We spent a good part of Tuesday 12th Feb driving south from Currarong down along past Ulladulla and Batemans Bay to Narooma. It’s no rumour that it’s a marvellous (that my over used superlative for this post), place and that’s the truth. It was blowing like the billy-ohs on the drive and we stopped at Mogo, a super quaint little village on the way through and had a coffee and cake, (we didn’t budget for stops like this and the bill adds up  really quickly—If you want to sponsor us please send us the details and we’ll send you our account number).  we arrived later than we would’ve normally and found that this van park was a wee bit squishy. The first indication of this was the tiny narrow parking bay in the reception area where you stop to sort the details out. After we were given our toilet keys and gate codes I started taking off for our site, but the van had a strange reluctance to move on. I thought it was just a little bump or something. No. It was the steps tearing away at the log retaining wall. Both parties came away from this fight bruised and bleeding. It turned out to be fatal for the steps and I had to surgically remove them with some grunting and groaning and finally, a hacksaw. All whilst laying down on the ground (undignified and back twinging). I made some calls and I can replace them reasonably cheaply when we get to Melbourne as the New Age birthing place (I’m talking about caravan manufacture not a bunch of people chanting and burning herbs around a screaming woman who is trying to have a baby) is in that vicinity.

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As we detailed it with the lady she told us about the things to do in the area. One thing she mentioned was that there were seals along the rock wall just near the mouth of the harbour. I excelled myself and impressed my family by pointing out the obvious “If you guys want to see seals” I declared “I’ll show you the ones we keep on the fridge door after we’ve set up!” Laugh, chortle, giggles—everywhere  was the sound of a joyous response as my appreciative children and spouse lined up to congratulate me on my witty repartee (What happens when the multi-wifed Mormons refer their missesus? Do they say ‘my spice’?). Narooma is also blessed with a hole in the rock near the seals that looks vaguely like Australia if you ignore Tasmania (We personally, would never do so), and have had a couple of spiked drinks.

We had a marvellous beach right next to us. It was wide and had marvellous fine sand. The surf also looked very swimmable but it was a little too blowy. This blowiness  turned into a dust storm that came over that night along with a solid shower, the result of which was a dirty red coating over absolutely everything—marvellous!

I went fishing early and managed to catch a nice pan sized bream. It was a marvellous morning on a marvellous estuary. The water was clear as glass that hadn’t been in a dust storm.

We went to see the seals (non fridge) after breakfast. What a marvellous sight! It is so marvellous to see wild creatures in their natural environment doing what they do naturally without balancing a ball on their nose. We were all marvellously impressed with them just lolling about snoozing in the morning sun.

We did a drive through the surrounding area that took in the towns of Tilba and the enigmatically named Tilba Tilba. Tilba is a cheesy little place that would not look out of place in any cute coastal hinterland town competition (think Maleny or Montville) with it’s cheese factory and little old buildings turned into cafes and woodturning, leatherworking, hemp clothing suppling shops. Quite perplexingly, Tilba Tilba was a much smaller location with nary a craft shop to be seen. I thought—double the name must equate to double the size– apparently not.

I went for stroll along the boardwalk in the afternoon but unfortunately I didn’t pass go and thus did not collect $200 (This is in my mind because I bought a Monopoly game at Tim’s insistence, but attempts to actually play the game have ended in emotional catastrophe). Still it was a marvellously marvellous scene to look out at the marvellous little beach and marvellously clear blue water. They call this the Sapphire Coast, not because of the stones but because of the water and true to name it is.

We arrived in Eden today so are on the hunt for trees with low hanging apples and snakes as we are in need of knowledge.