A lot has transpired in the last 2 weeks since we returned.  We had a new leaf put on our car springs before we headed up to Hervey Bay  Queensland (7 1/2 hours drive )  to buy our Palomini Camper. We spent 2 nights there and left with our shiny new camper to drive back to Nymboida.  The night before we left SE  QLD. had torrential rains, but we managed to miss it all - apart from seeing immense floods all the way home. Nymboida had also  had 200 mm of rain ( neary 8 inches) . We stopped at the  canoe centre 7 minutes from home  on our way through to find out if our creeks were flooded and of courese YES - they were, so we had to camp out at the canoe centre that night. We got through mid morning as the water level dropped.  After fires and flood, we wait with bated breath for the plagues of locusts to descend!
Since then we have had our blocked cleared (it should be finished this afternoon)  with a 21 tonne excavator clearing all the fire debris . It is good to have the ruin gone. There is also such a lot of germination and shooting of trees with new growth . It is truly mazing. Unlike the US forests , Australian forests have evolved with fire and many species of gum trees (eucalypts) reshoot after fire. Some plants even need fire to germinate.  
Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks.

 For those following our story,  we ended the year with Christmas with my family in Adelaide. We also caught up with numerous friends  during our stay. Christmas was particularly good , not only because we were cocooned in love for the whole time, but we had both my niece Jade  and her partner Mitsu as well as my nephew Locky and his partner Winnie together with us, which was a first for Christmas. 

 We finally arrived back home on Sunday Jan 12th . We have set up our initial camp (pics below) . . .
We took a long walk to the top of the ridge where our house is located. Before the fire we had never been able to get through the thick lantana and bush to see what was there, but with the clean sweep of the fire all of our land, and that of our neighbours is visible.
​Four days later we are on our way to Queensland to pick up our new camper.