Road Trip 2

[Nungali]

Ahhhhh ... a night in my own bed . 

 

Its sooo dry and dusty here .   I noticed no dust 'over there'  , the wind blowing in from the ocean. Also no dust on the roads, those sand roads are grains of minerals , thats how I saw 5 colours of sands on the beach .  Also a lot of it has blow away  a long time ago and the heavier stuff remains .

 

At home and other places, there is a lot of clay about, that gets pulverised to a fine  powder eventually and - dust .   My house is full of it as its been so dry .

 

And the fires .... YIKES !   ( see my other thread )

[Pavel Karavaev]

On 27.08.2019 at 3:30 PM, Nungali said:

Then on to Shark Bay;

 

 

Swimming with sharks is no longer dangerous?!

It seems that this shark has no teeth on the photo )

[Nungali]

5 hours ago, Pavel Karavaev said:

 

Swimming with sharks is no longer dangerous?!

It seems that this shark has no teeth on the photo )

 

 

Its a  whale shark . 

 

No teeth   ...  a filter feeder .  Not dangerous .... dont confuse  it with a tiger shark though

 

Interesting that you bumped this as another little road trip starts today -  Washpool  ( biggest Antarctic Beech forest on the planet)    >  Gibraltar Range >  Glenn Innes and back along the Old Grafton Road through Dalmorton ghost town  ;

 

Please give way ;

 

 

 

The road down to 'Diehard' :

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.6768731,152.0785764,2474m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

 

 

[Geof Nanto]

@Nungali

 

You'll be travelling very close to my place on your way back. PM me if you'd like to call in and I'll give you my address. 

[Nungali]

What a nice , remote, natural  and calm place Yueya has .  

 

We went for a little walk on part of his property, down to the   river there ( which is large and has a bigger flow than the river I live on ), through parts of the  river front he has  done vegetation regeneration on.  Very nice ... not a sign of civilisation or anything but nature there .  Went for a swim and got charged up by the waters energy.

 

Drove on ... and on ... towards home  but got stopped by a bushfire  on both sides of the road , fire trucks, a helicopter water bomber landing on the road ... chaos . Probably a 2 - 3 hour wait , at least .  Now way around it out there, at that position, the only way over to the east is blocked, except by going through  connection of forest roads that might lead back into the fire zone anyway .... and we where near down wind from it . So all the way back to the turn off to Yueyaville  and keep going north to the next main route back south and then down the mountains to Coffs Harbour , then  back south and then west to home .

 

And that fire was an extension  flare up of the one I posted about here in 'Inferno' on Sept 11th  .....  its still going   and has burnt out over 104906 ha !

 

 

 

[rainbowvein]

40 minutes ago, Nungali said:

 Yueyaville  

 

[Geof Nanto]

Hi Nungali,

 

I was very pleased to meet you.   I’ll look forward to taking up your invitation for a reciprocal visit when I’m next down your way. 

 

I had no idea that fire had flared up until I read your message just now. That backtrack detour must have added hours to your journey home. A bit of adventure though, albeit resulting in a far less scenic drive than the picturesque meander up and over the forested high country that separates our places. 

 

It sure is a bad year for forest fires, the worst in living memory by all accounts.  Smoke haze all around again today. And it’s still only springtime. I didn’t show you but I have a couple of fire pumps set up with several fire hoses. My plan is to stay and defend my cabin and studio. It’s my home, my hermitage, and I’d only evacuate in dire circumstances.  

 

Yueya
 

[Nungali]

Hang in there bro ! 

[Nungali]

..... they saved Mt Hyland  by hanging in there and they where not as set up as you are .

 

https://www.bellingencourier.com.au/story/6382570/bees-nest-fire-blog-from-mt-hyland/

[Geof Nanto]

On 18/10/2019 at 8:49 AM, Nungali said:

Drove on ... and on ... towards home  but got stopped by a bushfire  on both sides of the road , fire trucks, a helicopter water bomber landing on the road ... chaos . Probably a 2 - 3 hour wait , at least .  Now way around it out there, at that position, the only way over to the east is blocked, except by going through  connection of forest roads that might lead back into the fire zone anyway .... and we where near down wind from it . So all the way back to the turn off to Yueyaville  and keep going north to the next main route back south and then down the mountains to Coffs Harbour , then  back south and then west to home .

