One hour later we arrived at the hilltop. Some villagers were carrying buckets of water from our garden (where the pipe from the spring ends) up to the lodge area. Uh-oh ... We climbed up to the lodge, and saw ... this.
Well. Aidan joined the people at the front line, and I ran down to the tree house to find some old towels and cloth, and a bucket of water. With that, I joined the fire-fighters. With wet towels we lashed out at the fierce flames. The grass is high, and dry, and burnt like paper. The whole hill next to secret beach was scorched - pitch black. From there, the flames were moving upwards, consuming more and ever more grass, urged on by the wind. We decided to first put out the line to our left, the one that was approaching the lodge the fastest. For now, it was still about 200m away from the building site.
Once that was accomplished, we moved up to the hill, where the flames were even fiercer. Aidan and I had slept little and barely eaten, and we were both exhausted to the bones. The villagers retreated for a while when they saw us taking charge, and we lashed out at the flames until every muscle in our bodies hurt and we swayed like two drunkards. Eventually, some more villagers and some kids arrived, and we happily handed over our soaked towels. The villagers had tried to put out the fire with branches cut from trees, but that was not half as effective as the towels. In less time than we thought, the fire was under control, and we were moving down towards Rain Mountain, to put out the last line of fire. Eventually, there were no more flames flickering. Half of our hilltop is scorched though ... Everyone was tired and gladly went back home. We had been fighting the fire for 2 hours ...
Aidan and I retired to the tree house to have a strong cup of coffee, and I started dowloading the pictures and writing the blog entry. After a while Aidan said, give me the camera, I want to see if I find some more fires. Not a minute later I heard him calling from the hilltop ... the fire had broken out again. Dammit. Tired, exhausted, I changed back in my dirty clothes, grabbed my wet towel and followed him ... By now, darkness had fallen, and the flames created a ghostly orange glow in the distance. The fire was not really threatening us any more, it was too far away, towards Rain Mountain. But we thought it wiser to put it out anyway, you never know, the wind changes rapidly here, and it could suddenly blow the flames back up the hill ... So out we lashed again, not feeling the tiredness any more, not feeling the aching arms any more. We brought a bucket of water, and with soaked towels it was almost too easy to put the flames out. They looked terrifc against the black night sky, we were sad to put them out, it was a beautiful spectacle.
Eventually, we had succeeded again in winning over the fire, and the night became dark again. Let's just hope the wind stays calm, and there are no more sparks blowing around ...
