Monday, February 9, 2009

Shepparton, Victoria












We hadn't planned on coming to Shepparton, known as the food bowl of Australia - a country town of about 40,000 people - we wanted to head back towards Melbourne. But the bush fires are still burning throughout the state and after making a few phone calls, Shepparton seemed to be a pretty safe place to stay for a while.

The eleven year drought is biting hard here too and I couldn't resist the irony of The Cafe on The Lake. In the travel brochure it reads 'Situated on beautiful Lake Victoria in the heart of Shepparton'. But as you can see, there is no lake, just dry earth and a faint blue smoke haze from the fires that stings your eyes.

The other photo is the outside temperature gauge on our Jeep last Saturday - 50C is 122F and that was the tragic day that so many people died in the fires.

And the end to the agony is nowhere in sight.




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