Bushfires

As I mentioned in an earlier post - we have travelled through 5 bushfire ravaged areas in the past few weeks. It's been an amazing experience. We happened to be coming home from Melbourne the weekend after 'Black Saturday' and, after checking with the local police, headed down the road that had been closed. We were told by the first road block that it was now open so we continued on only to be told that it was closed. Graham told them we had been given the ok at two other places and the guy said to Graham that he was about to do a 'sweep' of the road and if we didn't mind waiting if trees were being cut down we could follow him. Needless to say we got to see the devastation very early. It was really shocking.....yet - if there are no lives lost, no animals hurt and no property lost bushfires are such a great thing. We've just been back through that same area (the road actually stayed closed for almost 2 weeks after we were able to get through that time) and already the green is starting to appear on the fire ravaged earth. In it's own errie way it is beautiful. I hope people understand what I mean.
Fires are a part of life and they are meant to happen - they should just be controlled and not wild like they have been.
Any photo's I've taken have been through a window in a moving vehicle - so forgive me if they are a long way from good.
The first area we drove through was along the Hume Highway just north of Melbourne - here homes were lost and it left me with a horrible feeling inside to know all that people had lost - and yet I know that I can't really grasp the cost for these poor people. Here are some photo's of that area......











Then on the way home (same weekend - the weekend directly after Black Saturday), we came home on the Yarra Glen/Yea Road. Once again it was incredibly sad to see homes and sheds gone - not to mention the wildlife that would have perished that you couldn't see. It was very eerie to see through the bush - this area is usually very thick and you can barely see through it - now you can see to forever.....














Below is the remains of the Pub at Glenburn...where we had eaten before - it WAS lovely..







Just out of Glenburn


The it was the third area for the trip and the second that day - this is the area we were 'lucky' to see and it was the road we always take on the final leg of our journey home......



















But you know what was encouraging? going through the same area (near home) this past weekend and seeing...believe it or not 3 weeks after the fires ravaged the area....new life - yes green areas starting to appear. Mother nature is truly, truly amazing.