Ashes

Sunset (Blackberry photo)

We don't know if it has made news in the rest of the world, but the volcano in Chile has wreaked havoc with Australian flights.  We went through something similar in April, May and June of last year when we were in Europe.  We are very sympathetic to the crowds of people who are sleeping on the floor in airports all over Australia.

Australia is a very large country and flying is the way the most people get to other cities.  Brisbane to Sydney is about 1000km, Sydeny to Melbourne is about 950km and Melbourne to Adelaide is around 725km...those are all way too far to drive!  We are lucky that we didn't have flights booked because the airports in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide have been closed intermittently for the past 3 weeks.  The Brisbane airport, which is further north than the others, has been closed twice (just southbound flights), but only for a day each time.  We are a little concerned about how long these closures will last, since our previous experience showed that the disruptions can last for months!  We have a flight to Sydney in August and one to Cairns in September.  Hopefully the ashes just blow away and stop bothering us!  We are also a little worried that all of the extra particulate will mean another relentless rainy season and more floods.  The only upside that we can see is that the sunsets are an eery and intriguing yellow.