Day 11: Friday, February 15, 2002
Driving south coast of New South Wales

Ulladulla's main street

Today we were just going to continue driving down the southeast coast of New South Wales and into Victoria. We got up and out by around 9 and then went into town to check our mail at the internet cafe. I was anxious that I hadn't put up a vacation message and I wasn't able to check and respond to email as often as I'd like. Hostme (my ISP) has a complicated mechanism for setting up a vacation message and in the process of trying to use it, I deleted all my mail. Doh! I sent them email asking them to restore it, and they quickly replied saying they couldn't. I was really annoyed until I realized all my mail was at my yahoo account since we'd just downloaded it there yesterday (thanks to Walendo's cleverness). Still, I was annoyed. Anyway, I was able to set up the vacation mail and still respond to the messages that were there. (People are starting to email us about our book, so I wanted to be responsive in replying.)

Like Mom, like daughter

Next we looked around for something to eat but neither of us had much luck. I grabbed a scone and Walendo looked for a sandwich but couldn't find one he liked. I was getting anxious about hitting the road so we moved on, figuring we'd find something later. Walendo had spoken to the hotel clerk who suggested that we check out a beach called Pretty Beach, which was about 7 km off the main road past Kiola toward a town called Termeil. (Walendo thought he had been saying Terminal, but we figured out it must have been Termeil). We followed the signs, and along the way, Walendo noticed a sign that indicated there was a bump ahead (a semicircle with an up arrow over it) with an 8 sign above that. He decided to interpret it as 8 jumping turtles ahead. That seemed to crack him up.

Kangaroo

Anyway, at the end of the road was a camping area with a bunch of kangaroos just hanging out in a grassy area. Wow! We got out and I shot a gazillion pictures with my good camera, most of them zoomed in close. What a bunch of cuties! The guy said you could walk up and pet them, but they wouldn't let us get too close, so we just took pictures and watched. Mostly they sat there and ate grass and pooped a lot. Sometimes they'd lean onto their hands and hop back onto their hind legs. We didn't see them hop for distance. They really are adorable animals, such sweet faces. There were some smaller ones, maybe teenagers, who were especially cute. They'd look right at us, so we really got a nice look. After a while, we walked down toward the beach, which looked a lot like the beach we'd walked along in Jervis Bay. We took a few pictures and then decided to move on.

Walendo at home at Bateman's Bay McDonalds

We got back to the main road and continued along. Again it was a lovely sunny day and we continued to admire the rolling green hills. We drove along through several towns and then came to Bateman's Bay, which seemed to be a larger town. We were hungry and Walendo had been seeing the McDonald's signs and he had yet to have his McDonalds in Australia, so he wanted to go. We stopped at the McDonalds and he got a Big Mac and Filet of Fish with fries and a coke. He was very happy. Then we drove back into the main part of town and discovered a whole strip of stores along the water. This seemed to be a nicer, more active town than Ulladulla. If we'd known, I think we would have stayed here last night instead. We wandered around the town, and split up, each carrying our FRS radios so we could coordinate.

Ellen at Bateman's Bay

Walendo quickly ducking into a discount shoe store looking for a replacement for his Tevas, which were causing blisters. Shortly after he walked into the store, I asked him something through the FRS radio. He had put his radio in his pocket, so it looked like his crotch was talking. He said the woman at the store looked at him funny and said, "Now there's something you don't see every day!" In any case, he found some sandals for just AU$30 (US$15). I went off to look for food and tried a boysenberry smoothie that turned out to be horrible. I threw it out. Walendo had also been looking for a music store so he could get a CD called Hangover Cure #1, a mix of songs they'd been playing at Heron Island. He found #2, not #1, but decided to buy it anyway. While he checked out the music store, I found a cafe that was selling something they called quiche but looked like a little pie. I got a spinache and cheese "quiche," which was okay. It did the trick, anyway. We got back together and walked along the walkway along the water, and then circled back along the stores. They had an interent cafe too. We didn't stop, but it was nice to know.

