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It started off as a coast-to-coast four-wheel-drive odyssey across Australia's top end.

4WD Odyssey

Nickjenkins
2003-11-20 16:52:02

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from some Val Doonican clone. There was a good view of the fire however and we ruminated about how happy we were to be out of it. This was not to be our last brush with fire however.

We reached Point Ann inside the Fitzgerald River National Park later that afternoon but not without a mishap with the local wildlife. It seemed we arrived just in time for shift change at the Park. As we rode into the park Richard had to swerve the two-and-a-half tonne curry wagon to avoid a lizard crossing the road, but unfortunately collected one crossing the other way.

Point Ann is a beautiful stretch of coastline which is justly famous for the visits of right and humpback whales during winter. There were to be no whales when we visited but there was a plentiful supply of wildlife : the ubiquitous lizards; roo's; birds and a wild assortment of flora. There was also some inclement weather in the form of sunshine broken by towering thunder clouds and the odd spear of lightning.

In an effort to get back on the 4WD track again we ventured out from Point Ann and around the inlet to Point Charles, the next bay to the east. It took a good hour of spine-cracking corrugations to muscle through to a beach almost exactly the same as Point Ann. We drove around the beach for a little while and then headed back to Point Ann for a steak and veges dinner. On the way we spotted a new fire front that was further west and south of the previous days fire, probably started by the previous night's thunderstorm. This one looked smaller and closer but still not close enough to worry about. We were wrong.

At about 7pm that evening a friendly looking-local rolled up in his four-wheel-drive and advised us that he'd been ordered to evacuate Point Ann. The fire was pushing east of us and was still about 20km away but with no guarantee of which way the wind would blow that night there was a distinct possibility ...