Wagga Wagga

Woke up to very thick smoke so gave us a taste of what the rest of the state has been experiencing for the past month. We heard early one group of friends were safely back in Melbourne and tonight the other group we were concerned about are on the road to Canberra which is a relief.

This morning we did a bike ride around Lake Albert supposedly. You can see from the photos why we think there was a lake there. Halfway around we ran into someone who we had met in Morocco who is now a policeman in Wagga. It was lovely to catch up with him and hear some local outlook. Hi Tony! Our eyes were stinging with the smoke by the time we got back to the caravan. The air quality in Wagga today was 259ppm. Safe air quality is 50ppm.

Regan baked some awesome scones in the caravan oven for lunch. This afternoon we had some cabin fever with the smoke and 35 again so took off into town for a visit to the National Glass Art Gallery. Wagga is the home of glass in Australia evidently and work on display was amazing.

We drove up the hill to a look-out but was a bit pointless today. Back to the camp for the predictable swim and evening tipple. We watched the news and saw more communities being told to leave before it was too late this time Wagga and Tumut were the evacuation points. This evening when we were swimming we met a family who had had 3 days in the danger zone with no power and had made the call to drive out. They hope to go home on Monday but there are absolutely no guarantees. On the way back to the van we saw at least 4 other families we suspect are in the same situation, all rather confronting.

Tomorrow we are heading Melbourne way but will break the trip with a night in Shepparton. More heat predicted but hopefully less smoke hazeRead more