Australia Fine Wood Gallery

We continued driving along, and shortly after Bateman's Bay we came to a little town called Mogo that was lined with craft shops. We immediately pulled over and walked up and down the street checking out the shops. First I got some ice cream, though (this one was pretty good). Quickly I found a craft shop that had those lovely wooden bowls I love so much, and they had some that were quite inexpensive, AU$35 (US$17.50), so I got one. We looked in a few more shops and then came to one with fine woodwork (The Australian Fine Wood Gallery). Man, that shop was amazing. I wanted to buy everything in it! I ended up getting a beautiful box with a detailed geometric pattern inlaid on the top and another small bowl. Walendo got a wood carving of a face with a big smile that made him smile. They were more expensive, but with the exchange rate so good, it's easy to justify. I so love those wooden boxes, it was finally time to get one.

Shops in Mogo

Walendo had had his fill so he sat in the shade while I checked out the rest of the town. Nothing else really caught my fancy, although I did buy a purple sun hat for AU$12 (US$6). It's been so sunny and I sunburned the top of my head earlier, so it seemed like a good idea. Can't beat the price. We stopped for gas and then moved along. The scenery seemed to be especially nice in that area, lovely green rolling hills on both sides. The road was only sparsely populated so even though it was just a two-lane road, I was mostly driving with no one in front or behind. They have passing lanes every 3-8 kilometers, so when you do wind up behind someone, you don't have to wait that long to pass. Very nice. (I also did my first passing in Australia when we wound up behind a slow person and the way was straight and clear on the right. Woo hoo!) Mostly, though, we didn't have to worry about other cars.

Green pasture outside Tilba

We continued along until we came to signs for Tilba, which the guide book had mentioned as one of the prettiest towns in Australia. It was just off the main road, so we pulled off. Before getting to the town, we were struck by the lovely scene off to our right, so I pulled over and we took some shots. Then we got to Central Tilba and it turned out it was nearly 5pm, so most things were closed. I did get a chance to look into an Alpaca store and thought about buying some yarn to knit a sweater out of, but since you really should know how much you need of what color, I decided against it. There was a woodworking store that was closed (probably a good thing), but the leather store was open. Walendo would have gotten a belt, but they didn't have the right size in the style he wanted. Still, the woman was quite helpful.

Pasture outside Tilba

We walked along a little more, but mostly things were closed, so we went back to the car. As we drove off, we were struck by the lovely scene of green pastures, cows, trees and mountains, so we decided to turn around to go back and take smoe pictures. I'm glad we'll be getting some shots that give a feel for this area. Then we continued on, passing by Tilba Tilba in a blink of an eye, and then got back onto the main road.

We were both feeling pretty fresh, so we figured we'd drive as long as we could before stopping for the night. There were hardly any cars out by now, so the road was really pleasant to drive. We popped in the CD Walendo had gotten and boogied along, listening to the music, enjoying the scenery, and having fun driving along the curvey road. I was very happy. As we passed a sign noting the distance to Merimbula and Pambula, Walendo commented that his Merimbula was doing well, but his Pambula was acting up. What a joker.

Coachman's Rest Hotel

After another hour or so, we came to Merimbula, which the guide book said was the last interesting town along this road. We joked that a Merimbula is a Merimba that you play while marching on the field. It was another seaside town that looked only okay. We were undecided about whether to stop, since we had more driving in us but we didn't want to get stuck with no place to eat or stay. We checked out the hotels but most said no vacancy and one that didn't had only the most expensive room left, so we decided to move on to Eden, the last main town for a while.

Ellen writing in journal in Eden hotel

The book said there's not much reason to stop in Eden and it's right. We had a hard time finding a restaurant open and wound up getting some not-so-good chicken barbeque take-away for dinner. There were plenty of roadside motels with vacancies, though, so we chose one (The Coachman's Rest) and checked in. Just AU$65 (US$32.50), what a bargain. The room was about what you'd expect for that price, but we're just stopping for the night, so it's fine. We ate our yucky meal and now I'm catching up with this journal while Walendo reads.

Tomorrow we drive into Victoria and head over to Wilson's Promontory. It appears that this stretch of road isn't that interesting, so it'll mostly be a day where we make distance. We've booked a hotel in Foster, a town near the Promontory, and the next day we'll spend exploring the park.

Previous   (Driving south of Sydney)

Next   (Driving SE Victoria)