HOT, HOT, HOT

More Fabulous Flinders

Well guess what, the hot weather finally caught up with us.

I absolutely loved Melrose and the beautiful little caravan park there. It was just the sort of spot that really appeals to me. The van park was immaculate, the trees were enormous, the bird and wild life was plentiful and the peace was replenishing. Mind you, DD was not too replenished when a local possum piddled all over our van two nights in a row. We couldn’t spot the little rascal, even with the barrage of Very Large Powerful torches that the bloke carries with us (no less than 3 enormous torches!) but the little fella managed to find us alright.

I would have been happy to spend a week in Melrose and was all prepared to break out the easel and settle right in, but someone (who?) managed to get ants in his pants and so we moved on. Our next stop was the picturesque town of Clare, nestled in the vine growing Clare Valley some 135 ks north of Adelaide. Coincidentally, our new mates, Peter and Zan who we met at Melrose, live in this beautiful area and I think it was their praise of the place that convinced DD to move on down to Clare.

I have to admit that I too agreed that it was better to keep moving and heading towards Tasmania and the cool. Well, I know I’m rarely wrong, but hey, sometimes a girl has to make a mistake, right? We could see that the mainland was going to heat up some and that the super high temperatures from WA were slowly catching up with us. Well, we arrived in Clare, the CP there was a Top Tourist park and not too bad. Lots of big tall sugar gums and heaps of open space back in the camping area, which is where we were placed. As we had been aware of the impending high temperatures, we had specified a shady site. We had only been there for an hour or so when I opened my emails to find an email from Peter and Zan, advising us not to come as there were severe fire warnings out for Clare due to an out of control bush fire burning in the Seven Hills area. Oh goodie, now sat under some highly flammable gums, adjacent to bushland with expected 40 plus temperatures. Good move!!


Burnished Hills Lazing Behind Golden Fields


Peter & Zan realising from my email that we had arrived, paid us a surprise visit that evening and filled us in on all the fire news. It didn’t sound very promising. We visited their beautiful home the following afternoon and as Peter is still involved with the Volunteer Bush Fire Fighters we were brought up to date once again. Peter and Zan’s home is lovely as are their 3 miniature poodles. They are excellent hosts and we wiled away a pleasant couple of hours drinking their very nice white (thanks very much). They sit on the side of a hill, on 30 odd acres of beautiful bush – all wonderful, but also risky in bush fire season. While we were there Peter received a call asking him to do an ‘all-nighter’ manning the radio for the volunteer fire fighters. In deference to his well being we took our leave in order that he could have a bit of a rest before logging on to the radio.

When we arrived back at the camp, we found a note attached to the van advising us a meeting would be held at the BBQ area regarding the fires. Hmmm, it was really starting to sound serious. Doug went down to the meeting while I prepared our meal and he came back with the scary news that we were advised to stay put as it would be too dangerous to drive thru’ the region. Temperatures were expected to peak at around 44 degrees the following day (Friday). The township had opened up the central oval in order that visitors and others in need could drive in and sit there in safety. The oval was deemed to be a safe/green area. We were paid up until the Saturday, but travelling then, we were told, would still be unsafe. We were advised that sprinklers would be operating all thru’ the day in the bushy area surrounding our van. It appeared that during the day we would be relatively safe due to northerly winds pushing the fire away from Clare. The big risk was to come at night when it was anticipated the winds would swing around to the south thus pushing the fire towards us. Oh great, nothing like worrying about flying embers landing on the van in the middle of the night! Oh well – we made all the plans we needed to make, to up and leave the van should we be compelled to, and we had the heads around the prospect of being homeless but alive!

We packed up after tea and Doug hitched up the van. As the park had almost emptied out, he figured that providing we were all hitched up and ready to go, we would be able to tow the van out very quickly and head to the oval if the need arose. We carry fuel in jerry cans on the back of the van and DD very wisely emptied the fuel into the Cruiser. Well, most of the fuel went in the Cruiser, but one of the things we left behind this time was the implement with which to transfer said fuel – guess where the balance of the fuel went – yup, all over the patsy holding the patched together funnel and hose! Really good when one has just come out of the shower and the temps are rising past the mid 30s.

Friday night was a restless night let me tell you. Neither of us slept very well and next morning saw us awake with the manifold birds that inhabit the park. As we were already hitched up and as we could sense no smoke in the close vicinity, we decided to leave town. We were out of that park in record time and heading south. As these things go, we saw no hint of the fires as we travelled through the vineyards and out towards Seven Hills. We believe the fires were in the National Park and so out of view from the roads. We comforted ourselves declaring that we couldn’t have been in much danger as the fire would have had to come through all the vines and cleared land before it reached us. We were of the opinion that fire would not burn through the vines. Hmmm, goes to show you doesn’t it – two relatively sensible adults can be very very wrong. That evening, watching the news, we saw rows upon rows of cindered vines that had been totally incinerated by yet another bush fire! Perhaps not so safe after all!

Dreams of Yesteryear

At the same time as we were being menaced by the Seven Hills fire, the rest of the country also seemed to be going up in smoke. The most surprising development was the hideously frightening and ferocious fires down in Tassie. We ( and remember we have a bad habit of being wrong lately) feel that where most of the mainland is geared up for hot weather and fire fighting, perhaps the Apple Isle, being of more moderate climate is not quite so well prepared. This morning (now Monday) it is shocking to hear that there are still 20 people unaccounted for in the Tasmanian fires. I worry for the South -West of WA where they have similar potentially catastrophic fire risks.

Anyway, I digress, (how very unusual), we are still going to Tasmania, however, we have currently decided to slow our trip down a little, smell the roses so to speak and be content to head over to Tassie sometime in mid to late February when the temperatures have dropped somewhat. After our little scare at Clare, we have decided we would much rather suffer from the cold than be incinerated. Actually the whole exercise has been a bit of a learning curve for us. We currently feel that perhaps summer-time is best spent in the cool of one’s own lounge room, clutching a frosty glass of something nice, watching the world slowly pass by one’s windows. Mind you, that pretty much describes what we do when caravanning too, except at home we are not usually expecting to be toasted.

From Clare we headed on down to Mannum on the banks of the mighty Murray, but more about that next time. For now, stay cool and stay safe. Steph and Doug.

Incidentally, we were so distracted at Clare we forgot to take any photos - sorry, we will just have to make up for it when we return.  In the meantime, please enjoy some of the pics taken of the stunning countryside either side of Clare.