Week 3 Sun 4 Mar to Sat 10 Mar

Week 3 Sun 4 Mar – Sat 10 Mar

Ulladulla – 4 Mar 

We spent a lovely two days with our friends, enjoying their hospitality and catching up on everything over the last 5 years.  Their friendship is very special and we enjoy their company every time we catch up – it is just a shame we all live so far away from each other.  Sunday while the clouds tried to stop raining we went for a drive to Granite Falls and enjoyed a lovely forest walk in the mist and rain – while the whole journey I was freaking out with having leeches climb all over my shoes and into my socks.  Yuk – I hate leeches – big time!! 

I seemed to be only one that had so many that keep getting on me.  Hmm!!  Tony and I also agreed that we needed a spray jacket each – as we didn’t have much to keep the rain off – and the umbrella doesn’t always cut it.  Next purchase coming up.

After the walk we all got hungry – as our bacon and egg breakfast had well and truly worn off we stopped at the Rainbow Pie shop at Milton. I decided to have a Sausage roll and Tony had a Steak and Bacon Pie.  They were delicious followed by a hot and tasty coffee.  This habit of Pies seems to continue down the coastline, filling in the waistline!`

Off home and the weather holding, we all went down the paddock to pick Blueberries.  Well you guessed it – I had Kathryn’s, Wellington boots on, which of course are too big for me, and when I tried to get over the cow paddock fence, didn’t quite get the leg over, and down I went, straight on my bum. Lucky there was no cow pads to content with!! My skirt also didn’t help.  Pride restored we trudged off to the Blueberry orchard and picked a number of blueberries to take with us on our departure, after walking past the cutest calf I have ever seen!  John also is an Apiarist and gave us a huge tub of honey to take as well. So we were well loaded up with goodies, but before we left we also got a lovely fresh snapper which John has caught in his boat.  This was going to be for dinner at our next stop.     

Bournda National Park - 5 – 7 Mar

Monday morning the sun came out and clouds cleared to a lovely fresh morning.  We said our goodbyes to John as he went off to work and spent the morning with Kathryn having breakfast relaxing and having a coffee before heading off at 11.15am.   We got about 20 mins down the road, before realizing that we didn’t have Tony’s walking boots.  Luckily Kathryn was about to come into town as we left – so kindly brought them with her – another chance to say goodbye.

So by lunch time we were on the road heading for the next park, Bournda National Park, between Tathra and Merimbula on the coast.  As we left Ulladulla and headed south we passed through a number of pretty towns, one very arty and with the name to match, Mogo, once an gold mining town, now an artist’s retreat, with artifacts and antiques – and very popular by the amount of cars in the town.

We stopped at Narooma for lunch, a very pretty town.  Not a bad place to stay.  We continued on to Bermagui where we found the Tourist information centre extremely helpful and they had plenty of booklets and national parks info – so stocked up on bits and pieces for the next week.  This also looked like a great place to stop – this part of the coastline is very picturesque and is part of the Sapphire coast area.  I could think of worse places to be.  We get going onto Tathra until we finally got to Bournda National Park.   Not busy, but lovely, and as the signs state, a bit of bush camping, with a bit of luxury – as it has hot and cold showers and even a laundry (of course no washing machine) – but facility to hand wash.  Can’t be bad and the Bellbird songs you would not believe.  They were so deafening that it is light a constant shout – but as you settle in – it just becomes part of the background.  There are so many animals and wildlife here, including the swamp wallaby – a beautiful creature and the birdlife is great.  The park is on a lake one side and about ½ km the beach.  You can hear the rolling surf rolling across the park as the waves crash onto the beach.

We awoke to beautiful blue skies and a semi warm day and we took the opportunity to take a walk up the beach to where the lake meets the ocean.  A lovely place and one we could stop at for a while. 

After lunch we drove into Tathra to visit the old wharf and look around the town. Some great history with the floods in 1974, which wiped out the main highway as it was washed away and given back to the ocean.  Amazing and freaky all at the same time.  The historic wharf has been restored and is now a museum and restaurant – very nice and a great spot to watch the world pass by. 

Enjoyed, John’s lovely catch of fish tonight on the fire, cooked in lemon and garlic.  Absolutely delicious.  Thanks John and Kathryn. And obviously so did this little interloper!! 

