Down The Hill

This morning was nice and sunny, which was a change. It would have been a lovely day up in the hills, but it was going to be a lovely day for travelling too.

We headed off towards Cooma.  The countryside was a picture, with lush green pastures.  Notice how the landscape has changed to relatively flat and no rocks. 

We were happy to see a sign for the Rotary Markets so we called in to visit. 

To our delight we found a “Baby Bay” plant to replace the one we lost during the winter. We also bought a loaf of Dutch Fruit Loaf from this stall for our breakfasts.

After Cooma we travelled across the Monaro Plains.  Pronounced Mon-air-ro, not Mon-are-ro like the car. 

Our route took us through Nimatabel. All I knew of the town was that there is an elephant statue. I have no idea of its significance. 

L

It was an interesting little place to explore and we found a nice coffee shop for late morning tea. 

As we travelled east we came to “Browns Mointain”. Mick has memories of breaking down in an old school bus going up this road when in his early 20s. It was going to be a good test of our brakes. They were fine. 

Near the top there is a lookout, giving a glimpse of where we were headed. I saw a rather beautiful little honey eater in a shrub, but it was too quick for me to get a photo of. 

It’s amazing how the vegetation changes. 

The mountainside was just covered in tree ferns, most with lots of new growth. 

Finally we reached the bottom and entered dairy country. Look how lush it is.

By mid afternoon we had reached our destination, Tathra, on the coast out from Bega. We have briefly visited here in the past, and thought it might be a nice place to spend a couple of nights.  It didn’t take long for us to get set up and be walking along the beach. 

I don’t think we will be doing any swimming, as the water is rather chilly.  However, the weather was glorious and quite warm, which was a nice change. 

Mind you the water temperature didn’t seem to bother this pied oystercatcher.

It is amazing how plants get washed around by the sea but are ready to grow wherever they get the opportunity.   We did have to keep our eyes peeled, as there were quite a few blue bottles washed up on the beach. 

Where ther is some suitable sea weed I just have to make a face.

I think we will go for another walk tomorrow, as it is such a lovely spot. The water is so clear and I didn’t see one bit of rubbish on the beach. For such a nice day, there was hardly anyone there. Hard to believe. 

Now, to our campsite for the next couple of nights. I’ll have to take a pic of the van site tomorrow, but it is a lovely park right beside the beach. It has its own cute coffee van and fire pit, but it is a bit too warm for that now. 

There are friendly rainbow lorikeets. 

Sunday night has a bit of entertainment. There was a food van selling yummy Mexican food.  Perfect when you don’t want to cook.  Then there was the entertainment. You see, the caravan park is owns by Frankie J Holden from the band “Ol 55” fame. He and a couple of mates sang for about an hour and a half and it was great fun. There was a good sized crowd and everyone joined in. A rather pleasant way to spend the evening.

We don’t really know what we will do tomorrow, but we are starting to get into holiday mode, so I don’t expect that it will be all that much.