Stranded

Tried to get diesel but the town we stopped in had no power.  Arrived in Orbost, Victoria around 12:30 to check out the visitor center.  No power here either.  The lady in the visitor centre said "haven't you been listening to the radio?"  The Princes Hwy is closed just West of Orbost to Nowa, Nowa due to an out of control bush fire and the power has been out since around 5:00 pm yesterday.  If we really want to keep heading west, we have the option of joining an escorted convoy to go around the area, but we need fuel so we have to wait.  However, the lady at the visitor centre suggested we head 14km south to Marlo and spend a night or two by the sea until the fire is under control and the road reopened... hopefully by tomorrow.  It just started to rain lightly.  We are at the Marlo Ocean Views Caravan park across the street from the beach on the Tasman Sea.  Park is kind of dumpy but we only paid $21 for a non-powered site.  No point in paying for power when they are not sure when it will be back on anyway.  They say the power will be on by 6 pm tonight but I wouldn't count on it.   Hopefully the light rain will stop soon and we can take a walk down to the beach.  It's cloudy and much cooler today only 26C.  At least it's not in the 40's especially since we have no A/C.  We have now been listening to the radio and the reports on the fire as well as the impending cyclone that is approaching Cairns.   It is currently a category 5 and expected to hit landfall around 10 p.m.  Hopefully it will not be as bad as expected.  Took a quick walk down to the beach and nearly got eaten alive by bugs.

Marlo Beach from lookout

Decided to stay inside.  Leftover spaghetti for dinner and then we watched Avatar on the laptop. We went to bed around 9:30 .... very dark and still no power.  Very hot for sleeping.  There are no screens on our windows so we can't even leave the windows open.