Unexpected Bush Fire

As we left Hamelin Pool Caravan Park, Katy exclaimed 'I liked that park the best so far! It had a good pool and lots of fun extra activities' Both Andy and I glanced at each other. It's always interesting to listen to your children's impressions of life!

Driving was minimal today. Within the first few minutes of starting off a small emu like bird darted across our path. We managed to avoid hitting it and wondered what it was. Later we found out that it was a Mallee fowl. On to Shell Beach we travelled, our first and only tourist attraction for the day. Shell Beach is made up of millions of the tiny Shark Bay cockle shell and not much sand. It was a fair trek over hard limestone / compacted shell ground to get close to the water. Then there was a wide band made up purely of shells and as the tide was low, a small section of sand to the lapping waves. 

We spent time sitting on the beach digging and looking at the shells. If one looked hard enough, there were more than the cockles there. Dad turned into a shell mermaid while we were there.

 

 

As we were leaving, we could see a smoke plume far into the distance and wondered where the fire was and whether we would come into contact with it. About 10 kilometres later we encountered a road block and joined the longish queue of cars, caravans and camper trailers. We exited the car to chat to the people in the car ahead for about 20 mins before we were escorted as a group by the fireman although we only drove a short distance before stopping again. The fire had 'flared' too close to the road so we waited again. This time we could clearly see the fire front adjacent to us and travelling mostly away! After another wait we resumed our driving and continued to seaside town of Denham. I'm sure the fireman were very grateful for the heavy rain later in the afternoon. For us it meant a chance to catch up with the washing.