Our heatwave reached its peak yesterday when the thermometer reached 36 C (or 97 F) and, like quite a few others we headed out for a picnic at a hopefully cooler - though not by much - spot. Our choice was Dumaresq Dam, which was once Armidale's water supply but is now am attractive recreation area with walking trails, camping, swimming, fishing and boating. And, as expected, there were lots of people camping at the site because there's no charge for staying over-night and using the facilities. You might also notice in the second photo that some of the trees at the camp-ground have been bonzied! Well, sort of! They've had their tops and bottoms cut off so that the vegetation is tabular.
We couldn't have a barbecue because the extreme heat and drying vegetation created a fire hazard and we didn't want to set the countryside alight and pay for the consequences of that! So it was a cold picnic of all the usual foods. We took chairs and a table in the RAV4's capacious luggage compartment along with with hampers and eskies (containers chilled by frozen tablets) to keep the beer and soft drinks cold. Max, who has now joined us for the last 3 weeks of the summer holidays, was in the party along with a family friend, Jane, and Rob's parents, Bruce and Marianne. So we set up lunch under a massive shady tree while Max went off to play in the nearby lake with some of the many kids his age. The lake is in the shadow of Mount Duval, shown on one of the following pictures, and its shallow edges make a safe playground for youngsters. The lake also has fish (including, I believe, trout) which Bruce st out unsuccessfully to catch. Max on the othr hand borrowed a plastic mug and managed a haul of very small fish!
All in all it was a very pleasant trip, though marred a little by very strong and hot winds as the afternoon progressed. These were the prelude to an amazing evening with ferocious storms. We had strong winds, heavy rain (thankfully), massive thunderheads, a vast amount of forked lightning (rather than the tame sheet variety), deafening growls from the sky, and ultimately power failure in our neighbourhood - probably from a lightning strike. The lights went out for 6 hours before coming back on at about 2.30 am. We haven't yet checked damage to the food in the freezer might the stuff might be OK despite the very hot over-night temperatures. This morning is something of a relief. The maxima today might only be about 23 C! Warm by UK standards but a great relief after 36.
AS
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