We drove home from Wagga Wagga yesterday, a five hour trip that took us around the edge of the bushfires that have covered a good deal of central Victoria.
The photo at left was taken in Oxley at 3.00 pm, the middle of a stinking hot summer afternoon. We’d stopped for lunch at The King River Caf? (menu is out of date) and to stretch our legs. The Caf? is great, good food, wickedly rich espresso brulee (although the sugar was not quite caramelised) and an exception to my rule about not finding good coffee outside of Melbourne.
The smoke was this thick for most of the drive from the Victoria/NSW border until over the great divide. At one stage visibility was down to 200 metres and the reflection of the sun in oncoming windows looked like a burning orange spotlight. Everything was shaded orange – as if the world had been covered in cheap no-sun tanning lotion.
The smoke followed us home – this morning as I drove in the city was covered in smoke haze. Apparently it is covering most of the state now and heading out in to Bass Strait. And the fires still burn.