45 Degrees...Hell-like...

On our drive back to Sydney on News Years Day [I don't celebrate News Years Eve anymore, so I felt great!] we were met by both hellishly hot weather, 45 degrees Centigrade [113 degrees Fahrenheit], maybe a Sydney record for New Years Day, and a fire that blocked the sole road from Hunter Valley to our Sydney destination.


We were forced off the highway near Woy Woy to seek supplies of food and fuel since we had no idea how long the fire would block the road back. I managed to lose the gas cap and get yelled at by my son, who heard the police announce that the highway was reopened while I was panicking.

Unfortunately, the heat also boiled the wine that I had in the trunk and one of the bottles, a Shiraz, actually had wine leaking through the cork. I drank that last night, and it tasted ok, so not all is lost!