 

And that fire was an extension  flare up of the one I posted about here in 'Inferno' on Sept 11th  .....  its still going   and has burnt out over 104906 ha !

 

According to the latest info on the Rural Fire Service’s fire map, the fire that stopped you was a new outbreak started by lightning. It wasn’t the massive Bee’s Nest fire breaking containment lines but it might as well have been because it’s burning adjacent to the north edge of that fire.  It could have been started from the thunderstorm that passed over while you were here, or, more likely, the bigger thunderstorm with massive amounts of lightning we had the night before. You made the right decision in not waiting for the road to reopen.  “Probably a 2 - 3 hour wait , at least” stretched a little longer. It’s still closed now and will be until at least tomorrow. 

 

Closer to me is another new fire started by lightning from the same storms that’s burning out of control in rugged, difficult to access country in the Chaelundi National Park near Stockyard creek. I can see thick smoke from it billowing over the hills to the south west of here. It’s about 15km away. I’ve been watching the smoke build over the last few days assuming it was from the Bee’s Nest fire and therefore well contained because nothing closer was logged on the RFS “Fires Near Me” map.  However, I checked again just now and they’ve added it as a new fire. The RFS don’t seem overly concerned about it at this stage as it’s not posing any immediate threat to anyone’s property. But the eastern boundary of the Chaelundi National Park is very close to me so I’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on its progress. 

 

All these fires and it’s still only spring. We’re all hoping for some substantial rain. We normally get good, reliable rainfall here but not this year, the lowest for the year to date in over 100 years. 

 

 

 

The view from my house looking southwest towards the Chaelundi fire. 

 

Edited October 19, 2019 by Yueya

[Nungali]

Yeah , I checked the fire alerts too and couldnt find anything about that fire .

 

15 km away is a little close .  Let's hope the wind is in a good direction  for you .  I have spent a bit of time in Chaelundi , years back, doing a bit of hard core forestry protests, camping out, being arrested and dragged off to Grafton Jail  (after some mild 'torture' out in the middle of the forest at a police camp ) .

 

Unfortunately , there is no rain predicted , even in the long term.       

 

[Geof Nanto]

1 hour ago, Nungali said:

I have spent a bit of time in Chaelundi , years back, doing a bit of hard core forestry protests, camping out, being arrested and dragged off to Grafton Jail  (after some mild 'torture' out in the middle of the forest at a police camp ) .

 

You’ve been in the area longer than me. Some local history for the benefit of interested Dao Bums readers:

 

When I arrived here in 1998 those long running anti-logging protests were still going strong.  A number of people I got to know within the local community were in there with you. I had just bought my land and was fully occupied with the basics of establishing myself but planned on joining in later. However, it was shortly afterwards you got results and the protests ceased. It was a big victory and my friends were so happy. The North East Regional Forest Agreement allowed a truce between environmentalists and the timber industry by giving a workable plan for the sustainable management of our region’s extensive forests. It. As well as that, huge areas of old-growth forest that were zoned for logging were converted to National Park and thereby protected in perpetuity. That’s when Chaelundi National Park came into existence. So thank you for your part in making that happen.
 

[Nungali]

Okay ... here is some more interesting history on that .

 

There is special magic stuff in that area .  Some indigenous elders where VERY upset about that area being logged due to certain 'mythological stories ' 

 

An 'energy' there got out of control  so a 'clever man' came to dispel it  but it was  fiercer than realised. A terrific battle ensued and the bad force was cut into pieces and buried separately  in special places and 'sealed' in . The concern was that the 'sealing in; might be disturbed and the pieces join and the 'force'  come back .

 

Sound familiar ?  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_(cosmogony)#Chaoskampf

 

So, our magical group which was active then, decided to support the action.  Some of us, and others associated with us also decided on some 'personal' action . One of them volunteered himself for the most radical of actions .   A deep hole was dug and concrete poured in, steel reo at the bottom with a chain coming up and then more concrete. Guy gets in the hole and locks on to chain around his ankle and crouches down. Then they towed someone's old  donated car over the hole (so the car made a road block  - various tricks like this had been done before, without a person   but they just bulldozed the obstacle away ), removed the wheels and ran chains and cable locks around the cars axles and around the guys neck .   That stopped them from pushing it out the way with a bulldozer !  It took a very long time for police rescue to clear the road block .

