There was a thunderstorm warning for SE Queensland today and when we woke up it was well underway.  A quick look at the radar showed that the storm would pass by within about 30 minutes … and it did too.  The sun came out and we had a think about what we would do today.  The weather was still a bit threatening, but looked like it’d fine up rather than try and drown us.  Kel even got some washing on the line such was the optimism.

Figuring that it was probably going to be a bit of a Melbourne rainy day we decided to head up to O’Reillys for lunch.

As always, there were a ton of cheeky parrots wanting a free feed.

This one has found a nest

After the feed had run out we went on the nearby treetop walk and botanical gardens.

Hannah and Blake climbed up the lookout to check out the view from the top.

Lots of wildlife up here today apart from the birds

On the way back the weather started to turn for the worse once again and by the time we’d reached the turn off for the freeway it had turned into a full-on storm.  The wind was strong and changeable, rubbish was flying everywhere, the rain was horizontal and visibility was down to about 30m.

That the washing on the line back at the park was just getting a final rinse was the least of our issues.  The freeway wasn’t moving much and we still had 30km to go.  The van awning was still out and we were a bit worried that it wouldn’t be there when we got back.  All our chairs had been left out too.

As we got closer to Tweed Heads though the drivers seemed to be able to better cope with the rain and we got up to a good speed.  The wind had died down but the rain was still torrential when we got to the park.  Our awning was still there, our chairs were dry(ish), but the washing was soaked and some had found its way to the ground.  I guess we got a bit of wind here too.
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