Quagi Beach has featured in several of the most recent blogs but unfortunately we needed to evacuate from this camp due to a looming bushfire. Bushfires always make me anxious: whether it is in my own backyard as when I lived on the farm in Meadows, when there is smoke on the skyline and a scent in the air or even just when you know others are in the firing line either trying to save their property or fighting the fire. The first photo shows the smoke and clouds as seen from Quagi Beach when we were packing up to leave. Tiny ash smuts were present in the air and the usually raucous little wattlebirds gradually quietened down. Paddling off the Esperence foreshore the next morning—fifty kilometres from the fire front—was an eerily atmospheric experience: the water was flat calm like a storm was on the way and the town was overshadowed by a dark smoky cloud. Two mornings later the remnants of the smoke haze were still sufficient to create an orange sunrise across the Bay of Isles. At the time of writing this blog, 5 000 hectares had been burnt—tragic for whatever was in its path, of course, but small compared to other recent fires—and it looks like the birds and showy banksias of Quagi Beach camp have been spared … this time round.