On the fateful morning of the 11th January 2010 we decided that we would do something we were all looking forward to doing and visit Australia Zoo. We hit the road early leaving Owen in bed as he had already visited the zoo with his family during his time in Brisbane. As those of you who watch the news may know, this also happened to be the day that the floods decided to strike Brisbane, Ipswich and Toowoomba.

Our main issue was that being on the north bound lane of a motorway, regardless of the fact that the south bound lane is underwater and flash floods are throwing trees onto your side of the motorway, you can't turn around. We had no choice but to keep following the signs we were given and try to at least perk the day up by getting to the zoo! Unfortunately the floods were moving quicker than us and despite managing the miracle of getting to the zoo gates to be told they were closing, we were cut off from the rest of Australia in Beerwah. We were left with no choice but to battle through flood waters, passing rooftops poking out of the waters surface and overturned lorries and 4WD's (not inspiring to see when your driving a normal sized car).

After a few hours of waiting in a massive line of traffic to get on the closed highway (which was estimated to not be opening until the following day) and thus searching for high ground to spend the night we made the executive decision to just get home one way or another. We returned to the closed highway and after some smooth talking from yours truly I convinced the officer to allow us onto the closed highway. We were told we were only allowed to go one junction down and then had to get off. After a few more hours of battling the ever more ferocious flood waters and diversions we eventually got back to Southport safe and sound. Exhilarating adit was to be in such a dangerous situation we all realised that we had been a bit to close for comfort to a natural disaster that claimed the lives of others less fortunate.