My Broulee Adventure - Day 2

WooHoo I'm finally here. I headed off from Lakes Entrance around 7.30am and was welcomed by a very humid, very foggy morning, which lasted most of the trip. 

I was treated to a very humid foggy morning

An eerie morning in Lake Tyres State Forest

From the road everything looked fairly normal until I got to Orbost. The SES and the army are still stationed there making sure all the fires are totally out and clearing up the surrounding roads. All of a sudden you could smell the smoky smell. It was the smell of when a campfire has been put out with water and the lingering smoke smell fill the air. Also, the trees were starting to show where the flames had licked them and either been extinguished or changed direction. Then the devastating sight hit me. Both sides of the road and as far as I could see was black tree trunks, burnt leaves and ash on the ground. 

As far as I could see there were dead trees

This tiny fern bought a smile to my face

So Sad !

There was the occasional group of trees that were missed but this terribly depressing sight continued for at least 40 kilometres. After a bit I was back to the normal bushland I am used to and then I hit the Cobargo area and township. 

 

It's beautiful to see some of the tree sprouting greenery already

There was a lot of damage on the roads due to trees falling

That's when I saw the devastation of houses and buildings laying on the ground in a crumpled mess. It was about at this point I just needed to stop the car and let the tears fall. How could this possibly happen? How can we as a nation make sure nothing like this ever happens again?  

Two things along my journey today did bring a smile to my face. Seeing the greenery sprouting from some of the trees and the small ferns emerging out of the blackness. Also. luckily I was driving slowly as out of the blackness on one side of the road a small kangaroo hopped out onto the road. I stopped and we looked at each other and off he hopped to the other side of the road disappearing into more blackness. 

I'm now in Broulee and totally loving spending time with these three little guys. No there were no tears just lots of big hugs. 

It certainly was hard to negotiate Louis, O'Shea and Finn into three smiling faces. 

But oh how I love these faces.