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Day 15
Shoalhaven Heads - HMAS Albatross Fleet Air Arm Museum (Nowra) <Map>
Today: 53kms, Total: 1433kms
For those of you not of an aeronautical disposition, I will spare you endless photos of old aircraft. Instead, I'll restrict myself to just one.... or maybe two? E-mail me if you want more photos!
From Left - Fairey Firefly, Fairey Gannet (background) and Hawker Sea Fury (and a MiG-15 in Polish markings at far right), and from a later period...
Grumman Tracker, Westland Scout (under Tracker's wing) and Wessex (background), 2 x Bell Iroquois (RAN & USAF) and a Bell 47 Sioux (just about invisible behind the far Huey).
The rest of the day was taken up with shopping and then withstanding a most ferocious thunderstorm that continued well into the night.
Day 16
Shoalhaven Heads
Today: 0kms, Total: 1433kms
A quiet day waiting for the wet weather in the south to clear.
Day 17
Shoalhaven Heads - South Durras <Map>
Today: 130kms, Total: 1563kms
Just a shortish trip today. We're still concerned about the weather to the south so Durras Lake is as far as we want to go today.
As we left Shoalhaven Heads we passed a sign that made us think we were elsewhere.
"It's Coolangatta, Jim, but not as we know it." (with apologies to Star Trek)
We stopped at Ulladulla for a cuppa while overlooking the delightful harbour.
Ulladulla Harbour.
We arrived at a secluded caravan park at South Durras and then went for a walk on the beach. Only things of note were the wind, birds and kelp.
A momentarily stationary Red-Capped Plover among the kelp.
Due to the wind, we walked back to the van on the road and noted the Banksias in flower.
Banksia Jaundicius
Just on dark it started raining, and the local inhabitants proved they were not so stupid and all gathered under the caravan park's barbecue area.
Skippius Dampus
Day 18
South Durras - Merimbula <Map>
Today: 190kms, Total: 1753kms
A nice trip along the coast, still heading south. We decided that we'd get off the highway as much as possible, so exited the Princes Highway just south of Narooma and made Bermagui for lunch.
We'll have to stop finding these picturesque lunch locations.
Bermagui is another fishing town on the south NSW coast. It was brought to prominence by Zane Grey in the 1930s as his favourite Australian place to go Marlin fishing. Deep sea fishing is still a popular pastime here and the boat harbour is full of suitable boats to take you out into the Tasman Sea / South Pacific Ocean.
Bermagui Harbour and sea walls.
The harbour has a very small entrance...
...as can be seen by this yacht motoring out between the breakwater and the rocks.
Our destination for today (and the next few days) was Merimbula, and again we got a delightful caravan site.
Our site, looking East...
... and looking West.
Fortunately, there was a large thicket immediately between us and the cliff, so even though the wind was strong, we didn't have to drop our awning.
Day 19
Merimbula
Today: 10kms, Total: 1763kms
Nothing much happened today. There was some rain about, and I seemed to spend ages rotating the antenna trying to find the ABC on the TV. It was only after I'd spent about 24 hours and only getting the local commercial channel that I discovered (Isn't the Internet wonderful?) that the closest TV transmitter actually focuses its signal AWAY from us. I then aimed the antenna in a totally different direction and all was well with the world - we could have drinkies watching 'Letters and Numbers' on SBS and then the ABC news.
The wind came up late in the afternoon, so I took a walk down to the point below the caravan park.
On the other side of the point, was a sight that looked like a two-legged butterfly walking up the beach.
Is it a man; is it a bird? No it's BUTTERFLY MAN!
Day 20
Merimbula (Ben Boyd Nat Pk) <Map>
Today: 205kms, Total: 1968kms
(NB: Google can't find a few points/roads for today, but you get an idea of where we were)
Benjamin Boyd (1801-1851) was a Scottish-born Australian pioneer and entrepreneur. Boyd was a man of "an imposing personal appearance, fluent oratory, aristocratic connexions, and a fair share of commercial acuteness". It might also be said that he was not short in the self-assurance department, having set up his own "Royal Bank of Australia" in the UK prior to sailing to Australia with the intent of 'further developing the resources of Australia and its adjacent Islands'. This eventually, like his other ventures, folded.
Boyd's Tower
He established a town on Twofold Bay called Boydtown, including a jetty and a lighthouse in the plans. When the government denied him the right to operate a private lighthouse, he turned it into a whale lookout tower to enable his whaling crews to get an earlier start at killing the whales as they migrated along the coast.
The tower was named Boyd's Tower, and has his name in large letters carved on all four sides. You tend to get the impression that this was a self-promoter extraordinaire!
Around the head in Twofold Bay, is the remains of a whaling station. While there had been whaling from this bay since before Boyd in the 1840s, this station was built by Alexander Davidson in 1860.
It was last used in 1929.
The whole bush around here is alive with birds, from the delicate ringing calls of the Bell-birds to the mimicry of the Lyre birds (we heard but didn't see any). What we did see was this:-
A beautiful Lace Monitor about 6m up a tree. It was about 1.75m long. Note the claws on its back leg!
Leaving Twofold Bay behind, we travelled to the southern end of this section of the National Park to see Green Cape and its lighthouse.
Green Cape Lighthouses, old and new, and the lighthouse keepers' houses, now available as holiday houses.
The original lighthouse was built in 1883, but even after it was commissioned, there were still wrecks at Green Cape. In May 1886, the SS 'Ly-ee-moon' en route to Sydney from Melbourne, struck a reef off Green Cape at night. 71 souls were lost with the lighthouse keepers only being able to save 15 people under the conditions.
Day 21
Merimbula - Croajingalong Nat Pk <Map>
Today: 240kms, Total: 2208kms
(NB: Google can't find our campsite, but it's where the track crosses the Thurra River near the beach)
We took a detour off the highway to have a cup of coffee at Mallacoota. This is yet another popular fishing spot on the route we;re taking along the coast.
When we were there, there were more of the feathered than human fishermen about.
Other than Charlotte (our GPS) wanting to take us down an overgrown logging track (we already knew she wanted to do this, so we just ignored her), it was an uneventful journey. The last 50kms was dirt, but fortunately the grader had recently been at work, so the potholes weren't too bad. Talking to one of the park rangers, this only happens about twice a year, so we were fortunate in our timing.
On arrival at the Thurra River Campground, we checked out a delightful site that backed onto the river. While there are about 50 campsites here, only about a dozen are big enough to manoeuvre caravans into.
Our campsite with absolute river frontage.
We spent the afternoon strolling along the beach, and ended up at the mouth of the Thurra River.
The Thurra River has a very high tannin content and looks like a strong cup of tea. Where it flows across the beach into the ocean you can see the brown river water on the left mixing with the sea water. Note also the clear blue sky!
As we had a quiet drink at sundown, a heron tried its luck on a sandbar behind the caravan.
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