So last morning in Brisbane and it's the first one with no rain and some sunshine! Spent the day seeing a couple of friends from the Secret Location.
Included a trip to the Wivenhoe Dam which is the one that caused all the recent floods in Brisbane. Because of all the rain it got to around 220% capacity and there were concerns the dam could fail; so a decision was made to release water. You don't fully appreciate how bad things were from the news footage. Actually being there makes it so much more real, especially when you see how widespread the area under water was and the aftermath. The normally blue waters are still a dark brown, although I'm told it's an improvement from the bright orange they were when this all started.
Of course, the weather had to have the last word. Heavy rains and thick dark clouds rolled in while sat at the airport waiting for my flight to Melbourne a 2 and a half hour flight compared to a combined near 30 hours by train!) Made for a pretty uncomfortable takeoff. As we were about 20 minutes late taking off (cabin crew were coming in on a delayed flight) the TV system wad put in "free" mode. It seems some of Virgin Blue's Boeing 737-700 aircraft have some sort of satellite dish mounted in a dome on the top of the aircraft and so can get live TV. Menage I got to watch most of the South Africa innings against England in the cricket world cup.
Anyway, now back in the same hotel I started in in Melbourne for 3 nights before I head back to the Secret Location, so less Internet access than of late; so expect updates at odd times again!