Woke this morning to heavy rain and it had rained most of the night.  There were pools and floods of water rivulets everywhere.  It came in waves and bursts and lightened off for a bit.  So we decided to run for it and drive into Merimbula. Heavy rain and sheeting down, it was horrible weather and it got really cold and chilly. Brrrr!!  Winter is coming.  Walking past the shops, went into the camera shop and came out with a pair of binoculars as well as Tony buying a few bits that he needed.  Purchase number 1.  Next it was into the fishing shops to look at spray jackets.  Found one for Tony which was reasonable priced and then went across the road to the other fishing shop.  Found mine, bright pink – won’t miss me now.  As the weather was so bad and horrible, we just wore them on the spot.  Purchase number 2 and 3 achieved. 

On the way home, called into Turro to get the grocery shopping – very compact shopping centre right on the highway, all the essentials and a service station.  A cold and wet night, so good to curl up in bed with a good book.  We heard coming home that the roads between Bermagui and Tathra were cut.  Lucky we got here when we did!!

It rained all night, but did ease a little in between the heavy stuff – but as usual pack up was wet.  Everything is now very sodden and wet – so in plastic garbage bags everything goes until the next stop.  With the weather the way it was and places starting to flood we thought of only going to Eden – but as we left the rain abated slightly and so we decided to drive a little further. 

It was raining most of the way, and we had decided to stop at Cannes River.  Raining when we arrived we had lunch at the take away café – best spring roll and chiko roll and chips we had had for a while.  Went to the toilet in the pub and asked about the caravan park – the landlady advised that the river (which the park lies on) will flood tonight.  Hmm!! Maybe not such a good idea – so the decision was made onto Lakes Entrance it was.  All in all, not a bad drive, considering the weather conditions.  However, the range before Orbost did get a bit hairy, as there were rocks on the road and on one turn a whole fern tree and rock right in the middle of the road.  Interesting to negotiate when cars are passing each other.  We had just passed and around the next bend a semi trailer truck was going the other way – we flashed our lights to warn him and tried to communicate on the CB but no response.  A lot of rain has fallen and we viewed this around Orbost where the flats provided great views of the rising waters.  As we headed into Lakes Entrance the rain was obviously not as heavy as the rivulets of water eased running down the roads and verges. 

Lakes Entrance – 8 -10 Mar

We found a lovely little caravan park run by an owner /operator, the Sunshine Caravan Park not far from the esplanade.  Tight squeeze but we were in, a quaint, small park – very friendly and run by a Kiwi who used to live at Burpengary.  By now the rain had eased to a light drizzle and spots of clearing sky was appearing.  Hoorah to fine weather and what will tomorrow hold!

Well we woke to a lovely clear blue sky day and surprisingly warm.  The proprietor of the caravan park, Donna invited us for morning tea – scones with the other people in the park.  Since we had to wait for the washing to dry – decided to indulge and met a couple from Indooroopilly and an interesting couple with their teenage kids from Geelong. 

After morning tea, we drove up to the point to get the views of Lakes Entrance and to get the required snaps.  It is a very pretty town, then off home for lunch and a walk right along the esplanade.  There are so many boats and all different shapes and colours; very photogenic. Home for lunch and off for a very long walk up and down the esplanade. It took us about 2 and a half hours by the time we clicked and padded our way up and down this strip of pavement. The sun was shining and it was so warm.  What a pleasant chance from the previous few days. Even got to see a wedding reception on the beach.  Nice!

We hadn’t realized that it was a long weekend in Melbourne (Labour day holiday) and so we thought we would ring the park at Wilson’s Promontory to book a site.  To our demise, nothing!!!! The whole weekend was fully booked and there was nothing until Monday night.  So now having to reconsider our plans, booked 2 nights at the Prom and decided to stay another night at Lakes Entrance.

Making the most of this opportunity, we were advised that Buchan Caves were very good, which is about 45 mins from the town, so that was where we headed for the day.  On the way out we saw a couple of other points of interest which we would stop at on the way home.

The Caves (Royal cave) was all that was open due to the flooding – lots of water in the rivers and flowing extremely well, was absolutely amazing.  Great cave system and extremely good  stalagmites and stalactites.  Just went crazy with the camera and got some really nice shots.  We were also lucky as water was running all through the cave and an inch deep in places - the guide advised that in his 20 odd years he had never seen water in the caves like it!  Very lucky indeed.  The park is also a campground and has some excellent facilities and walks.  We are definitely going to come back to this place and do the Fairy cave that was closed and all the lovely walks.  On the way home, we called into see the Historic Trestle Bridge.  When we came around the corner to see this structure – you just go – Wow!  It is 274m long and 20m high. Some feat of engineering and now a rail trail.