We're back online and all safe and well

Well we have officially experienced our first cyclone - Cyclone Olwyn on (of all days) Friday the 13th! We are all safe and well and constantly thinking about the devastation of Vanuatu in comparison to what happened here. But I thought you'd all be interested in how the cyclone unfolded for us, so I've shared our story below.

We got woken up early on Friday morning by the Monkey Mia staff telling us they were starting their evacuation process and it would be a good idea to start packing up to leave. Unfortunately by the time we had breakfast and had a quick glance at the dolphins down at the beach all the roads had been closed so we couldn't get out! Deciding there was no point in panicking, we went and had a coffee and milkshake at the cafe and let all the staff know we were still here so they could try to find us some alternative accommodation.

Then word came through that the police were letting people out to go the evacuation centre in nearby Denham and so out we went.

The evacuation centre was marvellous. It was in a recently constructed cyclone-proof recreational building and we were looked after so well. After registering we bought in supplies and bedding and reserved a spot in the gym. The kids had an absolute ball watching movies and playing soccer, badminton and with gym equipment in the hall. Dylan at one pointed stated that this was close to being the best day of his life (!) Forget travelling around Australia, we should have just got a motorhome and parked up next to a YMCA for a couple of weeks!

The staff who ran the centre were wonderful in feeding us and providing updates on what was going on. The kids were so happy and distracted there was not even time for them to be worried, and I think that was part of the centre's plan.

There are always strange human observations to be made in such a place: the man deciding to it was an opportune time to cut his toenails in the hall was pretty gross, and some foreign backpackers were idiots and went outside in the middle of the storm and then were shamefully rude to the staff when they were told to get inside because a) we were on red alert and it was illegal and b) they didn't want to have to send the police out in a cyclone to rescue them.

It got very windy and very rainy and the noise was quite loud as the peak of the cyclone hit. We saw local flooding, a playground shade sail come off and a door being ripped off a little campervan, but remarkably not much else.

We are very thankful to the Shire of Denham for looking after us. The kids discovered a completely new food group when there were saved up big bowlfuls of tinned stew for dinner and were so impressed that Lukas actually asked why I'd been cooking it from scratch for so long!

After not much sleep in a noisy and bright hall, we were up again at 6:30 and told the town was still in lockdown. So we showered, had breakfast and waited a couple of hours until being told we could go back to Monkey Mia.

Suzy Q the motorhome survived pretty well. We had water in the cabinet where all of our shoes were kept and a bit came in an airvent which wet one of our couch cushions. Her airconditioning was flooded but had dried out and was working again by that afternoon.

We saw mostly flooding on the way back to Monkey Mia, which itself had a few big trees down, a yacht grounded and just looked generally flooded and windswept.

The dolphins are fine as are the emus - we were a bit worried about the chicks because we couldn't find them when we first got back, but they turned up next to our motorhome a few hours later and made us all very happy!

This will be our home for a few days, to let everything settle down a little bit before we try to head north towards Carnarvon, Coral Bay and Exmouth. We've been helping the resort here with their cleanup - Brian was working on the chainsaw yesterday and we were helping with picking up branches and debris. This morning Dylan, Lukas and I grabbed brooms and a rake and spent a few hours tidying up the tennis court. It's good to be able to help out and lovely being forced to stay a bit longer in a little piece of paradise!