Week Nine (9)

22nd February to coming home

Don’t those bloody kookaburras know its Sunday? We are again awoken by a cacophony of birdsong as well as the Australian family, who because they cannot lay in, have to entertain their children outside bright, early and loud. As Sunday lay ins are not part of the Aussie way of life, we are soon snorkelling in the bay after adding more sunflower seeds and spreading them over a larger area.

The water is slightly cloudy with the sand being stirred up by the outgoing tide but there is no mistaking something the size of your average dining room table swimming beneath you. Two underwater pictures of a stingray and its gone, but what a memory. We play in the shallows around the headland totally confusing the Aussies, all of whom are amazed we are not hunting the lobster and abalone for the regulatory BBQ,

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner but are taking pictures of them. Having no wetsuits and it being the Tasman Sea ¾ hr is about all we can take so make it back to camp to find the sunflower seeds have still not been eaten. The afternoon is spent beachcombing and paddling with and photographing, from above this time, the rays who are awaiting the returning fisherman’s cast-offs. Eek, this time next week we will be at the airport awaiting our flight home, the rest of the evening is spent planning the itinerary for our last few days. What’s that? Can it be? We peep out the windows but the bloody sunflower seeds are still there……

Good morning, how would you like some seeds with your cereals? We look out the window and the seeds have gone, quick put some more out. Outside in bare feet spreading sunflowers seeds with gay abandonment, when yuck, its not birds that have eaten them, it’s kangaroos and guess what they left behind to be trodden in….

We arrive in Jervis bay, after showering and are blinded by the whiteness of the sands and the clarity of the sea, so what do we do, yep, we set off on a forest walk, where we see our first wild Echidna, scurrying around in the undergrowth.

Wow! what is that? Six Glossy Black Cockatoos flying around in the tree tops making so much noise we have to shout at each other, No we didn’t get married…. Camera out, lens changed and neck pain commenced, looking directly above us for long periods at our age is not a good idea. The local campsites suck so we arrive in Shoalhaven Heads to see two Glossy Black Cockatoos fly over us, out comes the sunflower seeds and we start the waiting game all over again…

Not a cloud in the sky so we set off for Seven Mile Beach, its windy and beginning to cloud over so a quick change of plan and we are on the road to Kangaroo Valley via Kiama, its all up hill at first with some hairpin bends that are so tight my rear end slips on the ruts, the van’s end that is…. Once over the escarpment which is holding the cloud back, the sun is out and this place looks like North Wales and the Lake District, only with more trees. As you would expect in a place called Kangaroo Valley we see plenty of Valleys but not one kangaroo, it’s green, greener and greener than green.

We see Fitzroy falls and Carrington falls, neither fall being as impressive as the 

gorges beyond them.

                                              
We take a different route home which is even more scary than the route in, especially now we have to turn the fog lights on due to the cloud coming lower and visibility reduced to 30m causing one really scary moment which caused both rear ends this time to vibrate on the bend ruts and only got mentioned after it had passed ..….

The day starts off sunny and Kiama’s beaches look inviting but the cloud is moving in and before long its overcast again. We arrive in the Royal National Park and the sun is shining and hot, we stop in a deserted place to have a prepared in the van lunch.

We see a white car drive pass with the driver giving us a good look up and down. 10 minutes later we see the same car and driver do exactly the same, Julie feels uneasy about this, because of our remote location. Steve is full of bravado until he hears a noise he does not recognise, it’s enough to get him up on his feet and approach whatever it is behind the van. There it is, a car but it’s not white and it has flat front tyre which explains the strange noise. It pulls over directly behind the van and stops, Steve is slightly less anxious and is returning to Julie, explaining what the noise was. Both occupants are alighting from the car, the driver who is wearing track suit bottoms which are falling down and revealing his underpants must be 80+ years, so feeling safe, we both sit down and whilst having a cup of tea watch these Senior Citizens struggle to change the wheel. Okay, that’s not quite true, Steve changed into his super hero suit and changed the wheel for them, they were so grateful as neither wanted to admit it but the comments they made basically said how much they would have struggled to have done it themselves. None of us could explain why the tyre blew exactly where it did or when it did as the location was so remote, but it was nice to do a good turn for an ex Rhodesian Police Officer, who moved to Oz in 1965, bought his car 20 years ago, had never had a problem with it before and was thankful to Australia for being so good to both of them. Ahhhh, We continue through the park and thankfully Steve had kept his shirt tucked into his underpants as he manages to stop this 5.9m van within a meter or so as a Kamikaze baby Echidna crossed the road in front of him. The baby stopped, looked at us, sniffed the air with his long nose, looked directly at us posing for a photograph and then ran back to where he had come from. Problem was, Super Steve was driving and the passengers camera was in the back of the van, within minutes she was back with camera in hand, out of the van and taking pictures of a retreating Echidna…..

