On Monday (the 15th) I got back on the Oz Experience bus and left Magnetic Island at midday after a relaxed morning as we headed north out of Townsville. Our new driver Tanya would take us to Mission Beach as we entered land affected by the recent hurricane.
Cyclone Larry hit the Queensland coast on March 20th at a rating of catagory five, the highest possible. No-one was killed, but it caused a lot of structural damage and destroyed much of the agricultural and native vegetation in the area.
Even though it was nearly two months after the cyclone hit, as we drove north it was obvious that it had been through. We didn't see the worst of it as we only got to Mission Beach that day, but it was certainly evident everywhere you looked.
We went on a walk through the rainforest which had just been re-opened that day and the damage to the vegetation there was somewhat shocking. Before the cyclone, 90% of the forest floor was in shadow, but now it was more like 10%. The rainforest has been completely gutted, with trees lying all over the place and foliage ripped down from the canopy, leaving it open to the sky above. It's certainly a sad sight and it'll take 50 years until the forest recovers.
We got into Mission Beach late that afternoon and stayed at Scotty's Backpackers, which must have been one of the best hostels that I've stayed in. After months of travelling, you can spot the good ones from that bad in an instant and this one was right at the top of the pile, so to speak. We even got a free fire show thrown in, a spectacular display before our final Oz Experience trip the next day.
