In Holiday Mode

Our site at the caravan park here in Batemans Bay is rather lovely. It is another place we could easily return to. 

 

After a leisurely breakfast and lazy start to the day we went exploring again, traveling through some forests of tall trees. 

There are so many quiet beaches. I saw a sign advertising a challenge to visit 100 beaches in the Shoalhaven.

More gorgeous trees. 

Some interesting rocks at high tide. 

We were back at the van for a late simple lunch. Once again the sky was getting rather dark to the west. The weather held off long enough for us to have another ride on our bikes to get some groceries and more fresh oysters. We did get a little gentle rain in the afternoon, but missed out on the storm. 

Tomorrow we once again pack up and get back on the road. We will be leaving the coast and heading back inland.

Further North

Despite my prediction yesterday, we had another lovely sunrise this morning. A nice way to end our stay at Tuross Heads. 

We had a huge trip ahead of us - all the way to Batemans Bay, about 50kms up the road. We had checked into the caravan park by 10.30am. 

As we had heaps of time, we finally got the deadly treadlies off the back of the van and went for a ride.  There is a good cycle track here and it is nice and flat.  Most important. 

We last stayed in Batemans Bay 29 years ago. Back then we stayed at the Coach House Caravan Park, which was winning lots of awards at the time. It no longer exists and seems to now be an upmarket event venue. The town has changed so much in that time, so much so that we don’t really recognise much at all. The marina is rather upmarket. 

Don’t you love the old timber boats. 

We heard mention that there was a new sculpture of an octopus in town and just happened upon it. It turns out it is the inaugural sculpture in a new seaside sculpture walk, which should be nice along the waterfront. 

Speaking of the waterfront, we were ready for lunch. There are so many options to choose from. We couldn’t go past The Boatshed, seeing as we had lunch at another Boatshed yesterday. (I don’t think there is any connection between them.)

It doesn’t matter if you have fish and chips two days running if you at the seaside. Once again it was delicious. 

We had company, but were good and read the sign not to feed the seagulls. 

Back on our ride we noticed that the sky was getting decidedly black. We still had heaps of time to get back to the van before it hit. We did get a storm come across. Quite a bit of lightning and thunder, some nice rain, but thankfully no hail this time. 

After it stopped raining we headed out to explore the beach. It is surprising how the beaches vary. This time there was lots of seaweed, where we had seen very little on the previous beaches. The storm had moved on, but there was still lightning to be seen in that inky sky. 

The sea was really calm, after it being quite choppy before the storm arrived. It wa funny though, as there was this one spot where a single wave would form and come into the beach.

We had heard and seen a lot of cockatoos flying over and they were quite close to where we entered the beach. On closer inspection it was a mix of sulphur crested cockatoos and corellas. They were having a great time devouring the seed pods. 

We are here for another day, so it will be nice and lazy again. We are getting quite used to this holiday caper now.

Another Lazy Day

I had been saying that I should get a sunrise over the ocean photo while we were at Tathra, but I was too lazy to get up early and walk down to the beach. This morning was different. All I had to do was look out the window beside the bed to see the sunrise over the water and it wasn’t too great an effort to stand at the back of the van and take a photo. It was worth it. 

We didn’t really have a plan for the day, so hopped in the Ute and went exploring. We had seen some pine trees on a point at the opposite side of the Tuross Lake. This turned out to be Potato Point, which is quite small. This headland is right at the point. 

The turn off is in the village of Bodalla, which has a rather cute Catholic Church. The entire sides of the building are clad in shingles. 

Our next port of call was Dalmeny. Another nice quiet seaside town with a river running into the sea, so you get both quiet waters and surf. The surf was up today and one fellow was having a great time out in it. 

After getting some groceries we walked to the other side of Tuross Heads to Tuross Lake to have some late lunch. On the way a fellow offered to take our photo, which was nice of him. 

The Boatshed is a popular cafe on Tuross Lake. 

The building is quite historic, with the flood levels recorded on the wall. 

