Saturday 12th September

Les had phoned ahead and Nancy had coffee waiting for when we returned so we swallowed this very quickly. Barry was very surprised when he arrived back as he’d been out and didn’t know what was going on. Some more goodbyes and we were on our way again. Anne had managed to make contact with Robyn while we were having coffee.

We drove as quickly as we dare back over the route and onto Nimmatebel and Robyn and Len were waiting at the Bombala turn off. One thing that struck us on this whole journey was the amount of roadkill. Anne counted at least 50 kangaroos as well as numerous wombats. We’ve driven this road before but never seen anything like this amount of dead animals.

We then drove in convoy (Robyn with Anne and Les with Len) to Robyn’s friend’s house deep in the bush. These were unsealed roads. We were rather worried and the car got very dusty. The property is amazing. It was hand built by the husband before he left. It’s all handmade blocks and timber - even the sink and draining board are timber. There’s a separate building with a bathroom and (composting pit) toilet. We used the latter rather gingerly.

The property’s on a 100 acre block at Glen Allen. Electricity is solar powered. Heating is wood fired. Robyn’s friend, Suzanne, raised her two children here after her husband left but nowadays they use it as a holiday cottage.

Robyn had provided a lovely picnic lunch for us and we sat on the verandah looking across the small cleared area into the woods.

We walked down to the tiny A-frame house that they lived in before the main (2-bedroom) house was built. This is really no bigger than a tent. We walked a short way to the stream that marks one edge of the property. It was absolutely fascinating. It was extremely peaceful and gives some idea of how the whole area must’ve been before Europeans arrived.

We all got into Len’s car and he took us further down the unsealed roads to look at a completely different type of landscape in the South East Forest National Park. We stopped first at a swamp area - Nunnock Swamp and then went onto Alexander’s Hut. This is a hut used by the family (Robinson) when they used to bring cattle up from the coast for grazing. Nowadays it’s available for anyone to turn up and camp. Not many facilities but there were people there who’d started a log fire and looked as if they were going to be there for the night.

As we returned to collect our car from the cabin we saw loads more kangaroos as we had on the way down. Most of these seemed intent on hurling themselves under our wheels in the usual fashion.

Set off for Tathra with Anne & Robyn in Len’s car and Les and Len in our hire car. After a small misunderstanding we met up the Bombala junction and then came in convoy to Tathra. After coming down the Brown Mountain we came through ?Carmelo rather than the usual route through Bega.

Got to the house at 6.15pm. Took a while to get ourselves sorted and then sat and chatted while Robyn cooked dinner - salmon.

Sat in the lounge and chatted after dinner. Had an early night going to bed around 9.30pm as we were tired from lots of driving. Got out the two PIR LED lights that we’d bought at Bunnings - very useful.

Sunday 13th

Woke at 7.45am to brilliant sunshine - looks like being the best weather so far. Had breakfast on the deck. Warm and not a breath of wind. After breakfast we went down in Robyn’s car to the Wharf where we had coffee. Mid-way through a dolphin appeared off the end of the Wharf. Les rushed out and managed to get a couple of slightly blurry shots.  We also saw a stingray but the water was to dark for photographs.

Leaving the Wharf we stopped at Chamberlain Lookout as Les thought he’d seen something in the sea from the car. This is the right time of the year to see Southern Right Whales but sadly we saw nothing. We went round to a point overlooking Kianinny Bay and looked for a few minutes before returning home.

We changed and set off for lunch at a brilliant winery restaurant called Mimosa. We sat in the restaurant with a lovely view over the surrounding hills while we had a very good lunch.

After lunch Robyn and Len took us to a lovely secluded beach, Barragga Bay, where we stayed for about 30 minutes. Couldn’t believe that anywhere so attractive would be empty - there were just two people fishing off the rocks at one side of the bay. Len showed us that the beach had loads of small bits of pumice on it. He explained that this had all come from an underwater volcanic eruption off New Zealand some years ago and was slowly floating across to all the beaches on this coast.

Coming back into Tathra we visited the block that Len has bought and talked about his plans for building a house on it. We also saw the caravan that he keeps parked there.

Back to the house about 4.30pm. Les and Len cleaned our car as it was very dusty from yesterday. After downloading today’s photos we looked at some of our previous visits here with Len & Robyn and also showed them ones of some of our other travels.

We had home-made pumpkin soup for tea and then sat talking until going to bed at 9.45pm.

Monday 14th

Up around 8am. Today looks even brighter than yesterday. Had breakfast on the deck again and it was really warm.

Set off around 10 and drove down to Merimbula. Walked out on the boardwalk alongside the oyster farms on the inlet. A slow walk out and a quicker walk back. Had a coffee around 12 in the boathouse before going into the centre of Merimbula.

Had lunch at the Waterfront Cafe. This has had a make-over since we were last there. Robyn and Len don’t think it’s as good as it used to be with higher prices and less choice. We were very happy with our meals - salt & pepper squid for Anne and chicken Caesar salad for Les.

Went into the TIC to buy postcards. One of the volunteers on duty was a friend of Robyn. She said she’d been out whale watching that morning and seen whales. Drove round the opposite side of the inlet and stopped at the Aquarium Wharf where we’d had a meal on a previous visit. Sadly no whales in sight.

We then drove on to Eden where we visited the Killer Whale Museum and read the story of the killer whales herding whales into the bay for the whalers.

Back in the car and back to Tathra via Merimbula where we filled the car up. At Robyn’s we downloaded the photos and updated the diary whilst Robyn made dinner. We had vegetable lasagne and salad followed by apple crumble.

After dinner we simply sat in the lounge and chatted for a couple of hours before going to bed around 10pm.

Tuesday 15th

Slept through until nearly 8am. It was quite dull when we got up but it was still warm enough for us to have our last breakfast out on the deck. We lingered over this a bit, chatting but eventually we had to finish our packing, put everything in the car and set off.

Once again it was very difficult to say goodbye to Robyn & Len, as it was with Barry & Nancy, as we don’t know if we’ll ever see them again.

We went down to the Wharf briefly before leaving Tathra in the hope of seeing some whales but of course there weren’t any.