Sunday, September 6, 2009

Nadine Jansen In Uniform

our hill in flames ...

Aidan and I were in Bulungula - threw out unbearably hot and we were lazy in the reading corner, both the nose in a book when the women were calling us from the kitchen, and against our hills were over. .. Columns of smoke rose into the sky. Oh-oh ... but we thought nothing of it - it's the end of the winter season, and they all burn the yellowed grass down, so that the spring brings fresh, young grass ...
peered An hour later we returned to the horizon, and the columns of smoke were grown. Under His was clear that our hill is on fire - not up to the lodge, but further down, towards the coast. This place was no fire from Bulungula, only smoke, and we concluded that the hill next to Secret Beach fire - which is pretty close to us. So Aidan and I packed our bags and were on our way home.
As we climbed the hill an hour later, we met several people from the village, the bucket of water from the garden to the lodge dragged high. Oh-oh ... Finally arrived at the top of the lodge, we saw ... this



the hill to our left, next to Secret Beach, was completely black, and the fire crept slowly towards the Lodge. When we arrived, the fire line was about 200m away from the lodge. I ran down to the tree house and grabbed a couple of old towels and clothes full of holes, and a bucket of water. Then I joined the people on the firing line to ... and with wet towels we lashed out at the flames. First, we deleted the line to the left of us, so we fire does not fall in the back.





Then we went up the hill and began, slowly, slowly, across the hills along to wipe out the flames with relentless blows. Aidan and I had little sleep and hardly ate, and we both staggered like drunken men, the exhaustion in his face. I was wearing only a carrier-shirt and soon had red spots on the upper arms, shoulders and forehead ... It was so HOT! And the grass so dry that it burned like tinder. More villagers arrived, and a handful of little girls. When the main line of fire was extinguished, Aidan and I gave our clothes off the children and sat down for a break. The girls took the fire service seem amusing. The villagers had cut off branches from the trees and cut it on the fire - with no great effect. Our wet towels on the other hand worked just fine and soon we were at Rain Mountain below where the fire line ended. Huff. All went home.













Aidan and I treated ourselves to a strong cup of coffee after all the effort and I began to edit the photos for the blog entry. Aidan said, give me the camera watching I will see if I find more fire. Not a minute later he called me from the hill top ... The blaze was again broken out. Arrrgh. Tired picked to the bone I re-wet cloth, and followed him up the hill ... actually. The whole right flank, against Mountain Rain down, had again caught fire. Meanwhile, it was dark, and all the villagers had gone home. Regardless, this fire was not really a threat, it was too far away from the lodge. Nevertheless, we set, again hammering on the flames, and joked and said we had to bring some sausages, and hold a bottle of wine and a romantic picnic ...









The tiredness we felt no more pain and after a while no longer the arms. Finally, all flames were extinguished, the night was dark again. Let's hope it does not break out again ... Thank God, the strong wind had eased by early afternoon. If we had the fire must fight against the wind, we had a problem ... but this time everything went well.

0 comments:

Post a Comment