Monday February 15 – The NSW South East Coast

Today has been absolutely gorgeous ..... and as a result we haven't gotten very far about 246 km – we managed to travel from Bateman's Bay to Eden, but we had a lot of fun on the way. We passed numerous beautiful little towns like Casey's Beach, Malua, Mossy Point, Moruya, Bodalla, Kianga Beach, Dalmeny, Narooma, Tilba Central, Tilba Tilba, Merimbula and finally Eden. We particularly liked Bingie Point....and went for a lovely short walk out on the headland. We think we saw one of the white breasted eagles.....so majestic in flight....and tons of really pretty flowers. It was a very special place. We bought our lunch in Woolworths in Narooma and ate it at Mystery Bay....oh my golly, just another beautiful, beautiful beach area. We feel so much gratitude at being able to experience such amazing places and being here in Australia.

And now we are in Eden. Our hotel tonight is much nicer than the one last night. We arrived at a reasonable time too and managed to go down to the beach for a swim....well, we didn't actually swim as I was a little nervous of the ocean...the lady in the information place had warned us that the beach was only for expert swimmers as there were rip currents, and the bottom was very uneven....when we got there it seemed so powerful that I couldn't imagine "swimming" in it....so we didn't.....but it was very, very gorgeous and we walked along it a long way! Probably over cautious, but at that point we were pretty well on our own...."aged"....as the signs keep telling us....and I thought caution was in order!! At the far end of the beach we met a fisher and he immediately told us that he had just caught about a 3 ft shark….Ray had noticed him holding the fish up from a distance and had remarked to me that someone had just thrown a fish back into the waves.  Clearly, the fisher was excited…and proud to have caught it.  We turned around shortly after that and on the way back Ray pointed out to me the “rip currents”….I have heard of these but have never been able to identify them, now I can! It is uncanny. It is as if the undercurrent creates its own wave and rolls back into the sea in a narrow white frothy band. You can see the white cap of the wave “rolling” out. Something to be aware of! So….two reasons not to have been swimming….although truthfully, by the end of our walk I was feeling a little silly for having had such a strong premonition about not swimming there.

We went to "the pub" for dinner and had a great meal. The streets were deserted when we walked back just after 9…..it like being in a ghost town! So different from the city!!! And now we are all set for a good night's sleep and dreams of rolling oceans, and beautiful places, and all the cats and dogs we met today on our various walks!

What a beautiful part of Australia. We have loved it all.