The food was good. 

You know that all is well with the world when the seagulls are there hoping for a chip or two. 

We enjoyed checking out the gardens on our walk. This one took my eye. 

On close inspection there was a lot of a pretty pink flower. It is indigo, which is also known as summer wisteria. We have some in our garden and I have never seen another plant. It looks lovely planted en masse. 

The house next door had a terraced garden, full of flowers and veges. Everything looked so very healthy and colourful. 

Once back at our van site we did the important job of reading a book. There are quite a few water dragons living in the rocks between the park and the beach. This fellow was one of the larger ones, at about 70-80 cm long, and he sat patiently for his portrait. They aren’t a bit scared of people. 

When we went for a walk on the beach we saw a white bellied eagle. We had also seen one while we were having lunch. 

 

One Tree Point looked different in the twilight. This would be a great whale watching site in the right season. We are about a month too late. One day we will see a whale. 

There are a lot of large logs on the beach. You wonder what the weather must be like for them to wash so far up the beach. 

Speaking of weather, there has been a bank of cloud gradually moving in from the west. At this rate there may not be any sunrise photo in the morning. 

We really like this area and especially this little caravan park. It is nice and quiet and is so well positioned. We think we could easily spend a very lazy week here. But for now, our travels continue tomorrow. 

Heading North

Today we said goodbye to our lovely campsite at Tathra and started to head north. We travelled a whole 100kms. 

We followed the quiet coastal road, which included quite a few narrow timber bridges.

 

The first stop on our agenda was “Foxgove Spires” garden at Tilba Tilba.

We first visited about twenty years ago, as it was quite famous at the time, featuring in magazines and gardening books and was an absolute picture. 

Unfortunately, since then it has changed and we were somewhat disappointed.  We understand that nothing stays the same,  but it had quite a neglected air about it this time.

 I do hope it’s fortunes change again for the better. 

By now it was getting close to lunch time and Narooma has a nice fish and chip shop, but first we have to drive past the only lighthouse we have seen so far, at the tourist  office.

Unfortunately, the fish and chip shop was closed today, so it was a simple lunch in the van by the waterside. 

We kept heading north to our destination for the next two nights, Tuross Heads. The reason?  It is a nice easy distance and the caravan park read well. When it said beachside sites it really meant it.  That is the beach right behind us. It is only a small park, so we were lucky to get such a good spot.

Once settled, we went for a bit of a walk. 

We were surprised when a wallaby hopped in front of us.  It was quite happy to pose for photos. 

One Tree Point is a famous local landmark. Unfortunately the original tree was vandalised and killed some years back and they have had to replant.   There are a lot of Norfolk pines in town, planted by the town’s founder.

It has great views to the north. 

And to the south. 

Not long after we arrived we heard that a little fishing boat had capsized last night and was beached around the corner from our campsite. We could see it from the lookout.  It is a twin hulled boat. 

By the time we ended up on the beach, we noticed that the boat had been righted and they were trying to refloat it.  Of course Mick had to get in and give a hand. 

Back in the water. Apparently there were two fellows in the boat.  One is fine, but one is still in hospital having nearly drowned. The boat was insured and has been written off, with salvage being too expensive.  The boat wreck has been given to the fellow who saved the drowning man, so here’s hoping he can get it up and running again.

The tide was well out and we noticed green stuff growing on the rocks,

Aren’t they weird. 

The park backs onto where the Tuross Lake enters the ocean, so there is quiet swimming as well as surf. We were surprised at how many people were swimming.

By now it was beer o’clock and the locals joined us. The rainbow lorikeets in particular are cheeky, jumping on you wanting a tit bit.

There are granite rocks leading down to the beach and as the afternoon drew to a close out came quite a few water dragons to sun themselves. They are lovely creatures. 

Mick went down for a fish, but we ended up having frittata for tea.  The fish just weren’t biting. 

We are looking forward to a lazy day tomorrow, having a look around the area and soaking up the views of the sea.