We woke to a ghosted land, haunted suggestions emptying into white distance, pacified, erased. My eyes said autumn mist, my nose said smoke ('Sale Doctor's* taking a holiday). But why this sigh of lowdown ashen sky that softly rakes its drapes?
"It's called 'blacking out', said Joy. "The charcoal fields and burned out undergrowth are doused. Stumps too, the water poured until those roots are soaked, that hold the slow burn in their deep, dead islands, underworld, and that's where all the white smokes rise."
I looked online and what a large outline, in orange from Bairnsdale down to Sale, from The Lakes NP to Maffra, poor air quality, "Be aware of impacts on your health." Oh. Well. Yes. Thank you. (Arse-covering.) We can do no more about it, anyway, than endure.
So we drove into Sale afternoon for the Music Festival, and listened to the bands there while we breathed belt out 'Working Class Man', soothe of Vietnam vets. The evening sun broke through on tall eucalypts, telling one Australia while singers brimmed the other.
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The 'Sale Doctor' is the local onshore breeze.
Media:- You Tube: Yusuf Islam, formerly Cat Stevens 'Into White'. Pic of Festival: the crowd are mostly behind us and also to the right. It was too loud to be too close.
