Paying it forward

The skies were dramatic during the recent bushfire further north last weekend

Bush fires last weekend caused these dramtic, smoke-filled skies last weekend.

One minute we were having a coffee with beautiful blue skies (yes you can just see the tiny remnant of blue in the image), and the next we looked up to see this smoke storm bearing down on us in New Norfolk.

The fire was quite a long way from us, so we were in no danger, but the wind was pushing all the smoke down the valley, although while New Norfolk was choked, thankfully Truffle Lodge was just off to one side of the pestilence.

The smoke was so bad further up our valley, and concentrated into the valleys, that whole communities were being evacuated for health reasons. The little townships of Maydena and Mt Field Natiinal Park, tourism adventure hubs that were full of guests, were two of the worst hit.

As luck would have it, Truffle Lodge was empty.

We had had a hectic few weeks, and a large Exclusive Use group had only just checked out that morning. I had closed off Truffle Lodge for 2 days some months prior to give the staff the next two days off in recognition of the outstanding, over-and-above workloads over the previous 2 weeks.

We hadn’t even stripped the beds, just emptied any rubbish out of the tents, turned off lights etc, and closed the doors and gone for a staff lunch to celebrate surviving another ‘silly season’.

So as luck would have it, the entire staff were all together having lunch when the smoke plumes engulfed us.

When we heard what was happening, I contacted relvant authorities and said that we would make Truffle Lodge available to anyone who needed a bed. As soon as we finished lunch, without me even asking, some of our wonderful staff immediately headed back to Truffle Lodge to start stripping and cleaning the rooms.

It was nice to be able to help out and pay it forward.