Tuesday 31st December - Nowra
Well after a mild night of 19.6 it reached a scorching top of 44.2. They predicted a scorcher and they weren't wrong. I think it's the hottest day of my life. At about 12.30 the air con gave a noisy shudder and the compressor turned off. Boy did it heat up in here quickly. Clive got out the big fan and turned off the air con as it was only blowing hot air around. About 15 minutes later he turned it back on and it is working again. Mind you, we are asking a lot of it today in this heat. Maybe the shutting off was a safety thing. There are now fires in Batemans Bay, which is where we are heading next. Outside the sky is just smoke. A very dry hot heat. The cool change coming from the south is blowing all the smoke north, our way. Lots of sirens going off this morning. When Clive went shopping he saw a few fire engines heading south. On the news he heard that some were coming from Sydney, so the fires south of us must be getting worse. It's meant to drop to about 25, so a drop of 20 degrees. Around 4pm a freezing change came through and at night, I am now wearing a cardigan and have a blanket over me. I think I need some slippers. Now the main highway south of Nowra has been closed, so we aren't going anywhere for sometime.