Lockdown Log

Keeping In Touch In A Time of Isolation

Here comes the rain again

Cunjevoi growing at the edge of the rainforest, Far North Queensland, Australia. © Bronwen Scott

It’s raining again.

In Far North Queensland, Australia, we’re in the transition between the summer Wet season and the winter Dry. For the past few weeks, the weather has shifted from grey clouds and monsoonal rain to clear skies and light breezes, with days around 26 C (79 F) and nights cool enough to sleep without the ceiling fan whirring like a helicopter rotor blade.

But yesterday, the clouds drifted back in from the Coral Sea. The sky dulled. Humidity soared. And then the rain arrived. Not heavy like the monsoon, when the rain hammers against the windows and cascades off the awnings and pounds the red soil into mud. Just a constant tattoo on the corrugated iron roof. But it’s enough to interrupt the satellite connection that links me to the rest of the world and play havoc with the old copper phone line. There’s no mobile phone service here. So when the rain comes, everything stops.

Of course, what I should do is keep well ahead of deadlines, so my schedule can absorb these interruptions. And I should also use the time when the connections are down to work on projects that do not require a phone or internet connection. Instead, I keep scuttling between desk and modem to check whether the status light has…