death drive to P.E

I was woken at 4 am by the rattling curtains and the smell of smoke. The wind had picked up to 60 mph (I didn't know that at the time- it was on the radio, I'd have guessed at 58) and was hot. My brain was struggling to work out the direction but I knew it was bad- very bad, having the effect of a blast furnace on the forest fires. I dozed till 6.30 then dragged myself up. Ann Marie was also in the dorm and she always liked sharing with me because being old and German she chose to get up very early. Being restless and needing a wee after beer the night before I also chose to get up early and she didn't feel bad about disturbing the lazy teenagers by herself.A quick breakfast with Dan who had spent the night holding down his tent and I hit the road- leaving my prized tin of coffee behind and saying farewell to D 'n D who would be sorely missed.
Within about 20 miles the result of the wind on the fires was very apparent and I was directred off the main road onto a side road, following a truck and a car. After about 10 miles of being surrounded by smoke things started to get interesting to say the least.
I started to shoot with the camera as I was driving along- here is the pick of the photos.

Seeing the fires in the distance.









Following them into the smoke.


As soon as we were in it we stopped. My eyes were itching and the flames were blasting the car which was full of smoke. I reversed out of it (took photo) then went back in after a minute, visibility was zero and I was afraid of bumping the other car from behind and activating the fuel cut off which would have seen me fry for sure.

You can see how close the car is to the back of the lorry in the previous photo, it hasn't changed but look closely at the visibilty between the car and lorry.




I didn't use zoom or anything, just took photos out of the window as we drove along at about 20 mph.







By now I was having serious thoughts and it finally dawned that if I didn't keep moving it really was curtains. I was so far into it that getting out of the car and running was not an option and if I stopped again the car was likely to go up.


Eventually we started to come out the other side.



The skys were black for about a 100 miles with emergency vehicles and roadblocks all over the place.






I put my foot down and raced to Port Elizabeth airport where I caught a flight to Durban. D'nD had an interesting time back at the hostel which is for later.