Thursday 26^th turns out to be disaster day, we get up and go look at the beach the other side of the sand dune, it sucks, it smells and is covered in seaweed. We decide to have a look at East Beach Kiama even though we have already booked into seaweed beach for three nights, as we move out we notice a nail in the front off side tyre, we leave it alone and note where we want the wheel to be when we return the vehicle.

We go to Minnamurra Rainforest and do the board walk to Minnamura falls, not an animal to be seen, but then we had a party of 50 girl guides in front of us on the way up and a really rude park ranger roaring about on a quad bike with a noisy trailer on the way down. We go to the café next to the Visitor Centre at 14.15hrs, it closed at 14.00hrs. Gasping for a drink we set off to Jamberoo when we pass a ‘stock crossing’ sign, two minutes later we are sat with hazard lights on waiting for what appeared to be an unattended heard of cows cross the road. We get to Jamberoo and find a patisserie/café run by one lady, she states she cannot do a cheese roll as she is out of rolls, so we ask to buy a roll for sale in the patisserie part plus some cheese in the café part and have them put together, this she reluctantly agrees to, although Steve got another one of those looks. Then she drops a knife on the way out, drops another later on, drops a tray a bit later and a plate after that, she admitted to us later, “ I’m having one of those days” this was after Steve had subtly reminded her of the cheesecakes they had ordered over half hour ago, to be accompanied by drinks as well…

We go to Bombo bay to take pictures of the strange rock formation but the light is so bad, the pictures all turn out rubbish. We think, now it’s bright, lets try Saddleback Mountain lookout, we may actually be able to see something for a change. We get there and can see in the haze, Kiama, Shellharbour, Bombo and Jamberoo but again because of the light the pictures turn out rubbish again.

On the road down we again nearly run over a Echidna, we stop as this one just buries his head so as not to see us and carries on looking for food. We get pictures of him when he looks up and Jungle Julie pulls a leech off of his back, this is cut short when we are disturbed by some scenic tourist who wants to use the road we are obstructing...…. We book into East Beach campsite, wasting the other booking but have a seaweed free bay to use tomorrow, which must be better as the weather forecast is Sunny and hot.

Sunrise is a bit of a disappointment but the cleanliness of the beach makes up for it as we are soon underwater chasing a large shoal of whiting around Kiama’s East Beach.

We are then off to Cathedral Rocks and find a superb beach for snorkelling behind the Bombo headland, as we approach it we find the people who have told us snakes are more afraid of us than we are of them, were telling the truth. We are looking into the trees, at the fairy wren when whoosh rustle rustle is the sound from underfoot, unlike anything else we have heard……. Back at camp late afternoon and we start the going home process, first step is to clean the inside of the van, second to dispose of the tinned food to a Canadian couple next to us, third turn off the fridge, fourth have a cup of tea, fifth, sixth, seventh mop up the water from the fridge……

The journey home starts with breakfast at Austinmer Beach which we share with all the weekend motor cycle enthusiasts, fitness fanatics and of course the posers. For some reason we don’t stand out from the crowd……We take our time driving through the last rainforest of the holiday with that really awful feeling in the pit of your stomach, you get when you are anticipating something nasty….. AU$2736 later, being the cost of putting VORTEX in a diesel engine the feeling has gone to be replaced with the expectant feeling of we might win the lottery tonight…. 

