Continuing the theme from last week's #TravelTuesday post, this week's photo essay is a series of photographs taken in and on the approach into Tenterfield. Tenterfield was the next town along the New England Highway after we witnessed the bushfire from Bolivia Hill.
In some ways, these photographs seem far less devastating to look at than last week's photo essay.
However, seeing the blistered paint and fire damage on the mileage sign on the outskirts of town made me catch my breath, and I actually teared up a bit.
Even though I'm not connected to Tenterfield in any way, seeing how close the fire had come to the town was overwhelming.
There was still a part of me that quietly chuckled about the content of the billboards that remained in the drought-riddled and scorched earth. But my amusement was tempered by the stark reality of what I was seeing.
At the time, I was aware of having heard the town had no clean water, but I had thought this was due to the bushfires. I didn't realise until just now, on Googling that fact to confirm it, that Tenterfield residents had been without clean drinking water for a month before I drove through. And they were still boiling their water in mid-December 2019, with no sense of when that would end.
Though the fire seemed only to have licked the edges of town when we drove through, it was a sight that had a profound impact on me.
I can only imagine what the residents of Tenterfield were feeling around the time I passed through.