It's now been just over 2 weeks since Cyclone Blake and the lodge is finally looking good again. No major damage, just one hell of a mess. Months worth of pandanus leaves, palm fronds and gravel got flushed through the creeks and dumped just about everywhere. More importantly, the cyclone dumped 410mm of rain in 5 days. That's more rain than the monthly average for all of January (375mm) and more rain that Broome got during the entire Wet season of 2018/2019. As of today our January rainfall is sitting on 524mm which makes up for the shortfall in November. Hopefully the next week puts us even further ahead.
With so much rain and grey drizzly days the grass is lush and green and going to seed. The afternoon temperatures have been pleasant as well in the low 30s. Mosses and mushrooms are appearing in places that used to be a dust bowl, and along with them caterpillars, butterflies and snails. New eucalpyt saplings are flush with pink and orange and the contrast of colours is quite striking. It's amazing to watch the place change one day at a time. Amazing to have the time and the access to photograph those changes and to remind myself of just how dry it was just 2 months ago. Such a land of extremes. I know this time of year is associated with big dramatic skies and big waterfalls but there's also so much beauty in the smaller details.