Having complained about our room, last time at this hotel, we get one with four windows and all of which have a view,

We can see the harbour which is buzzing with life from two of them and the Sydney Tower from the other two. But best of all it’s got a bath and 20 minutes later with my friend Shiraz, I have completely relaxed and forgotten all about the evil Vortex……. Out for dinner when one of us gets inspiration to get a ferry across the harbour, quick just in time for the half six ferry. Ten minutes later, “Sydney ferries would like to apologise for the delay” blah de blah…. Twenty five minutes late we set sail for Manley but hey now the sun is beginning to set so lets grab a picture or two.

Dinner is simple, nice and over the harbour, we return to Circular Quay and walk around the opera house without a tripod…. The atmosphere is magic, it may never be repeated, only one thing to do, sit and have a glass of wine in the shadow of the Opera House whilst watching hundreds of other people take pictures of Sydney Harbour Bridge without a tripod. We walk through Kings Cross and get invited into lots of establishments and I think to myself, ‘Blimey, I’m popular, and as it’s not that hot, I wonder why those girls are wearing next to nothing’ Back to hotel and delete most of pictures taken during evening due to camera/boat shake…. Shiraz is still here, we keep each other company planning tomorrows trip to the Aquarium, whilst reminiscing and thinking “What a bloody good holiday”

Week Eight (8)

