I finally had a good chance to get my big job for winter out of the way today - doing a major backburn in the buffer zones around the house so we have a better chance of survival if a major summer fire rips through here.

I started a bit nervously, smallish and closer to the house, then worked my way further and further out, until in the end I had more confidence and got a 1.5 km fire front around the ring road we’d cleared last year for this exact purpose. It was actually loads harder than I expected to get it going, and I can see now why the old timers wait until there’s a stiff North West wind to light them - you really need some oxygen pumping into it to get it properly raging. It was also much easier to control than I expected too - my fire fighting gear literally consisted of a rake and a pair of gloves - it all came down to just setting the right lines going, then either burning up or down back into them with other lines. Best fun in ages!

Avalanches are pretty much unheard of in Australia - and definitely not on this kind of scale. One very, very unlucky guy to have set this off… Pic and full story from the SMH.

As predicted, the swell peaked today at about 4.5m on a 12 second period, so there were some solid ten footers hitting the bombies and reefs. I was just about to grab my board to paddle out the first spot pictured below, thinking it looked a perfect 6-8ft, but then saw a monster set close out the bay and wash all of the local chargers who were out there into shore, so thought the better of it. Great to watch though…

A little bit bigger today with the front edge of a new swell starting to push through, so the beaches were starting to max out, but the reefs were lighting up properly, so no complaints from this corner…

Dane and I set off on what turned into an epic 8km bike ride through Meroo National Park today, all the way from the highway down Meroo Lake Road. Dane just kept wanting to go further and further, and the gentle downhill incline made it nice and easy on the way down. The way back was a different story, and I ended up strapping his little yellow bike to my backpack and double dinking him back up the hill. A classic boys’ adventure on a flawless winter’s day…