We've been following the news of our beloved Australia. Some of you have asked whether the area we were in has been affected by the bushfires, so I thought our blog might be a good way to answer that question.
As a reminder, we were in Adelaide, in South Australia.
I was going to include a map of AUS showing all the burning areas, but apparently there have been several fake and misleading maps circulating on social media (click here for an article on this). So I will refrain from spreading inaccurate information.
If you click here, it will show you Adelaide and where the current fires are burning (I believe the map is updated frequently). Looking at the map, our apartment was in the city center, right around the "A" in Adelaide. The fires are in the hills, which one of my Aussie friends said is about a 30 minute drive from our apartment (in a car. . . we only took public transit so it would have taken us a lot longer to get to that area).
One of our favorite places in Australia is Kangaroo Island. This island is about 1 1/2 hours from Adelaide, and we spent a weekend there on a bus tour of the island. KI is home to 1 million kangaroos and wallabies, 750,000 sheep, and a variety of species that are only found on the island. We saw kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, an echidna, Australian sea lions, New Zealand fur seals, and a host of exotic birds on KI. Kangaroo Island closely monitors what comes on and off the island, so they are able to have a lot of control over their animal populations and their health. For instance, the koalas on KI are the only koala population in the country not infected with chlamydia (who knew koalas could get STDs. . . but that's clearly another conversation :)
Unfortunately, the bushfires have been devastating for Kangaroo Island. At least 1/3 of the island, mostly the lush west side, which is mostly national forest, has burned. Here is a picture of Remarkable Rocks, which I took, when we were there in Sept 2018:
Here's the same place now, from a slightly wider angle:
Click here for more pics of Kangaroo Island (some are quite graphic of burned animals, FYI).
And if you've seen this video of a fire tornado, this is also Kangaroo Island.
Anyway. . . if you feel led to donate to the recovery in Australia, below are some charities suggested by one of our Aussie friends. The Australian people would be most grateful :)
CFS Foundation: Supporting Volunteer Firefighters
Australian Red Cross:
Kangaroo Island Relief and Recovery:
Salvation Army:
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