Wednesday 29 May to Saturday 22 June

Left Mallacoota around 9 ish on Wednesday and crossed the border into NSW at around 10 ish.  No fruit fly inspections which wouldn’t of mattered if there had been as all my fruit and flies were in perfect order!!!  The drive on the Princess Highway continued through misty rain forest and pleasant farm land.

Eden from the air(borrowed from the Net)

Unsure of where I might finish up at the end of the day I used Wikicamps to suss out various accommodation options.

  Arrived at Eden around lunch time and phoned a couple of parks but all wanting standard rates they would charge a couple.  Got the map out and had a look how far things were further up the coast and being such a lovely day decided to keep going.  I had arrived on the Sapphire Coast!  No gems as such but plenty of blue sapphire seascapes.

Arrived at Pambula, a quaint little town with some lovely old shop fronts on the main street.  Decided to go onto Merimbula and, as luck would have it, found a caravan park for $20 per night including 240v power, hot showers, coin laundry and free internet access and to top it all off, landed myself two weeks paid work renovating some of the on-site cabins!!!!

Merimbula from the air(borrowed from the Net)

Merimbula is another coastal holiday town with very up market apartments, motels, hotels and shopping precinct.  However, the people are very friendly and welcoming.  It is halfway between Eden and Bega right on the coast with a lovely inlet and extensive waterway where oyster farms abound.

 

During the June long weekend the town hosted it’s 33^rd jazz festival and being a partaker of jazz music I had a very enjoyable weekend watching the opening street parade, free jazz by the water and spent all day Sunday at the RSL club enjoying various big band type jazz and more traditional renditions.  We have some very talented young musicians in this country!!  Great weekend.

 

 

When not partaking of the local sights and sounds I have been working 5 days a week renovating three of the on-site cabins in the park.  Mark, the park owner, is a very affable character and together with his on-site handyman we had a great time getting the work done.  Needless to say it was also pleasant to add some funds to the bank balance.

 

 

Lots of nice walks around the area.  Particularly along the beach and back around the point although with the big east coast low we have been experiencing over the last week or so the beach has taken a pounding. 

 

Another good walk is up through the town and along the cliff tops to the main surf beach.  About 2 hours or so of pleasant and dramatic seascapes.

 

The boardwalk on the western side of the main lake is also worth the effort.

 

Did a rainy afternoon trip back to Boydtown which is about 20ks south of Eden heading back toward Victoria.  The town was the dream of one Benjamin Boyd who came to the area in 1842 with the intention of creating a port town to allow him to ship out agricultural produce from his extensive land holdings and to set up a fishing port.  All that is left is a hotel and out on the coast, a tower which he built with the intention of using it as a light house which never happened.  It was used as a whale spotting tower for the Davidson whaling station.

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 18 to June 22

Finished work this week and spent the last few days catching up on domestic stuff before heading up the coast to Bawley Point where I have some more paid work on some holiday cottages.  Did a last walk around Merimbula and found this interesting sign.

 

Image having your eyeballs shaved!!!!!!!!

Lovely drive along the Sapphire Coast Road through Tathra and Bermagui arriving at Bawley Point where another east coast low bought more heavy rain and the prospect of a wet week.

Talk to you again when the trailer and I have dried out !!!!!