Not a great photo because number two was taking them out of a moving car, but you get the idea. It is terrifying how close it got to our beach village. The trees are several times taller than the houses and they are torched. It would have been awful ... we meant to go down on Thursday night but fires closed the road again, so we went down Friday.
The smoke was still thick. There was no power until Friday evening which was fine; we knew the power was off but decided to go anyway and basically camp! Quite fun, although it was nice when it came back on. Apparently the town is still powering off a massive generator somewhere ... it is amazing how quickly they have re-done the infrastructure and the roads. New signs, safety rails, markings - some have been left and they are basically just melted lumps.
The lack of power meant we had to go out for dinner, and in the end we had a lovely beach couple of days; surfing, eating, reading and laying about. It was much needed by both of us - me because of the conference and him because he had just had three weeks in California! Can you believe it, so lucky. It was a tour of about fifty kids that spent half the time with host families in Sacramento, and the rest doing such educational things as Disneyland, Monterey Aquarium, Universal Studios, Alcatraz..... He had a wonderful time and they just packed each day full of things. Including a bit of shopping which he loved.
Poor boy, so deprived.... How terrible about the fires. I never know why British people complain about our climate. It's hardly ever particularly cold or horribly hot, we don't get earthquakes or typhoons and yes, we get rain sometimes but that's jolly useful stuff. I hope Australia stops burning soon. So awful.
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