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“There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires? - Nelson Mandela

Voyage to a wealthy land, a cyclone and a haircut

Rob Lilwall
2007-12-01 15:16:47

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back in a wealthy country. This was a land where people spoke English, the roads were smooth and unpotholed, the streets were safe, and the barbecues always sizzled - or so I had learnt as a 13 year old during many hours of highly intense research (watching "Neighbours?). On arrival in Cairns, it was a wondrous feeling to amble the streets at night with no fear of imminent robbery, gaze wide-eyed at glitzy shop windows, wander past bubbling pubs, and stop in at Macdonalds for some cheap ice cream. It felt great.

As I prepared to get on the road again (I would initially head south for Sydney) I started to receive invitations to schools to give my slideshow/lecture which I had been presenting to International Schools throughout Asia (my presentation is a spicy mixture of epic photos, tall stories, and motivational anecdotes about the journey so far). My first official booking came from a little school in a little town I had never heard of before - Innisvail. Less than a week later, and in fact on the very day that I was due to visit, Innisvail would hit the headlines across the world, as it fell victim to a monstrous Cyclone. Fortunately, the day before Cyclone Larry unleashed himself, I was invited to stay by a kind family about 60 km north of Innisvail itself. Having been shown weather forecast and impending storm, I was persuaded to stay for another night until the danger had passed. That night, as I went to bed, all outside seemed strangely calm and the skies were clear and I wondered if this was all a big fuss about nothing (though we had noted that all the birds had fled inland). By 4am the winds were picking up, and by 5am the house was shaking. By 6am we had lost power and trees were starting to crash down all around us. We could listen to live reports on the radio of how much worse things were just 60 km down the road where the eye of the storm was focused - winds of 290km per hour made this the strongest cyclone to hit Queensland for over 30 years.And ...