We’d planned a 3 day ‘plonk’ holiday on Kangaroo Island. You know, the kind of holiday where you book into some pleasant accommodation with great views and spend most of your time reading and gazing at the natural beauty of the spot.
After a tranquil ferry trip to Penneshaw and a 45-minute drive to Kingscote, we checked in to the newly renovated Sea View Motel situated on the foreshore. The accommodation had all we wanted. We unpacked our cases and the breakfast and snacks food provisions we had brought with us, including the essentials of red wine and cheese, and set about ‘plonking’.
As the afternoon drifted towards evening, we headed out to walk to the nearby Ozone Hotel for dinner. The motel’s restaurant, ‘The Odd Spot’ was closed that night.
As we left our room, a clearly panicked young man, came running up to us shouting, ‘Get out. Get everyone out. The kitchen’s on fire. Can you call the fire brigade?’ He began struggling to release a fire extinguisher from the cabinet on the wall near us.
It was then we noticed the thick black smoke billowing from the chimney of the main building. We did as he asked, calling the fire brigade, knocking on the doors of other rooms to alert other guests to the danger, and then quickly grabbing most of our possessions from our room and decamping to the car park. We were all quite calm as clearly we were in no immediate danger – our rooms were in a separate building
As night fell and the darkness enveloped us, we stood with the other guests and watched events as they unfolded. We had nowhere else to go. By the time the fire trucks arrived, and the firemen were on the ground, the roof of the motel was in flames and the black smoke filled the air.
It took several hours but the building was saved, and the fire ultimately did not reach our rooms. But there was to be no going back into these rooms. They reeked of the black smoke and the power was out anyway.
Finally, we walked to the Ozone Hotel for dinner and awaited a call from the motel manager about alternative accommodation. The call came about 8.30pm.
Settled in our new accommodation, it was time to plonk again and for a glass of that fine red wine we’d brought with us. But where was it? Back in our motel room, that’s where!!
Burnside Writers Group 