was much busier but still pleasant as it was a nice cool, clear morning. The old Story bridge looked great in battleship grey this morning.

Excuse the music er noise in the video. "Free" for a reason.....

Cheers.

A Day In The Life Of A Commuter

I had a need for one of my rare visits to the City of Brisbane today. I had an email from my accountant last week informing me that if I didn't get off my bum and submit my tax return for 09/10 I would be donating even more of my hard earned to "The Ferral Garment". Cue Homer Simpson esque scenes of filling in a tax return with a HB pencil, estimating how many kids I have and a mad rush to the accountant!

The last time I drove into North Quay I parked on a dusty vacant block next to the accountant's building and was charged $32 for the dubious privilege. So last time I rode in and parked my bike in his foyer. From memory it was February (yes, I have a habit of late filing), hot and I was rather sweaty from the ride. This year I came up with a brilliant idea at the 11th hour. A quick shout out for information on http://www.mtbdirt.com.au/ about the Brisbane Cycle to City service and I had a solid plan to avoid re enacting the smelly meeting with my accountant!

Jim, one of the local hard men, had seen my post about riding into the city and as a regular commuter he offered that I tag along with him. So...it wasn't going to be a gentle roll along for me!

We met at the appointed hour, right on official sunrise and began my first commute. Now there are a few rolling hills here in Cornubia that really get your motor up to temperature very quickly. In no time at all I was reduced to gasping out snippets of conversation while Jim chatted away freely! We rolled on along bits of Logan Rd as well as the South East Bikeway before arriving at Southbank. We hopped the bridge to the edge of the Botanical Gardens where I thanked him for dragging me along. It had actually been a hoot for me even though I slowed Jim waaayyy up. So, thanks for the ride Jimmy.

Now to find the Cycle to City station. I found my way to King George Square easily enough but strangely the "King George Square Cycle to City Station" isn't in King George Square! It is along the road a bit toward Roma St station. Go figure!

Making my way underground I quickly found the entrance with a smiling young girl behind the counter to welcome me in. I explained my need and she quickly sorted me out. Apparently the gas had been cut to the city overnight so the showers were cold! I was wondering if my accountant had anything to do with this?! Karma!

Anyway, the facility is absolutely top notch in my humble opinion. I was very impressed with the super friendly greeting, the layout of the bike storage and also the locker room and showers. All very clean and modern. Even the iron was pre warmed so I was looking spiffy in no time at all. If I was a city based worker I would join up without hesitation.

A quick bite and a coffee then I was on my way to do business. The financial stuff out of the way and I was back to C2C for the reverse process, except I would have empty streets for the ride home, being ten in the a.m.

Being a glorious, cool, clear morning I took the return ride a little more gently. Just me and the path for most of it.

I did venture into a couple of bike shops during the ride home, just to see what was new. I could barely move in 99Bikes Underwood for all of the stock they had on the floor. There must be some demand for new mountain bikes despite the all of the rain this year.

Back home at about eleven thirty with 68km and 850 metres climbing, according to the gps, I reflected on what it might be like to commute to work. Despite having done the ride several times from Eight Mile Plains, it adds another dimension to ride from my front door to the City and back. Combined with finding my way around a largely unfamiliar city and experiencing the Cycle to City service, I really enjoyed the "doing something new" feeling. I had a huge amount of fun today. It would no doubt wear a little thin having to do it five days a week, but the upside is that you are getting about 350km a week for free. No telling the kids to blend their own smoothy to make time for a ride. :-)

Now, how do I come up with another excuse to use Cycle to City? I have a feeling my tax return might be done before the end of July this year......