Yeah Tropo, unless you have experienced a decent wet in the FNQ hinterlands then its very difficult to actually imagine what proper day after day torrential rain really is..

The Port Douglas thing translates down here as well as most of the coastal areas from Kurrimine through Mission Beach to Cardwell probably only see half the rainfall that we get just 15kms west towards Tully, El Arish, Mena Creek etc in or at the bases of the ranges ...for much of the year if we drive home from the boat ramp or the beach in full sunshine there is almost always cloud on the mountains just behind our place often with areas of showers visible....the only coastal place where i see such a thing is Mt Bowen on Hinchinbrook Island..I really wish there was a gauge there because its a serious rain catcher and then creats a rain shadow for Cardwell, Kennedy and as far up as Tully heads..

Also we used to host Wwoofers , often from Uk and Europe, and have had quite few that we have tried to say that the wet season is probably not the best time to arrive here as, of course, its very Tropically humid and wet..but almost always the Poms say "well i live in London (or Paris etc) so I am well used to lots of rain.."....it often doesnt even register when I point out that London has an annual average of 550mm of rainfall, Paris about 650mm and we are closer to 4500mm... we had one pommy guy stay with us for 3 months during a wet season years back and even though we received his hometown average rainfall over a 2 day period he stayed out in it and continued to work away....he still stays in contact and now is a primary school teacher and says he tells his students of his experiences here because its was such a memorable spinout of an adventure for him....almost everyone else is shocked and horrified to realise that we still work outside in storms and torrential rain though and wont accept the challenge, particularly Frenchies...personally up until a point I find it quite Ok(working or weeding on benches in a shadehouse or cutting back wild raspberry or vines on the forest edges etc, can always find something to do out of the mud even on the wettest of days..) and mostly better then sweating it out in 35c sunny days IMO...but Frenchies complain about that too....the lowland tropics in the Hinterlands certainly isnt for most folk.....

Couple of cracking days ahead guys..might be time to take a sickie and get amongst it..