Whales are a prominent tourist attraction in Eden and the Eden Killer Whale Museum is ‘the place to go’ according to the tourist info. So we did. And what a story it tells, it a quite dispassionate way. It was a colourful history, with a few characters too. Including the Imlay brothers, you just can’t get away from the Imlays. I’m not sure whether these chaps are any relation to our good friends the Imlays of Mt Ommaney. I couldn’t see any likenesses from the photos. But the Imlay boys did get around a bit……….whaling, cattle, dairy. Pretty big presence in town. There is Mt Imlay, Imlay St, Imlay Rd, Imlay memorial and so on.

Mt

Whale boat crews

There was Ben Boyd also a whaler, who built Boyd’s Tower, constructed from sandstone brought down from Sydney. Originally it was meant to be a lighthouse but in the end was used as a lookout station for whales. The Davidson’s established a whaling station where the whales were dragged ashore, cut up and rendered down for their oil. It must have been a pretty sight, the sea blood red with the stench from the rotting whales.

Boyd’s Tower

Davidson’s Whaling Station house, last occupied 1954

The Museum holds the preserved skeleton of ‘Old Tom’ a Killer Whale (Orca) that actually assisted the whalers by alerting them to the presence of whales in the Bay, guiding them and assisting in the catch. he was washed up on the shore in 1930, estimated at about 35 years old, preserved and is now on display with lots of other whale stuff in the museum.

Old Tom’s skeleton

Coastline below Boyd’s Tower, with the ‘ special’ rock formation on right

The cemetery at Eden is situated on low ground just behind Aslings Beach. As a rule most cemeteries are placed on high ground. Many of the graves overlook the sea and tell stories of death at sea……..whaling or fishing. Fisherman ‘going down to the sea’ for the last time.

Aslings Beach

Eden Cemetery overlooking Twofold Bay

We are now finished at Eden for this time  and head back to Tathra for a few days

In our campground on the shores of Lake Curalo and just across the road from Aslings Beach on Twofold Bay there are a oodles of different types of birds. In the mornings we are woken to screeching of parrots, cockatoos and down by the lake ducks, various water birds and the Pelicans drift around.

Ducks

yellow nosed wader

Pelicans

Sulpher crested Cockatoos

This big old Pelican just seems to float around as if he expecting payment for posing in the suns rays as it sets across the lake.

Red chested parrot

Sunset on Lake Curalo next to our campsite

Ninja Turtle

There is even the possibility of Ninja Turtles being here. Grandson Jordan has drawn one so that we might recognize them if we stumbled across one in the drains.

Settled into the Park at Eden for 4 nights. This is right beside the lake with Twofold Bay across the road. It’s a good location with big grassy sites and some shade trees.

Our set up in the Van Park at Eden next to the Lake.

First off we took to the road and headed for Green Cape, not far from the Victorian border. On this trip we are not heading further south and will turn back and retrace our steps staying at different towns, before heading inland to Canberra at Bateman’s Bay.

The 23k gravel road out to the lighthouse at Green Cape is quite good despite being a bit ragged here and there. Much of the vegetation along the road had in the recent past suffered a fairly severe bushfire and is slowly recovering. The burnt out banksias and split seed pods were in stark contrast  with the regrowth. Saw a few wallabies hopping around in the undergrowth.

Seed pods

Resident Wallaby at Green Cape

The Lighthouse sits on a cape that drops steeply away into the sea below. There have been several ship wrecks here over the years. The cottages there have been refurbed and are now rented out to anyone who wants to stay and sort of pretend that they are lighthouse keepers for a few days. The fishing below looks pretty good.

Green Cape Lighthouse

From atop Pulpit Rock in Ben Boyd NP, just north of Green Cape

We headed back to Eden.

Eyed off some nice deep-fried calamari the next day for lunch at a local cafe. Athomealone concentrates on fish ‘n chips, unless there are some nice prawns around. The wood chip boat had  been filled up and we saw tugs heading off to ‘let her go’ , as one of the tugboat guys said. He said you could see it from the lookout, so off we went to catch the action. In all it took about an hour for the ship to clear the harbour and head for Japan full of chips.

Its Calamari this time, Hoealone stuck with the Fish ‘n Chips

The chip boat about to leave Eden for Japan. A very smoky day, with a fire somewhere down south

At the lookout I asked one of the other  nomads gazing at it “whether he thought there might be some fish on board as well?” He looked at me a bit puzzled and said “No, it was a boat that took wood chips to Japan”. I said , “Oh, I thought they might have some fish to go with the chips.” He gave me an odd look and asked if I was having a lend of him. I said, “No, just a joke.” His wife was chuckling away and thought it was particularly, funny. So did I come to think of it.

