Judy & Brian Tour Oz

Well, today (yesterday actually, but why spoil a god story with facts) is the day unfortunately. No more extending, no more procrastinating. It’s time to go home. One last walk on the beach, one last breakfast in the sunshine, a round of goodbyes and then that was that. All over for another year. Our track today is up through Bega, Bemboka and a stop at Nimmitabel for coffee and a yummy snack. We pulled in behind another old Viscount van, this one covered in paintings of volcanos and trees and vines and the like. And it’s door was glass with a carved timber frame around it. The two proud owners were taking their coffee at the outdoor table and chairs on the footpath right next to it, ready to bail-up anyone silly enough (like us) to stop and look and point at it. They eagerly launched into their story of how the van once belonged to RM Williams and that they bought it from a bloke who bought it from Williams. When they got it, it was covered in ropes designs and was fitted out with l...

Egad! Our penultimate day on the loose. What is a body to do? These bodies decided to take a little run up the coast to Narooma. The first thing you notice is how much the place has changed in the last few years, especially around the main tourist area. Big wide road, roundabouts, off street parking. First we had a poke around Black Bream Point, where we spent a few days back in 2002 when we had the boat. Black Bream Point is the name of the cabins and the point out on the back lake where we stayed. It's still there, which surprised me a bit and even seems to be a bit more up market than before, and certainly the prices have moved northward. Our favourite memory was cruising around the lake and going over to the cafes on the other side for lunch. Is there anything more satisfying than tieing up your boat at the cafes own jetty before strolling in for lunch and coffee? But Narooma to me means the breakwater and the bar and the rock with the Australia like hole in it. We drove ar...

So, we came here two weeks ago looking for a bit of warm weather, which eluded us for the first 10 days. The last few days have been not-so-bad and rather than up-sticks and move up to the Bay or Conjola, we have just stayed here until Monday. Sadly, that will be 'it' for this trip, only been 3 months and 2 weeks. We've done not a lot. Paddled about Tathra, wandered around the 3 towns in the near area, chased birds, sat on the beach, annoyed the fish and pigged out at all but one or two of the cafes, clubs, hotels and restaurants. I've taken to a one hour walk every morning. I either turn right and walk up over the hill and down the other side to the wharf, or turn left and walk down to the bridge over Bega River and back don the beach. Or some variation on the above. The beach out the front never ceases to fascinate me in that it's continually changing as the weather changes. The sand cliffs are now 3 metres big and I reckon the waterline is now 10 metres close...

Fathers day. Hey that's me. Thank you to my dear children for your best wishes. Today dawned bright and sunny and almost calm. Going to be a fabulous day. I went for another big walk over the hill and back, i must be getting fit again! Then we had a slap up breakfast of bacon and eggs and tomatoes. We just had to take advantage of the good weather and ran a pile of clothes through the washing machine, washed the van and part of the car, and played a game of table tennis. Hey, good news, I took a game off Judy. We are spoiled for choice for lunch, but in the end the open deck at the Tathra Hotel overlooking the ocean came out the winner. I had the roast, Judy elected for the fish, Both excellent. Tathra Wharf got the consolation prize of coffee and something sickly sweet: I had a Mongolian doughnut and Judy chose the vanilla slice. We finished the day with a run down to Merimbula to find the boardwalk and the 'back lake'. The boardwalk is a 1.7 km boardwalk that ru...

We've gone a bit quiet, largely due to the weather being a bit inclement, but not entirely horrible. Yesterday Judy went off to housie at the bowlo but came back empty handed, not even a half-chicken to show for her efforts. I took myself back up to Nelson Beach where I was reward with an hour of bright sunshine. As soon as you step onto the beach the wind hits you in the face and you just want to turn around and get back to the car. Not I. I could see that from the angle of the wind that if I walked down to the southern end of the beach, I might just be sheltered from the wind by the headland. About halfway down, the wind ceased due to the headland and I spent a very pleasant hour laying in the sunshine on the finest white sand I have seen for some time, the type that squeaks as you walk on it. Ah, bliss! After lunch and a rest, we picked up the bats and had a game of table tennis. I thought I was finally going to win a game, leading by six, but no, Houdini escaped again winni...

We were due to leave here today, but as the weather is still not great anywhere from here to Port Douglas, we decided to extend ourselves for another week. Actually, it's a reflection of this place, its just so relaxed and easy to be in, neither of us could see any point in leaving to go somewhere else. We took some exercise by walking up to the shops: its a bit of a climb up 10,000 steps (That's how many Judy counted, and would she fib to me?) The steps go through some bushland and we enjoyed looking at the various wildflowers, and some not so wild - positively tame actually, and listening to the million or so Bell Birds and a few thousand whip birds. You can only listen to them, i'll be damned if i can see them. Actually we might have looked straight at one, but it was way up in a tree and no camera... This afternoon, we walked over to the beach to see what it was like at high tide. You see, it's not like an ordinary beach, well not at the moment at least, because...

By yesterday morning, any thoughts of bright sunny warm days had disappeared under a heavy blanket of grey. Rain and wind and cold. Fortunately, we had already decided to travel the 25km to Merimbula to go to the movies. Yes, it's true, I went to an actual cinema and sat through a talking type movie. The last movie we saw was abysmal, which should have been its title, but which was something about a Bucharest Hotel. This time Judy had decided that something called 100 foot journey would be the go. I was sceptical and prepared to have a nap for the couple of hours or so that it took. Much to my surprise, not only did i not have to resort to a coma-like state to endure the onslaught of visual inanity, but i found myself wide awake and enjoying the show immensely. Like all good movies, it has a most unlikely scenario, with an Indian family finding themselves in provincial France where they decide to open their Indian Cuisine restaurant right opposite a 1x Michelin star French choke ...