Fire King! (8-10 September)

Fire King fun!

It had been a while since our last fire sculpture, so we planned another attempt as a finale on our last night.  Nick found a suitable log and transported it back to camp in three sections.

The afternoon was spent pleasantly, preparing our latest Fire King for firing.  Vaughan assisted by chiseling out the rotted middle of the log pieces and gathering some pine needle "hair" (for photographic impact).  At one stage our wooden monarch had a leaf tongue also.  He was lit in the early evening, when there was still plenty of natural light.  Initially he had wonderful flowing smoky hair but the flames established fairly quickly and he burnt very well for several hours (before partially collapsing over the cooking grate, which prompted detailed discussion of various fine-tuning needed for our next effort)!

When we returned home on Monday afternoon, we called into a service station for ice creams.  The attendant asked if we had been concerned about the bushfire which had closed the nearby freeway and we responded that we had been blissfully ignorant of any drama.  Back in the car, Vaughan ventured his opinion that there hadn't been a bushfire - just people confused by all our Fire King's smoke!

Fire sculpture!

Nick had found a very good fire sculpture log soon after arrival but had been saving it for later in our stay. We are very pleased to report a drama-free firing and all enjoyed sitting around watching - our neighbours joined us for part of the night also and we shared another of Nissa's thermal-cooked cakes.

Back to the Forest

Two "fire kings" - nose to nose!

We managed a second camping weekend in February, back to our usual spot in the Watagan Forest.  Nissa was able to join us and although it had rained heavily while Nick and Erin were setting up, the weather was fine for the remainder of our stay. I was collecting Nissa and Vaughan, shopping and gathering various items the advance party had forgotten; so we arrived later when all was pretty much done.  (No scheming involved)!

On Saturday, Nick came back from a firewood trip with a log partially hollowed by termites. He had already cut the log into sections and one looked as if it had a nose, so we commenced work on a fire sculpture. We had a lot of fun putting our "Fire King" together throughout the afternoon.

The decision to light our creation was made in the early evening but sadly Nick was over-tired from several night-shifts, wasn't thinking and poured petrol down the Fire King's middle as a lighting agent. I was watching, thinking (slowly) that isn't good – just as flame went everywhere! Much drama - all running and me yelling to "get down", cos it looked as if Nick's body/tummy was on fire.

It was quite scary and Erin was fairly traumatised, so the actual enjoyment of the lit Fire King was dampened initially.  Turns out he started brilliantly with just fire-lighters when all the excitement had calmed down - though he had lost his pubes in the initial firing! (The Fire King, I mean – not Nick)!

Nick’s injury made packing-up a lot more tricky and there were a few tense moments but we sorted through all that. Even with the hiccups, no-one was keen to come home though - and Nick was already plotting the next fire sculpture!