15th February - 21st February 2009

We awake without the expected hangover after sharing the evening with some other British Tourists but it is pouring down, what a crazy summer. They have had the hottest temperatures ever and now the coolest ever summer temperatures recorded, Sydney has had rain for the past week whilst Victoria is still crying out for it and then there is 23% of Queensland that is flooded. We set off for Bermagui but it is too small for a two day wet weather stay so we continue north to Narooma calling in at Camel Rock and Mystery Bay just as the sun came out to make them look their best. We try to get to a Aborigine site, Mimosa Rocks, its on a dirt road, that is now wet and the further we go the steeper it gets. Suddenly on a bend the road turns into two large ruts and just drops away. We stop and attempt a 23 point turn, several skids, wheel spins, engine stalls and huge amounts of perspiration we get to face the opposite direction. The track we had slid down looks a lot more formidable now we have to go up it but by leaning forward, using a lot of 1stand 2nd gears, losing even more perspiration we manage to reach a sealed road. That’s the last dirt road we take in the wet especially as now the drivers seat is wetter than the outside of the van…….It poured with rain during the night and sounded similar to 12 Salvation Army personnel collecting charity funds and all shaking their tin cans at the same time. We spend the morning watching the waves crashing onto the rocks, out comes the sun, so we are off. First stop en-route to Tilba Tilba, turning around to get off 22kms of dirt road, Second stop Tilba Tilba, we ask ourselves, Why did we come here? Its an aged hippie town where after passing the multi coloured cheese cloth clothes, the alpaca shop and original wood turning shop, where photographs were banned, we find the only shop of interest to us, the coffee shoppe…… We go to the boardwalk and get asked to help a guy to look for octopus or squid, we fail to find any, so did he, a good result as far as we are concerned. Before we can go and get some takeaway calamari, some guy is tapping me on the shoulder (they really are that friendly) and points out some fur seals. We then spend the next 2 hours trying to get as close as possible to them for a decent photo, we succeed in getting to within 6 ft of them when they climb out of the water and sunbathe on the rocks. Eventually we decide to leave them and go for an early dinner so we can spend the evening deleting some of the 257 photos we had taken. We go to the Golf club and order our meals, the lady, who is less than 5ft tall, takes our order, our money and gives us an empty plate and a buzzer. She explains when the buzzer goes off, our meals will be ready, then to bring our proof of purchase, the plate and we will be served. Because we are early, we get a brilliant seat looking out to sea but are more fascinated at watching people walking about looking for tables, carrying their empty plates….. Our buzzer goes off and we then watch our order taker climb up a small step ladder to retrieve our meals from the serving hatch, she see’s us smiling and smiles back, we wonder if she knows why…. We set off for Batemans Bay via Bingie Bingie point, another aborigine dreaming site and Congo a small 5 house village on the coast that you get to via another non sign posted dirt track road, fortunately we were in front of another vehicle, I say fortunately because the dust cloud we created was like a scene from a John Wayne movie…… We are now experienced enough and cheeky enough to ask the campsite for discount and the best site, we don’t get any discount but we do get the best site possible. Right on the beach with an unrestricted view of the sea, headland and Bay Island, that’s us sorted for the next three days….. It’s rained most of the night and has continued most of the morning, we are driving, around Murrramarang National Park, listening to the news about flooding in areas we have already been to, when we suddenly do an emergency stop at the bequest of the passenger who has just seen an Australian King Parrot. The driver gets out in the rain to capture the moment whilst the passenger ensures the security of the van is maintained. We see so many kangaroos roaming in the park, peoples gardens, children’s play areas and running alongside us that we start to become complacent about them, that said I’m not allowed to speed once we have passed a kangaroo sign. Up bright and early as the sun is streaming through the windows, we set off for a beach to snorkel that is not covered in sea weed. After several false alarms we find what we call S&J cove as it’s small and all ours, but first lets have a coffee at the Organic Coffee House we saw just down the road. Right, now imagine the house from Psycho with brand new black parasols with white ‘Organic Coffee Co’ writing on them outside and the scene is set. In we go and there are three ladies who appear to be possibly related, all appear to have their set responsibilities and all three have either had a blazing row or are just plain grumpy. One of them (Boss) sees us waiting and says, we will be with you in a minute, she then gives her sister (Waitress) one of those looks and asks what is she doing. Sister mumbles and grudgingly comes over to take our order, everything Julie asks for, she just says “No, we don’t do that” this is even though they have all the items, like a jacket potato and cheese, but even though they are listed on the menu separately you cannot have them as they are not listed together, therefore you have what’s listed or nothing at all. We place our order and are given an electronic buzzer. We settle down with a smile outside and wait. The buzzer goes off and sister no 3 (chef) opens a small window with one arm and delivers our order with the other one on to a small ledge held up with two wonky brackets and lets the window slam shut. We have to retrieve our drinks and food before the next order is delivered on top of them and we cause more staff consternation….. Service with a smile = Nil, Customer relations = Nil, Quality of Service = Nil, Entertainment value =10, Returning customers = No chance. We go snorkelling but the sand is so soft it is whipped up by the waves and we can see nothing, so we resort to what all holiday makers do, sunbathe….. Out for an early dinner, again best table in restaurant overlooking harbour, bay and Pelicans flying in to perch on top of the lampposts. On the way home we can now see obvious signs on the floor, why Australians do not stand under lampposts….. Up even earlier to take sunrise photos, there is a mist hanging over the harbour entrance giving it a mysterious look but out to sea is really clear, the sky starts to lighten and redden, the mist starts to move out to sea, the clouds are now red and the sky is turning crimson, the mist is now out at sea. The sun starts to rise, the mist is now a sea fog and I cannot see a bloody thing……. We arrive at our next camp site slightly earlier than normal for some reason….. The receptionist, who is a Hyacinth Bucket look a like, books us in. She is also a Justice of the Peace, a fact of which she is obviously proud of as she has a card behind her seat that has been printed on a home computer stating the fact. The rehabilitated offender jokes about her part time occupation and after another one of those looks and the put you down reply realises, she not only is a complete clone of H Bucket but owns the campsite and all the land around it…… Still she lets us choose our site and wow it’s even better than the last one, this time we are just feet away from the beach, so much so the passenger is nervous the driver will end up on it. Kangaroos are free to run around the site and its not long before we have them around the van. Perfect, you may think, the golden sands just feet away, the sounds of the waves breaking a few feet further and kangaroos at the front door. Just one problem, with Kangaroos goes Kangaroo poo, it’s all over the place and within a few walkabouts from the van to where ever, there is Kangaroo poo all over the van floor, best Mr Big Feet stays out of the way…… Off we go exploring the area along the cliffs watching waves cash against the rocks and spraying 50ft into the air, looking in rock pools and roo and bird spotting in the forest, exhausted we call into a local café for lunch. We start to talk to the proprietor about Café Pyscho when she tells us about someone asking her for a salad roll, which she refuses as they don’t do it, so the customer asks her for a hamburger without the meat, at least this café owner laughed at herself. The salad in the hamburger out here is enormous, it even includes beetroot, we know as Mr Big Mouth tried to eat one and ended up with it falling apart, spilling all over the place, whilst leaving a small trace on his nose…. Then it happened a bushman comes in and asks for a paddle handle, a what, we ask ourselves. As we sit with bated breath picking salad up and searching for tissues. We watch out of the corner of our eye as this fierce, tough looking, don’t mess with me man comes out eating a magnum type lolly……. Back at camp and our last trip to the amenities of the day in the dark and we get mugged by possums and kangaroos who are all over the place. As we are cleaning our shoes, one of us is thinking, tomorrow night we stay in a not so eco friendly establishment……… We’re off to Ulladulla as we have heard it has a big shopping precinct, we get there and try and buy some stinger suits from a dive shop, “We don’t do them here the waters too cold” We find the precinct and it lives up to the third and fourth syllables of the towns name…. We arrive at our forest (kangaroo poo free) camp site at Bendalong and madam is ever so slightly excited by it being over run with crimson rosellas. We put out sunflower seeds to attract them to us but get fed up waiting, so we go off on a forest walk with the ‘Be careful, there are leeches in the long grass‘ advice from the camp owner. Its wet, muddy and slippery, one of us climbs down an embankment and one of us turns the muddy embankment footpath into a super smooth 6 lane highway. The photo of the aftermath of this incident have had a order placed, banning them from publication….. We later find ourselves talking to some locals telling us where we can see sting rays and snorkel with hundreds of different fish, we thank them for creating tomorrows itinerary before they advise their children to take the steps and not the track for some reason…. They then also add ‘mind you don’t bump into the kangaroos that come into camp at night‘ and relate a story about last night and a 6ft kangaroo outside the amenities……..Do you fancy a tickle on the beach, is the proposition asked as dusk descends and before you know it we both start to undress, enter the water and start to splash about. Within two minutes three stingrays are approaching our fingers, that are imitating distressed fish and swimming about our ankles. They swim over our feet, brushing up against our legs allowing our fingers to tickle their wings, one is at least four feet across and impresses our female tourist. After discussing the stingrays prior to sleep, Steve is smiling, not sure what to say in reply to “I’ve never seen one that big before”………

