Fire and rain

If my car were a ship it would be loaded above the Plimsoll line! I have camping gear, backpack ready to go, food for the walk, walking clothes and touristy clothes (including a pretty dress for special occasions). As I had all day to get down to Victoria I decided to travel via the Snowy Mountains Highway to see the devastation caused by the fires - devastation it is! 

 The heavy rains have carpeted the paddocks in verdant green and created a false lushness: then you drive into the Bush and everything changes. Black, brown, shades of green, a pungent lingering smell of burning mixed with the odour of road-kill. 

Road works delayed often and crews continue to clear debris and repair road damage. The fire ground is varied: patches of Bush have escaped but the fire mostly devoured everything in its path. 

The sad remains of Sawyers Hill Rest house.

Looking to the ridge-line from Sawyers Hill.

The fire rushed through the Kiandra goldfields and up the surrounding hills - yet the whole valley is green now.

The old Courthouse - beyond restoration? 

Amusingly the toilet block , a few metres away survived and appears to be open for business! 

All side roads off the highway remain closed. Road signs, scorched and blackened warn of "wild horses" and near the Long Plain Road I saw a mob of about a dozen, mares with foals, grazing close to the road on green pick, oblivious to the constant stream of heavy vehicles and motor-cycle riders. 

In places the Bush is repairing itself: epicormic growth is swarming up single blackened tree trunks - looking a bit like a green fur coat!

Elsewhere, black sticks anchored in grey and brown ash beds dotted with fallen trees burned to charcoal, show no hint of renewal yet.

The descent into Talbingo shows how unrelenting and destructive the fire was. Black, brown, grey hills, bare earth! I can't imagine how terrifying it must have been in Talbingo!

Scorched and blackened kilometre after kilometre, yet signs of recovery are there.

Escaped! How lucky is that!

I stopped for a very late lunch in Tumut before joining the highway down to Albury. No green here. Brown paddocks eaten down to bare earth haven't seen much rain.

Nearly ran out of petrol - must remember to check the gauge! Mileage was fabulous but..... running on fumes into Wangaretta. 

Tomorrow into Melbourne and onto the boat - hope the sea is calm!