We have some light-hearted moments on the road.

We have worked our way down to Merimbula via Central Tilba Tilba and the ABC Cheese factory retail outlet. This is an interesting little heritage listed town, plenty of old restored buildings housing all sorts of ways of making money in the new age. The cheese place was pretty good and we came away with a couple of aged cheddar, none of the fancy flavoured stuff this time. The Saturday markets were on the go when we arrived and Allthego managed to pick up some expensive Tomato sauce and 6 quail eggs. He was quite popular with Homealone for these astute purchases. But the piece de resistance was a half loaf of a rather tasty bread…nuts, fruit and I suppose wheat……it was $9 for the half loaf, Homealone keeps saying it was more. But you fry this stuff and then bathe it in honey and have it with coffee and port for desert! Not bad and it helps keep you regular.

The Baker was closed, looked a good shop

The ABC Cheese shop in Central Tilba Tilba

The wooden bikie

Some cheddar cheese fro Tilba Tilba

We had to leave and head for Merimbula where we stayed out on a headland with a great view over Short Beach and the rugged coastline. We met up here with John & Lyn Aubrey our old friends from Sydney days. They have moved down here from Sydney as the retirement sea change, John is going to do a ‘bit’ of work  to keep his hand in.

View from our back door at the Merimbula Big 4

Household duties called

We  had a great few days catching up on news and being shown around the town and surrounding areas. The food scene in Merimbula seems to be quite vibrant, with restaurants and cafes abundant. A ‘Eat Merimbula’ festival was on and we wandered around this sampling some calamari and a local wine for lunch. It was a show case for the local foodies and seemed quite successful.

John & Lyn Aubrey with us at the Tathra pub, fish and calamari was good!

Bar Beach at Merimbula

Merimbula heads

We have headed off for Eden. This is a big drive as it is about 20k down the road so we got away early not wanting to be late!

We cut short our stay at Tuross by one night and have now caught up on our timing, apart from losing that hour due to daylight saving in NSW. Don’t get me going on about  daylight saving, the afternoon just goes on for ever and you don’t know when to stop happy hour as the sun is still up.We don’t have this problem in Queensland of course.

Tuross was a very pleasant if short stop. Camped right on the beach front. It is a strip type set up along the beach line. Only problem was that we were right at one end and it was about 300m to get to the amenities. Homealone had to time trips carefully, Allthego was able to be a little more pragmatic, particularly in the early morning hours.

View from our campsite over Tuross Heads

One Tree Hill headland

Had  a great lunch at the Pickled Octopus Cafe overlooking Tuross Lake. The fresh Tuross Lake oysters were something special;  Allthego is generally not really into oysters.

Pickled Octopus cafe overlooking the lake

Half dozen very fresh Tuross oysters fro lunch at the Pickled Octopus

Apart from the natural scenery there is not a lot going on here at Tuross. A quiet peaceful town. But two tourist highlights standout. One, the stone cairn and plaque commemorating Mel Gibson’s grandmother Eva Mylott who was born here The other a grassy mound in which a whale is buried, washed up on the shore it found its final resting place under earth and grass.

Eva Mylott was born in Tuross, she was a singer and trained with Dame Nellie Melba in the early 1900s. SHE WAS ALSO MEL GIBSON’S GRANDMOTHER.

Whale burial mound

Our last night here saw a full moon rising over the ocean behind One Tree Hill and in the west the sun was setting in a red blaze. Quite spectacular sunset and moon up!

Full moon rising over One Tree Hill

After our couple of nights here we set off for Merimbula intending to stop in Central Tilba Tilba to taste some cheese, the fridge is in need of topping up.

We headed off from Depot Beach for Tuross Heads. Along the way we paused briefly in Moruya to have a look at the old quarry that supplied the granite facing and other materials for the Sydney Harbour Bridge and a couple of other buildings in Sydney in the late 1920s. After this it closed when work dropped off due to the depression. Nothing has happened since. There is a small park that commemorates the work and some river footings for the wharf that was once here. We added to our rock collection with a piece of the Moruya granite, the back of the truck is filling up.

Moruya granite block

We travelled past the Tuross turnoff to  call in at Bodalla a few kilometres to the south.. The van fridge had run out of cheese and we needed to refill. The Anglican Church at Bodalla is the most prominent building in the town, sitting up on a hill overlooking the Princes Hwy. It was built it appears from funds provided by the Mort family, prominent agriculturalists and pastoralists from the mid 18 century onwards, as a ‘memorial’ to them. As you did in those days it seems. It was made from local granite, the interiors are oak, the organ from England along with stone parquetry inlaid in the floor. Mort  family members are recognised on the walls. I think these Morts are the ones, who among others, formed the big pastoral and trading group Elder Smith Goldsborough Mort Ltd. Now it is Elders Limited, a small shadow of its former self.