Week Seven (7)

8th February - 14th February 2009

We’re in the Snowy Mountains and on the road looking for a campsite next to water, the news regarding the forest fires not only has us on edge as we don’t know exactly how close they are, but the locals are all tuned into the news broadcasts as well. We check into a site on the banks of Lake Jindabyne which reminds us of Lake Vinuela in Spain, its half the size of Sydney harbour, is at least 50 ft below its normal depth, has a dramatic mountain backdrop, lots of trout fishermen and the submerged/flooded old town of Jindabyne.

The water temperature is 24.7 degrees and tomorrow we will be checking this fact out. Today we are off on the Alpine Way drive to Khatouni, it’s only 109kms away but takes us 3 hours to get there, for some reason….. En route we are amazed in the way the scenery changes so dramatically over such a short distance. One minute it is drought barren fields with giant round boulders, the next moment it is dry dead grey gum trees by the thousands before bright green snow gum trees on mountain sides with green grass pistes running through them and cable cars disappearing over the top of the peaks.

Seeing the miles of dead trees, you can see how bush fires take hold so easily, even though the fires are miles away from us, we want to get through this bit quickly….. Three years ago this area was devastated by a bush fire which you can see on some of the trees we pass, you can also amazingly see the new green shoots allowing them to regenerate.

What makes us smile is, it is 35 degrees and yet the towns we come across have ski sales on, whilst the twisting mountain road has 2m snow depth markers along the sides of them. We arrive in Khancoban feeling peckish and see a sign indicating the Town Centre, we follow it and stop looking in amazement at what is called the Centre of Town. It is a block of buildings 50m wide by about 30m deep, see photo. It is completely closed as is the Police Station, Visitor Info Centre, Swimming Pool, Community Centre and Church, there is no one around.

