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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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then suddenly, it was gone. The storm moved over us and blew itself out in the hills. We started trying to clear the debris in the garden, and after a conversation with a pessimistic neighbour who told me that "there was no way you will get through the road south this week?, I was determined to leave the next day. Often a sceptic is the greatest motivation to get going again. Early the next morning as I set off, I talked my way past a couple of police road blocks and headed on through where the damage was greatest. Every kilometre I went the devastation was worse - the forests on the hillsides had been simply torn apart, loose branches dangling broken from headless trunks. Telegraph poles were snapped in half. Roofs ripped from houses had been flung into the neighbours garden. Army trucks sped down the road and civilians wondered round in a daze. The people I met showed different responses. The pessimists complained that the government was not doing enough to help them, but I had to agree with the optimists - it was a miracle nobody had been killed. The greatest victims of Larry probably turned out to be the banana farmers - many of whom lost 100 percent of their
crops, flattened by nature's bulldozer.

And then the rain started. It lashed down and it would not relent. The rivers started to burst their banks onto the roads, and I was fortunate to make it across the Tully River just minutes before the police closed it for the next 3 days. That evening, I joined dozens of stranded motorists (trapped between 2 swollen rivers) in a Community Hall which was opened up in times of disaster. I enjoyed the camaraderie of eating fish and chips with fellow survivors, but of course, I would be moving on the next day,whilst many of them had a whole life to rebuild.

Another day later I was clear of the cyclonic devastation and back in the land of electricity, running water and mobile phone coverage. I started to cycle large distances each day on the long, ...