The Church in Bodalla

The Morts, happy looking individuals

Inside the Bodalla ‘Mort’ church.

Enough of this! The real reason for coming here was to get some cheese. And we did. After having a cheese plate for lunch. They have a big range of aged cheddar, many were those flavoured sorts with herbs and spices. These are not my cup of tea normally. But these ones were good. Particularly, the sage and thyme one. We ended up with a round of that as well as a 3 year vintage cheddar.

Cheese is here

Contented cows, is this a trick photo?

Cheese plate for lunch

After having a stroll around the town looking at these usual run of over priced ‘in’ shops……candles, wood carvings, old wares and bright coloured clothing…we turned back and headed for Tuross.

Arrived at Depot Beach and settled into an unpowered campsite in Murramarang NP. This is set back from the Beach in a very shady and pleasant environment. Plenty of bird life  among the tall spotted gum trees and a rather large Goanna wanders around keeping us company.

A watchful eye

One of the local birds

A local resident wandering around the van

There is a big rock platform here with numerous rock pools and what appeared to be great fishing spots. Allthego took the opportunity to cast a line from various vantage points in search of dinner. No luck. It was a bit like throwing two dollar coins in the sea with each piece of bait disappearing along with the  hook and sinker being caught on snags. Subsequently I tried from the beach, but the moon and tides were all wrong and the fish stayed in the sea. Depot Beach is about 15k north of Batemans Bay and the fish shop there was a more certain landing and so we took off and picked up some prawns. These were later enjoyed on the beachfront with the sun setting and the last waves  of sunshine washing across the sea.

Depot Beach

Bucket of prawns at Depot Beach

At a nearby beach there is a very interesting rock platform with unusual structures.  Ironstones have weathered to form lattice like formations and sandstones are honeycombed and from a distance look like fishing nets or spider webs draped over rocks.

Iron stone box work and garden

Honeycomb rocks

Great swimming here and whilst  the water was a bit cool on the initial plunge, after a bit of splashing around you got used to it. Allthego  managed a few selfies in the surf and one of the best is shown here.

This selfie proves two heads are better than one…headland and headbrown

After here we are heading off for Tuross Heads.

These fossils are definitely  not Allthego and Homealone, although we did pass through Ulladulla on the way to Depot Beach. The fossils I am referring to are the world-class Permian age shallow water marine invertebrates, mussels and clam like things. They left an impression in the rock strata. Also seaweed type things. They go back about 280m years thereabouts.

Pelicans looking for fossils

Anyway we just had to go and have a look for these things on the rock platform in the Ulladulla Harbour. First up we went to the wrong side of the harbour and had to traipse across the other side. These things have to be seen at low tide, we were ok for this. Homealone soon spotted some fossils in the rocks and as we wandered around more and more of these things appeared all over the rock platforms. Quite impressive really. Homealone revealed her true fossil hunting skills as she sat on a grassy patch turning over rocks and found a specimen which we have put in the back of the truck to bring home. Most interesting  hour or so on the rocks.

Shell fish type fossils

Seaweedy type fossil

On the way we also passed by Pidgeon House Mountain, so named by Cpt Cook on his way up the coast because it looks like a pigeon house (or so he considered). We went for a bit of a drive on a sidetrack to get closer to it, the road got a bit ragged so we turned around. Some 8000 people climb the peak each year. We were not to be among them. The last section of the climb is up steel ladders attached to the face of the cliff and we probably would have given these a miss as we hadn’t brought our ropes with us.

Pigeon House Mountain

In conclusion, I might retell a little story about nomads. In our last stop Allthego was off to the amenities block in the early hours. There was a bit of rain around and I remarked to a fellow camper that “it was a bit damp this morning” he responded “Mate, you have to worry when it’s not damp”. Now I had to think about that for a while……….

I’m back after a few days of continuing internet issues. We are long gone from Husky and are now in Merimbula. Part of the internet problem along the way was due to being based in Murramarang National Park in what was a dead internet place. More of this place later. Back to Husky for a catch up on what has been going on.

We were in a campground a few metres back from Huskisson beach on Jervis Bay. Good little spot. Spent some time in the Jervis Bay Maritime Museum. The major attraction is the Lady Denman Sydney Harbour Ferry. It was built in Huskisson in 1911 and was finally retired in 1979 from its Harbour duties. Various plots were conceived to return it to Huskisson and finally it was illegally towed in 1981 down the South Coast to its current resting place where it has been restored in a covered dry dock.

