A sad day for the blog . . . Vaya con Dios

It's with much sadness that this blog has to announce that the intense bush fires that raged around Sydney in the last 24hrs claimed the family retreat in Mt Irvine 3hrs from ibcyclist HQ. Luckily for all concerned no one was hurt. Mrs Ibcyclist, her mother and step father all got away late yesterday after trying their best to clear additional firebreaks. Places are full of memories and when we lose them there is a tendency to think that memories are lost with them. No one with a heart should believe this, you can take the good times with you . . . I know I will.

The first map shows my last Strava track in the Mt Irvine Mt Wilson area. As readers will know I've done the ride to the Bells Line of Road many times since returning home from Switzerland. It's a serene ride, devoid for the most part of aggressive traffic and includes a sublime section of the smoothest tarmac this side of a Swiss motorway. Bike riding, being what it is, has always offered your blogger the chance to escape trivial things and clear my mind of troubles and unrealities that haunt all of us as we progress through life. Many of my better thoughts have been created on these rides and therefore it will be a sad day to have to visit what remains of the Ibcyclist country HQ.

The below map shows the fire boundary. The area's mostly national park, though spurs of habitation are everywhere in the area.

Sadly here's where the HQ was hit. The fire leaped the boundary road between the national park and the house of many memories. It was a near thing of course. If the wind had changed direction an hour or two earlier the beautiful gardens and home would have been saved. Australia though is a harsh continent and luck is not always with the good or worthy.

A fine line 

The house . . . a fine line between standing or burning

So where to from here. It's really not for me to say, only I hope to ride the roads in the area again soon. The main thing as always is people are safe. Therefore rather than thinking about bonds, equities, FX and their various derivatives I'll sign off today with some of my own memories:

Vaya con Dios.