Tasmania fires up the highlands of Tasmania
Thank you to everyone who has contacted to check that we and Truffle Lodge are ok.
All good, we are an hour and a half from the fire fronts. There was smoke in our valley yesterday, but last nigt the wind direction changed and blew the smoke elsewhere.
Guests visiting Tasmania in the summer are often surprised that it is so ‘brown’. They expect Tassie to be cool and green all the time – we chuckle when guests ask for a pit fire!
We explain that fire is a major concern in Tassie during summer because the lush growth in the spring then dries with the summer heat, creating an abundance of fuel for bushfires.
Tassie can be quite hot in summer, albeit only for short periods. The summers are usually very mild and pleasant with the mercury hovering around the low to mid 20s.
But it can change quickly, and temperatures plummet if a cool front comes up from Antartica. On Christmas Day 2005, we awoke to snow covered hills all around us. It didn’t last long, melting as soon as the sun rose.
And yesterday, it peaked at 41.7 Celcius at Hobart Airport, but today it is lovely and cool again.
We always advise guests to bring lots of light layers in summer, so that they can add and discard layers, as we can have three seasons in a day – how’s that for ‘value for money’!