The Lady Denman

There is a lot of other sea-faring memorabilia here and is well worth a stop. Numerous wooden boats were built in Huskisson from the early 1800s through 4 generations of boat builders. Sadly there is no more wooden boat building here.

At Hyams Beach

A surfer emerging after a dumping

This could be Allthego going but it isn’t

Pt Perpendicular, the north headland of Jervis Bay, is a major attraction and from here one can overlook the area where the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collided with and sank the destroyer HMAS Voyager in 1964. Australia’s worst peace time naval disaster. The old lighthouse built in 1899 also stands on the headland together with an assortment of heritage stone buildings.

Pt Perpendicular Lighthouse and the current light tower in the background

Honeymoon Bay at Pt Perpendicular

Nearby at Currarong we stopped in at Zacs, overlooking the beach, for a lunch time feed of fish and chips. Pretty good fish and chips!

Fish n Chips at Zacs

Huskisson Picture Theatre

The weather at Husky was pretty good, cloudy mornings giving way to warm sunny afternoons. Suffered a savage thunderstorm late one afternoon with heavy rain and a southerly buster, it flattened our side annex but no damage.

After 4 nights here we headed off to Depot Beach in Murramarang NP.

Along the way we were listening to Macca’s ‘Australia All Over’ and one can truthfully report that you just have to love those travelling nomads, particularly the ones from Queensland. One poor soul from Queensland rang in and indicated that she had lost her lower dentures and asked that if any listeners happened to find them could they hand them in at a local police station. She thought  she lost them in a shopping centre after putting them in her handbag during a movie because she couldn’t chew her popcorn. After having this bite put on him  Ian Macca was a bit bemused and quickly cut to the news. I must check in at the dentist on our return to Brisbane and try to keep my teeth.

We are now off and running on the trip down the NSW South Coast, we are going to come back the same way but stop in at different towns along the way. Due to the rather wet weather in Brisbane we set off a day later than planned, plan is to catch this day up somewhere. Alas, we were further snookered at the NSW border when we lost another hour with daylight saving.

Our first  stop was at Wingham, just outside Taree, where we stayed at the Hillcrest Haven Resort. Hosts Don and Sandra were just great, welcoming us with a glass of wine and a T-bone steak with pepper sauce. This is a great little spot. Freedom camping at its best! I will try to keep the location under wraps.

My readers may recall the Mystery of the spilt salad oil on one of our earlier trips. Well this time I have 2 mysteries to entertain readers. Both of these were mysteries seeking resolution before we left Brisbane. But did not get there. The first is the case of the blinking dim and then non-existent interior van lights. This was a problem that  allthego considered would be simple for someone to fix. All his simple solutions hadn’t worked. The trusty auto electrician in Taree was puzzled, we left it with him and retired to the riverfront for lunch. Upon returning it was fixed. Diagnosis was a faulty light circuit breaker switch. He found it easier to bypass the switch than fix it. Sobeit. A dark mystery was solved by a bright sparky.

We were on the road again but a further half day behind schedule, if there is such a thing.

We had planned to make it to a van park in western Sydney on the way south, but only got to Wyong. We were directed to the Oasis Caravan Park. Oasis appears in the name of many caravan parks and one could be excused for thinking it was some sort of chain. This place might once have been an oasis but it no longer was. Surrounded by suburbia and all manner of permanent residents. We had the choice of two sites. They were near the exit which might have been handy. But we were tired and slept well!

Next morning we were off through Sydney, allthego took a short cut and some time later we were on the Hume Hwy heading south. Near Bowral we took the road to the coast via Kangaroo Valley and the Cambewarra lookout over the Shoalhaven River Valley.

Kangaroo Valley

Hampden Bridge over Kangaroo River. Oldest wooden Suspension Bridge in Australia, built in 1898

Mountain Devil at Cambewarra

A bird at Cambewarra

Emerging at Nowra we have now ended up at Huskisson, or Husky to the locals, on Jervis Bay. Everything is called Husky this Husky that. The pub, the bottle shop, the bakery, the deli cafe, etc etc.

At rest in Husky……….

You might be wondering what Mystery 2 was? It was the case of the unresponsive internet! Which as you can tell has now been solved. Allthego applied his deep understanding of all things internet to seek a solution to the inaction of his computer. The mobile broadband device was working well, confirmed by Telstra. But the computer wouldn’t connect to the internet. After a few days playing around allthego phoned Bigpond technical support for assistance. After 40 minutes waiting online patience wore thin. Some hours later a call back found Bigpond back at work after morning tea. Xian assisted allthego through the tedious process of fixing this problem, what a relief………….Xian thanked allthego for his attention to detail and following the instructions so well. She was just looking for a good score on the post call survey………..

…………to be continued………..