It may seem like a bit of downer to suggest a visit to the scene of the worst natural disaster in Australia's history but I myself hadn't been to see the after affects of the Black Saturday Bushfires and felt that I should dedicate a day to it.

We woke up early enough to grab some breakfast in Eltham at one of my favourite cafes, The Lane in Eltham. It's such a cute little restaurant/cafe and always such a homely feel. I continued by tradition of having bacon and eggs while Mimi had a pesto toastie which was Divine.

Even though I've had the Dc2r almost half a year now, and my two previous cars, the AE86 and the EG were both pretty good handlers, I have never taken the roads to Sugarloaf or Kingslake. I've missed out on something because ahead are some of the most beautiful winding roads I've ever driven on. It was just all sublime even sitting on the speed limit in the precious handling DC2. It was all pretty tame until we started hitting sights like this.

Burnt trees with spectacular green regrowth littered the road to Marysville for what seemed like forever. It's a good 2 hour drive to Marysville and we must have seen this for at least half of that trip. You can't help but be overwhelmed as you try and wrap your head around the fact that the entire area was in flames. You hear about it on the news but it's really different seeing it up close. Make the trip if you can.

Once we arrived in Marysville it was even more confronting.

In a local cafe was a photobook of the town before the fire and as I never recall visiting when I was younger, it's stunning to see how green and lush Marysville was. Almost everything was lost in the fire and as we looked around it was even more confronting looking at the imposing hills surrounding Marysville and the amount of burnt trees littering it. What must it have been like to be in Marysville when all the hills around you were on fire.

Still, the little locals left had opened the local bakery and cafe and we enjoyed a light lunch before heading back home.

The day ended with a lackluster Italian dinner on Lygon St that we got roped into by the spruiker. I'm sick of these ladies and after being disappointed with the over priced restaurant I swore off, and advise you to, any restaurant where they beg for you to come inside.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 12:37 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.