Big Wind

A trip through the hills for lunch yesterday turned into a nightmare/marathon! Weather predictions warned us there would be gale force winds, and they weren't wrong. Here is a tale of my exploits yesterday after a simple luncheon out turned into a major adventure. There was wind and debris all along the road and then a tree down, so I had to wait for the nearby council backhoe to clear it. Then along further, more trees down, but I could creep around them. Finally, a few hundred metres from my destination, another big wattle totally blocked the road, so Sheryl came and picked me and Susan up (leaving our cars there), and we stayed for our 2 hour lunch. Afterwards we drove back to the cars and the tree has been cleared, but another was down a little way on, so we held the branches back for each other, just enough to creep through. On ahead to another tree, I spent 10 minutes breaking off branches and clearing a path, then next, on to the power lines draped across the road, with just enough room to sneak under (ribbons tied on so SP Austnet knew). The backhoe appeared again, so I pointed him to the last tree I had navigated through. He was having a big day. Onwards, dodging lots of debris and more light trees dropped here and there, to finally half a km from home, there was a huge cypress right across the road. I had to give up, but fortunately a neighbour's house was right there, so I went up and left the car, had a quick chat and commiserations, and walked home the last stretch in the ROARING wind and spitting rain. The power was out, of course, because of the dropped power lines. Mr Bliss rang, so I said could he pick up a pizza from Korumburra on his way through (as we are all electric)? He rang again after a time and said the whole town had no power and he was nearly out of fuel because the bowsers weren't working. On the drive home he got a flat tyre, so had to change it in the roaring wind and rain, but did make it home with little fuel. No power, so no hot dinner (or water). We drained a couple of buckets of water out of our tank to drink and wash with. After picking up my car, we toasted bread over the fire with an excellent built-on-the-spot wire fork and lit the candles and the kerosene lamp loaned to us by the neighbour. Mr Bliss went off to bed to read his Kindle, and I got my little laptop out and drew the lamp and candles, see:

The power came back on at 9pm. All's well and I'm exhausted! There's nothing like living in the hills.