Watch and Act: Cudgen (Depot Road Fire) Fire Update 08/12/09 06:31

Posted: 08/12/2009

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Watch and Act: Cudgen (Depot Road Fire) Fire Update 08/12/09 06:31

Posted: 08/12/2009

Current Situation

The fire overnight continued to burn in bushland in the area of Sliprails Road, Clothiers Creek Road Tanglewood Drive and Wally Bishop Rd. So far the fire has burnt over 600 hectares of bushland.

The fire continues to burn in a southerly direction under strong northerly winds, these winds are expected to continue today.

There are several rural properties which may come under threat during today as the fire continues to burn towards Round Mountain Road

Firefighters are identifying containment lines and undertaking property protection where necessary.

I haven’t been far from home for obvious reasons tonight. Though this afternoon I visited Jims  at the end of Towners Road, the fire was fairly close  but only observed the edge of the thick smoke coming off the strong North North Easterlies. He had made a lot of preparations just in case as he was alone. While we chatted a few dead ash embers drifted down. After I left later I heard from another neighbour that he was starting to get live embers falling, luckly the wind has dropped a bit. The smoke at home has been a lot more bareable than just a little further East and West where it is stinging the eyes and turning headlights into white glowing balls of light.

A brigade truck is continually patrolling slowly up and down Towners road, possibly looking for any spotting. As the fire is due North of here I will stay up until 3:00am and then let the misses take over. It even looks like I might not get to work Tomorrow…. wait and see! At this stage it looks like we might be missing the worst situations, luckily for us, but anthing could yet happen. It is so dry around here the marshes ar tinder dry and the undergrowth in those areas are dead or dormant dry, even the mosses and reeds.

I have heard a bit of hearsay that the fire is not really threatening the area around Sliprails Road. This is the area wfor us to worry about most as that would give the fire front a diect path to reach us with the current winds.

When I drove home at 5:30pm this arvo the rubber-neckers were out in force parked along the sides of Clothiers Creek Road drinking beers and watching the three helecopters waterbombing to save the houses in Tanglewood. It hasn’t been confirmed but I was told that none were lost.

The 2 other close loacl fires, Eviron Road and Depot Road I know very little about, except what Marks’ misses told me as she was on the way to dropping here kids off at there granparents for safety and that the Eastern smoke plume is from the Depot Road/Camp Wollumbin area.

This afternoon I rode to a small short job at Hastings Point and finished just as the storm was nearly breaking. Nearly, because there was a lot of promise but nothing eventuated with it just rushing out to sea. Anyway my daughter had asked me to show her the route to Kingscliff via Salt so I gave her a call and said I would meet her at Cabba Cycles, (I needed a spare tube for the cypress). Off I rode into the 35-40km/hr Northerly at a chugging 15km /hour.

We joined up and I let her draught me on her 3 speed Beach Cruiser and we managed to sit on a constant 18 km/hr along the bike path up through Casuarina. At the end of the current path we entered the old Coast Road section, which has been denuded of all vegetation in preparation of the stalled development, and the wind just cut us to shreds getting us to suffer dropping to 12 km/hr.

At the sand pit, Salt, we just turned around and floated back home at a leisurely peddled 25 km/hr.

Making 26 kilometres all up. The return trip took less than half the time as the North bound journey had.

I’ve finally decided that I am a

“cruiser by choice”

I don’t think I could ride “Dirt Jumping”, “Downhill”, “Cross-country (XC) cycling” or “BMX”. Come to think of it I don’t think I could even ride “Mountain Biking”.
It comes as no surprise that I am also not a “Roadie”. So what am I when it comes to bicycle riding? Nothing really!

I enjoy doing things which have me…

… acquaint, appreciate, comprehend, deduce,
detect, determine, differentiate, discern, distinguish,
enlighten, experience, explore, extract, familiarise,
fathom, gather, grasp, glimpse, hear, learn, locate,
notice, observe, perceive, recognise, reveal, sense, …

So just getting on a bike and riding a road (bitumen or gravel), track  or trail (well worn or overgrown)  will satisfy me. I can think of many reasons for covering the same stretches of the local journeys I go on and I can also think of more, possibly, reasons to turn down a different route the next time I come past.
I can not think of putting all my eggs in one basket and trying to excel in a style of riding that will see me miss out on any opportunities to go through my list. Maybe I am missing other experiences but life is too short to try to fit everything in, god I am sounding old but if, as our dopey Deputy Mayor says

“if the shoe fits…”