Over the weekend there were two bushfires nearby. Both near Wondabyne I think. Smoke woke me up again at 5AM. I'd left a window open and my whole flat still smells like a barbequed gum tree. By the time I went walkies this morning the smoke was spread out over Brisbane Water in a thin blue haze. Couldn't tell where it'd started. I'll have to watch NBN (Northern Beaches telly) tonight to find out.
I can also find out why so many ambulances today. Fire trucks and the police go howling off from the stations here on the Peninsula three or four times a week. They go up Woy Woy Bay Road through The Bays and up onto the F3, which is the motorway between Sydney and Newcastle. Over the weekend, with the fires and whatnot, it's been non-stop sirens. On my way home an ambulance howled past one way then howled past again a few minutes later heading for Gosford hospital. Hope it wasn't picking up another of the Dear Old Things from here. They been dropping like flies, poor things, and not coming back. Strokes mostly.
On a more cheerful note, it's not hot today. Only 30 (86 F) and there's a gentle but cool breeze. Even the flies were not blackening the skies as they have been. Down in Fagan's Bay in a tiny nameless cove, I sat on a park bench next to the cycle path for a bit. The path was pretty busy. Retirees striding along, high school kids cruising past on their deadly treadlies, young mums stopping for a chat. A small kid picked his nose while his mother wasn't paying attention and fed it to the dog. The water was past the high tide mark but the tide was still running in and the grass on one side of the cove was flooding. Christmas king tides. It was pleasant sitting there looking out past the mangroves to the mangrove shore on the opposite side of the bay. I could see the roof of Spotlight (cheap towels & made-to-measure blinds), OfficeWorks (cheap desks & gormless delivery) and a series of low red roofs that turned out to be the Leisure Living Retirement Village.
Fagan Park was another nice spot to sit. It's mostly an oval (sports field) with the ubiquitous cricket pitch in the middle but along the edges there's a wide strip of trees and down at the cycle path end there's a small grove of tall pines. Beautifully shady. Mynahs were twittering over something interesting and some Council guys were lunching near the scout hall. A nice enough spot but not nearly as scenic a lunch spot as some of Dodderyoldfart's. A couple of magpies were warbling in a tree nearby and there wasn't much traffic on the road.
Come next June the Bay to Bay Fun Run will go pounding along that path. There was one last year, organised by some crowd calling themselves the Terrigal Trotters. Love the name. I'm tempted to organise a Woy Woy team just so we can call ourselves the Peninsula Pigs' Feet.
Anyways, I'll get onto them and see if they're doing another run next year. Not that I'd be running the bastard. Bit too tired still for that. I'll walk. It's only 12 kilometres (7.46 miles) and it's along the water all the way. Very nice. 12 kays is not much longer than the Long March, my first long walk on the Peninsula. I've lost a bit of endurance since then so I'll have to build it back up again. Started today. Nothing major. Just walked a bit longer than last time.
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