Monday 9 February 2009

Victorian Bushfires

The image on the left was taken on our ride at around 9am on Saturday about 15kms from Kinglake, even closer to St Andrews, Christmas Hills, and Yarra Glen. It is the same landscape as I use in the banner for this blog, so you can tell how different things are in mid summer. The exact location is Clintons Rd. Just as we rode into Smiths Gully General Store we were hit by the massive northerly winds. We had coffee and headed directly back to Melbourne via Eltham. It was 41°C when we got home at 11am.

As soon as I was home there were reports of a large fire in Kilmore East.... and things got worse from there.

It'll be a few weeks before we can ride to Kinglake and stock up at the bakery (which is still standing!) but as soon as its safe for the public you can bet there will be a swam of lycra clad hoons racing up the hill to give their support to that little community.

3 comments:

Judith said...

Amazing pic....we rode our 90km loop on Sat and got hit by a Northerly headwind at one poitn adn it was hot....but overall our ride on Sat apart from being a bit pacey at times, we had friendly winds.....cant believe how devastating these fires have been...not just damaging but destroyimng communities that may or may not recover.....so sad

Groover said...

It's great how generously people donate and help. I wish I could do more ...

Unknown said...

I spoke to someone at the Smiths Gully General Store yesterday and they would love a few people to come by. Although the road to Kinglake is closed (except for residents), I think Clintons Road is open, so i'm going up this weekend and will stop for coffee and cake. I think spending a few $ is something concrete we can do.