We have to return the same way we arrived but avoid the town centre and see a building with metal tables and chairs outside with two cars in the parking lot. Lets try there, we walk in and immediately want to walk out but the 5 people inside are all now looking at us, it’s the local pub/casino/betting office/café/laundry. There are different sections within this establishment depending on what particular function you wish to participate in. We order 2 cokes and ask if anything is available to eat, the barmaid is really friendly and asks the owner, on our side of the bar, if he can cook something for us. He agrees as long as we can wait 10 mins for the kitchen to warm up. Steve pretends he is not really hungry whilst Julie opts for the safest thing on the menu, fish and chips. It costs the equivalent to £3, so we sit in the betting office part, surrounded by betting slips, TV screens and instructions on how to place the various bets when this monster meal arrives, okay, some of the salad looked like Fridays and the rice could easily have been left over from last nights takeaway but the fish and two plates of chips (because the owner thought we needed the extra one) were fresh, hot and really nice. We start to eat it when the barmaid asks if we want another drink, we reply No, she says okay I just want to pop out and have a ciggy. We are now in the place on our own as everyone else has rushed out to tell their next of kin, there are strangers in town …… and they are spending….. We start the return journey and soon realise the signs warning road users to be aware of falling branch’s are there for a reason, we have just travelled this road and now on the way back are surprised at just how many new branch’s are on the road.

We way up the pros and cons of the situation, Falling branch’s plus dead trees that can catch fire against the fact that police patrol cars radar cannot work around corners, Lets get out of here………

Wow, the weather change promised has arrived and we can tell we are in the mountains, the temperature has dropped 22 degrees. We cancel checking out the lake water temperature but because it is so warm and the air so cold, the lake looks like it is steaming.

Today we relax around Town and go window shopping, now bearing in mind 75% of the shops are connected to the ski/snowboarding trade and all of them have sales on, Steve has a cunning plan. He buys the cheapest ski hat and snow goggles he can find, Julie is concerned at his out of character behaviour but it is Steve after all…. He puts his newly purchased items on and says, “Right, now I’m ready to go to the Post Office” Julie realises he is trying to disguise the fact, he is a criminal. Nobody appears to notice Steve, although he does think he should not be wearing his swimming shorts and a T shirt. He waits until the office is empty before quietly asking the disparaging looking counter clerk, who is just about to activate the silent alarm, to accept his dues…… having paid his debt to society we return to the streets, heads held high and go for a coffee. Steve still feels as if everyone is looking at him, can these people really tell a rehabilitated offender is in their midst, he is starting to fret until Julie says, “ You can take the disguise off now”……

Brrrrr, it’s cold, 10 degrees, time to get out of the mountains and down to the coast. We arrive in Eden after driving over dirt roads and through the South East Forest. Eden is a big spot on the atlas but in reality it’s another one street town that only comes alive during the winter when whales visit the bay. We walk along the beach to the rock pools when one of us, the smaller one is so engrossed with the puffer fish swimming around, she fails to notice the big wave approaching. This wave had not escaped the notice of Mr Astute, who stood awaiting the moment he could then capture with his camera…….

We go to the recommended local club for Dinner, it’s busy but we get a seat next to the window over looking the bay and watch the sun set over the distant mountains. The clubs main interest appears to be Bingo, Raffles, Pokies, Betting on the Horses and lucky membership numbers whilst the restaurant is like a large company’s staff canteen. Sophistication, no matter in what form, is clearly confined to the City. We get back to camp and no one is around or it appears even up as all the tents, camper vans are in darkness, we creep around as “No noise will be tolerated after 22.00hrs” and then realise it’s not that late…

We set off to Merimbula, the biggest town on the Sapphire Coast, we go pass a sign, which Steve remembers reading something about, “You can’t do that, there’re solid white lines” is ringing in Steve’s ears as he pulls into Ben Boyd National Park. It’s a dirt road so we are driving slowly when sunbathing on the road directly in front of us is a Red Bellied Snake, we stop to take pictures.

As we do so a 4wd vehicle roars pass us doing about 50mph followed by a BMW doing the same, the snake having been saved from being run over, slithers back off into the bush. (Snake saving man, strikes again). We then park up and for some reason, change into boots, to go see ‘The Pinnacles’ a piece of headland that shows red clay on top of the areas white sandy subsoil. Having survived this 1km trek into the bush we go to Merimbula and play on three different beaches, they all have different coloured red rocks and when the sun shines the contrast with the sand, sea and sky is stunning.