 

Meanwhile others where setting up the next line of defence further in. They had flogged some large  stored under road water drainage  pipes and had dug them in  standing up . 

 

This is the part I have written about here elsewhere ;   so we painted magical  sigils on them, signs of repelling and other stuff . I did the main one in the middle of the road with

 

 

      others did ghoul faces,  rearing snakes spitting fire, all sorts of shit.  Apparently when the bulldozer driver turned up he freaked out and said he put up with all sorts of crap, sabotage, piss bombs,  but he wasnt going to put up with this crap !   And left !

 

Fuck !  I thought he would have just trashed it ! .

 

Then the action moved to another front that they where trying to get in on .  So a  a very fast barricade was made after a trail of obstacles and a bunch of us stood on and blocked  the road .  A bit disconcerting to see the long line of logging jiggers and vehicles heading towards us from the distance. But then I looked the other way and a few curves away, I saw a police van coming with blue light flashing ... then another... and another ... and  different types   of vehicles, including big prisoner transport vans  ... 38 I think I counted    .

 

There was a bit of a stand off, catcalling  and stuff,  they usual silly songs  ' We shall not be moved' that made the police smirk and nudge each other .  The loggers and police  started removing the barricades.

 

After a bit of to and fro  it was "Off the road or we arrest you ! "    Mumble mumble everyone  moves off the road, but this huge guy says 'Fuck this' and walks forward  ( I had talked to him early, he was a Vietnam veteran and he told me he was 'going to put himself on the line' ) and lays down in front of the first logging truck  spread eagled. The boss cop gives the orders to arrest him and about 6 cops rush out and grab him. he is complaint and walks with them to the van , two on each side holding his arms . We cheered him and instinctively he half turned grinned and waved his arm at us , lifting two  surprised police officers into the air          they quickly got control and he apologetically  complied .  Locked him in the  big van .

 

Then they signalled , the logging trucks to move forward a few more ran out and lay on the road .  Hmmmm ... that gives me an idea so I said to some near me  " Dont all go out on to the road at once, take turns , it takes longer to arrest and lock up individuals and small groups than it does everyone at once ."

 

So thats what happened ... it took ages and really frustrated  the opposing team .  But we started running out of people. So I zoomed back to camp and put ut the alarm but only 1 guy came back with me .  The trucks where just moving off and everyone had been arrested  so other  guy lay on the road .....   delayed .  Put him in the van.  A cop looked at me and goes 'Do I have to arrest you too ! " I moved further back off the road . "Oh no Officer, I am not going to do anything that stupid  . "  

 

The tell the trucks to move forward, they start up their engines ., well, every single other person had been arrested and in the 2 huge moving vans (one for men one for women ) , what was I gonnna do  stay there in the bush by myself with loggers ? So I slipped around the cop between me and the road  and  went and lay under the front truck while it was moving forwards .

 

Stopped again , cop furious, drag me away to the van ... amongst much cheering and laughing and catcalls from the van  grill windows .

 

THats when they took us (just the men's van ) to their secret police camp in the bush for their secret and illegal attempted  nastiness  ( I saw attempted as it was silly and juvenile and had little effect on most of us ,  me and the guy next to me used the time sit there in lotus meditating with peacefull happy looks on our faces - that really annoyed them      ... but, by then they where pretty drunk anyway .  I know that as they parked the metal van in the full sun in summer and refused to give us water and sat around it drinking beer and saying how nice and cold it was .... then did drunken do-nut burnouts in their police cars around the van to kick up the dust and choke  us inside .

 

-  that took up most of the day, so they' called it a day' and went home ready to start in the morning now we where all out of the way  , but it was that afternoon that the legislation stopping the operation was passed in parliament. So they where officially stopped the next day . 

 

Just in time !

 

That was followed by the  Wild Cattle Creek action  ..... that time, there was no police intervention between us (the protestors)  and the loggers , they let us  fight   for a bit .   

 

.... and some of those chaps got the silly idea into their head that they where going to beat up on me .    Oh dear !  ... the silly fellows   

Edited October 20, 2019 by Nungali