Back to the fire tower ... My first day this season up the mountain was a schedule 5, which is the highest fire danger rating on the scale from 1 to 5. It's a different eco system up so high. I spent most of the day fighting stink bugs, those little black and orange ones that looked like wasps as they flew towards me. They were so enthusiastically mating during their mass stink bug orgy, that they got stuck in my hair or on my clothes and I ended the day feeling quite dirtied. For those of you who don't know the Australian bush, stink bugs exude an oxalic (or similar) acid that I guess is a pheromone to fellow stink bugs. For me, it's just gross.
My colleague on the fire tower said he quite likes the smell, which is weird.. But we are weird anyway, as is the tendency for most fire watchers. In America, people like us are called freaks on peaks because, after a certain amount of time at the top of a mountain looking for smoke, the brain starts trying little tricks on us. It's a very similar experience to being at sea: long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of intense anxiety and having to be alert 24/7. That's probably why they hired me and also why we are not allowed to work more than four days straight. Our eyes get sore. Our brains get sore.
It was one of those hot, steamy, thunderstormy days when every bug in the universe hatched out. Apparently lightning was approaching. We are told that when we get lightning at the top of the mountain, we should stand on the wooden floor of the tower and "not touch anything". I'm just glad the comms tower is earthed out.
Do you sleep up there, or do you commute daily?
ReplyDeleteWhen I say 24/7 I mean figuratively, like, all the time, so that must have been misleading, sorry. We climb up every morning and come down in the afternoons. It's beautiful heading back down the mountain at the end of the day. I'm tired and happy.
DeleteI would love to sleep up there though Tom. The sky on a clear night would be amazing and no light pollution whatsoever. But I have a dog who is so pleased to see me at the end of the day that the idea cancels itself out.
DeleteI would like that job more than ever now.
DeleteStink bugs drove us from a favoured park bench the other day. Disgusting creatures that requireth a full rinse down of clothes and person to rid us from their joyous close encounters. Communing with nature always has its dark side in this land.
ReplyDeleteThey are such bastards, though not sure of their parentage situations. At least they don't bite me.
DeleteLiving in a fire prone area I just realised (der) the significance of what you actually do. I'm very grateful. It's fuckwit season and I'm always worried some city-nutter will light a campfire - cos he feels like it. That recent terrible fire on Frazer Island was caused by one of these fuckwit holiday-makers. Public humiliation in the stocks and 20 lashes with a wet towel I say.
ReplyDeleteAs for Rapunzel - well you DO have the hair for it haha.
To give it some context, sometimes it's kids who are camping for the first time on their own and don't have fire education, sometimes it's people wanting to cook up some marron they've caught (marron season starts in ten days), people's burn-offs getting out of control, lightning strikes (the Stirlings last year) ... all sorts of reasons. Lightning is probably the biggest one this season due to La Nina, which is kinda odd - more rainfall but more lightning too. I try to map any strikes when I see them cos sure as anything a smoke will pop up in the same spot the next day.
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