Touching down in Wildfire country

I'd rather fight 100 structure fires than a wildfire. With a structure fire you know where your flames are, but in the woods it can move anywhere; it can come right up behind you. Tom Watson

The Morgan Fire, on Mt Diablo, just after it began. Sunday September 8 2013

Coming from a small maritime country, New Zealand, to the US state of California is always marked by such contrasts. This visit is no exception, with the added drama of wildfires, which is something quite foreign to most people from that other "Land Downunder". We are Aotearoa/The Land of the Long White Cloud for a very good reason - it rains, quite a lot, in fact! To see one of the latest wildfires in California erupt barely 20 miles to our left, as we were driving directly towards the massive Rim Fire that is still raging in and around one of nature's gems, Yosemite National Park, was quite surreal. We may have been concerned about the drought conditions of last summer throughout much of New Zealand, but it doesn't compare in any way to the conditions here in the Golden State. It is bone dry, and add even light winds to this cauldron, where drought conditions have existed for several years already, and you can feel nature ready to explode.

The dry landscape is ripe to erupt into flame 

While driving, it was noticeable how the smoke has affected the landscape, so much so that there is no apparent defining line between earth and sky. Nearly 100 miles distant, something which at another time or place you might think is just a cloud or a snow-covered mountain, is actually the enormous smoke plume rising from the Rim Fire, which has now consumed almost 400 square miles (by comparison, the Chatham Islands cover 373 square miles). It has been 80% contained for almost a week now, because despite the fact firefighters are controlling more of the blaze, it still keeps devouring more of the landscape. It seems this inferno was begun by a hunter setting an illegal campfire - highlighting how seriously we must take our role as caretakers of our precious Mother Earth and all other creatures we share this space with.

Looking more like a cloud, smoke rises from the Rim Fire. Also visible is the thick layer of ash and smoke that settles and remains over the area