Storm Fun

I'll continue the Melbourne visit update later - yesterday we were doing checks at the fire station when I walked outside to discover that the sky looked like Armageddon. Black sky, towering clouds, and continuous massive lightning along the northern horizon for as far as you could see on either side. Gary and I rushed back to bush camp to lock down, and the lightning was like nothing I've ever seen - and I didn't have the camera!!

We stood on the flat outside the camp for about fifteen minutes watching the horizon - the whole sky was flashing wildly in every direction, and you could see enormous bolts of lightning striking about twenty km away - not just quick bolts either, they would sort of keep zapping the ground for three or four seconds, and there were wild horizontal zig zags of lightning as well. It was a monster storm. We wanted to stand and watch, but it was too dangerous so we took shelter in our tin shed ("Don't touch the walls!!) and brought the animals in.

When the storm hit we got some rain, some strong winds and a lot of really loud thunder, and the sky went berserk with lightning, but we didn't get any strikes too close to us thank goodness. But in town it was a different story - Ben Clare's place, which is two houses from my Main Street house, had its ENTIRE ROOF torn off by the wind, and so did Billy Shea's house over by the council yards right in the middle of town. The wind pulled some tin sheets loose at my house (on the verandah, no big deal) and tore the gas bottle storage fence area apart (not a problem) - at least the roof stayed on!!

Ironically, earlier in the day Gaz was talking with me about emergency plans at bush camp, since it's cyclone season, and said that if we had cyclone winds forecast the best plan would be to take the dogs and Smokey, evacuate to the stockyards (500 metres away) and get under the giant steel bulldozer bucket. Hopefully it won't happen, but my job is to pack an evacuation kit just in case. If I throw in a scorpion or two it will be just like home.