What a day!

We have watched the news regularly for the last few weeks, watching the horrendous devastation in the Eastern States caused by bush fires, property lost, wildlife injured, domestic pets missing, fortunately no lives lost but the fires go on, Sydney has never seen so much smoke clouding their city, blocking out the Sydney Harbour bridge making it unbearable  to open a door or a window.
Today we felt it first hand and had a small sample of what it must actually be like for the people living over East.
We have had a bush fire North of where we live, it started in Yanchep National park last night,  Yanchep is  just up the road we go there often, our son and his family live in Yanchep, last night they were advised to evacuate their property, but like most of the residents there decided to stay but had a very sleepless night with sirens and choppers and fire trucks zooming around, fortunately the fire was brought under control in the early hours, normal services were resumed, Ruby & Deklan were taken to school in Two Rocks and Mark & Nadine went on to their jobs.
By midday today we could see the smoke start up again from our front garden, shortly after Nadine phoned to see if we could drive to their place and collect their pets she was worried the smoke might be effecting them, we wasted no time and decided to go there and then, by the time we got to Yanchep, a 10 minute drive, the smoke was black and looked very menacing the wind had picked up too,  the fire had shifted from Yanchep and was hurtling along towards two rocks, water bombers were overhead, choppers were scooping up water from the ocean to drop on the fire, we made the decision to leave the pets, we could get them later, they were safe and the drama was unfolding further towards Two Rocks, long story short, we got to the children's school, there were other parents/relatives collecting children well before the end of school, they too were afraid the   roads would be blocked off and they couldn't get to them, that was our worry, so we were glad after the necessary slips were filled out for us to collect Ruby & Deklan from their classroom that we had them both with us, both were happy to see us, even happier to be leaving school early.
We headed off back to Yanchep for the pets.
Then we reached the road block! we couldn't get back to pick up the pets, and we couldn't get back to our own place, there are two roads we could use, both were blocked by police, everyone was being diverted.
The only route we could use was the GinGin road and then the Brand Highway, a long way home, after 3 hours we finally arrived home.
Our two young ones had fallen asleep during the drive home, it was good they slept it stopped them thinking and fretting, Deklan was reassured their pets and home was perfectly safe, Ruby on the other hand took a bit more convincing, we stopped for ice creams on the long drive home, i took this shorty after they had consumed them, all was well in their little world.
Mark & Nadine left work early and were waiting for us when we got back to our place, they are all now safely back home after they unblocked the roads in Yanchep, Two Rocks primary school is closed tomorrow, as are other schools in the area, still a bit chaotic for the residents of Two Rocks, but the 150 fire crew will soon have things under control. 
Sadly i don't have any extras left, there was a lovely sunset tonight with all the smoke still swirling around, also pics of the thick black smoke, that disrupted so many today..