Someone is also very excited at seeing a Superb Fairy Wren, so much so, she appears not to worry how close the photographer gets to the edge of the cliff to get a picture of it. We have a Coffee at the Wharf before going shopping for an inflatable body board. We also try and book dinner for 20.30hrs, but cannot as they close at 21.00hrs. We ask if there’s anywhere else but it appears not, Australians tend to do everything early, get up, eat and go to bed. So dinner out is either at 19.00hrs or you do it yourself. We get back to the camp site, it clouds over and starts to rain, we can’t play with the new toy and want to moan but this country really needs the rain, so we have a night in and watch a typical Australian reality TV programme called ‘The Farmer wants a Wife’…….. Sitting and discussing this and the holiday so far, we both come to the same conclusion, Australia is a lovely place to visit but the culture and life style when compared to the Spanish way of life, does not come even close, we won’t be moving……

Day 44 in Australia finds us waking after heavy rains and yet the radio is warning us of a bush fire 17kms away, Steve has to apologise after dismissing eagle eyed Julies observation of “Is that smoke over there?” The radio also states there will be no sun shine today, so one of us suggests having a chillin day but at the same time is wondering how to get him to sit still for longer than a cup of tea. Brainwave- Give him some wine at lunch time- We set off on a scenic drive and see kangaroos chillin on some grass leading to the headland, the dirt road to the very end is just too rough so we return to town and the RSL club where they have free Wifi. Lunch and several glasses of wine later and we spend the rest of the day chillin, who’s in control?

Suddenly someone blurts “Hey, the Suns out, lets go play in the a rock pools“ ten minutes later we are feeding a 18in octopus small molluscs in a rock pool, tentacles everywhere, next stop, chilling with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon……
The following morning finds us walking along the boardwalk along the shore and around the lake, Thwack, Thwack as a fisherman who has just caught an Octopus, is subduing it with the aid of the concrete floor, it’s too far away to be our hand fed eight legged friend but it could have been a relative.…

We see a ray swimming beneath us before we drive into Tathra and go to the cleanest beach in NSW. The first sign we see says “Shark Fishing is prohibited” Gulp, this place is ideal for snorkelling but after the last two days where sharks have attacked two people in Sydney, Steve thinks, snorkelling is a NO, NO, The second sign informs us that no shark attack has ever been recorded in Tathra Bay, so now it’s a Maybe! The fisherman on the famous & historic wharf, who are likely to put John West out of business, with the amount of Salmon they are catching, state “No Worries” to Steve’s questions about Sharks, so it’s now a likely probability, but tomorrow depending on the weather. A pod of dolphins are also fishing for the salmon and whilst both the tourists are excited the fisherman are less so. Tathra is another big map blob but has nothing other than 3 x campsites, a bowling club, a fish and chip shop which closes at 19.30hrs and two bottle shops. We go to the Bowling Club for dinner which we regret as soon as the food arrives and then upset a couple we are talking with as he misses some of the numbers drawn in the meat raffle, meanwhile his wife is eating what he left on his plate and talking to us at the same time, not a pretty sight. Back to the van, we settle down with a glass of vino when someone starts to play an accordion…… try and turn that into a positive night……

 We are off first thing to Bega for groceries as Tathra is so small there is no store. Bega is having a festival today and even though there is a total fire ban, bush fires raging down the road, they are going to finish tonight off with a firework display, where is the logic in that? We get back and set off on a wildlife walk through the forest behind the campsite, within ten minutes we find a beautiful golden olive / grey snake about 4ft long basking in the sun on a fallen tree, with one flick of his tongue he can sense our presence and disappears into the undergrowth, we spend the next 1½ hours gingerly tip toeing through the forest and see nothing.

We spend the afternoon climbing the rocks around the headland thinking shall we go snorkelling, it’s still overcast so the decision is NO. Meanwhile back at camp, accordion man asks if he kept us up last night, a dozen thoughts rush through our heads as what to reply, but the mouth said something completely different…….