Mystery Bay to Kioloa Beach

We left Mystery Bay on Sunday and travelled through to Kioloa Beach.  We stayed in a holiday park there which was massive but unfortunately they have all the powered sites squashed together in one area which felt a bit claustrophobic after the space we have been used to elsewhere.  It was also pretty busy with families as its school holidays - the bonus was the awesome beach and the weather was just glorious.

We have been amazed at how beautiful the beaches are in NSW - we hadn't expected that they would rival Qlds but they are just as lovely - beautiful sand, clear torquiose water and pretty much deserted.

We have headed off today to get to Sydney to drop Chip off to the exporters tomorrow, store our van and catch our flight to NZ on Thursday.  The weather is starting to turn today with heavy rain expected through to the weekend so the timing could not have been better. 

Fishing (not) and Tilba

While at Mystery Bay Mal decided to dig out his fishing line and give it a go off the rocks....although  he has had a good time feeling like a hunter/gatherer and chatting to the other fishermen...he has come back empty handed - despite what he would have me believe!

sussing out his fishing spot

The bait

His 'catch' - looks suspiciously like the previous photo!

Needless to say we didn't have any fresh fish while we were there.

On Saturday we drove to nearby Tilba - a historic village settled a bit inland.  There was an advertised market on there but what we found was so much better...the whole village is basically a group of specialty shops...a bit hippie but they had some lovely things and we enjoyed spending a few hours browsing around. 

Main street of Tilba Village

Mystery Bay & Narooma

We took Chip down to the beach for a swim yesterday - he loved it!  Got absolutely filthy dirty with sand given his coat is now really long (have been growing it for the cooler weather in NZ - and as it turns out in NSW).  The beach was beautiful yesterday

We drove in to Narooma again today so that Mal could pick up some fishing supplies - yep he is 

 going to attempt to catch us some dinner - LOL - I will believe it when I see it....

Here are some piccies of Narooma - we had a coffee at the Million Dollar View Hotel...worth its name for sure!

Bemboka to Mystery Bay

We left Bemboka yesterday on our way to Mystery Bay.  We have to admit that the NSW countryside is just beautiful - rivals NZ for sure!

We stopped off at Bega - and went to the cheese factory of course!  Being Easter Monday it was pretty busy - sadly they don't have soft Bega cheeses though.....

Mal and Chip at the top of the Bega lookout

Mal in the Bega Cheese Factory

We then headed on to the Mystery Bay Primitive Campground.  Its a huge camp and you basically pull up and find a spot and set up.  There are toilets scattered round the camp ground and taps also.  Its $15 a night for 2 people.  We found a good spot in amongst the trees - its so big that you can easily find a spot away from everyone else.  We were surprised that its not that busy - apparently a lot of people left yesterday although it wasn't as busy as it has been on previous Easters.  Its NSW school holidays now and there are a few groups with kids but still not as busy as we were expecting.  We are thinking we will stay here for awhile - we have the generator and can easily fill up the water tanks when they are low.

Our campsite

The path from our campsite leads to this cliff area overlooking the sea - was a bit windy yesterday avo when we arrived!



Down out the front of the campground - lovely bit of beach

We have driven in to Narooma today to do some shopping and this place is just beautiful.  There is a lake and the Batemans Bay Marine Park wrapping around the town - absolutely gorgeous.  I will post some photos later in the week - this place would be paradise to retire in.

Bemboka

We went for a walk in to the village of Bemboka today - we had been told that we needed to try out the Bemboka Pie Shops pies - hmmmm

heres what Mal thought of their pies....

and having tried a dry sausage roll I have to agree.....sorry Phil ....

Numeralla to Bemboka

We headed to Bemboka today - the Village in a Valley located  in the South Coast region of NSW. Its on the Snowy Moutain Highway in the Bega Valley Shire 474 km south of Sydney.  It has a population of around 250.  We had to drive over the Brown Mountain Road to get here which was only reopened a few days ago following a landslide.  Pretty steep road (downhill thank goodness) with a look out a the top.  Here is a photo from the Fred Piper lookout at the top looking out across to Bemboka. 

Around this area are mostly national parks so unfortunately there are a lot of free camp sites that we can't access because of Chip.  We are currently parked up at the local Lions Park in Bemboka which is a cheap camp area and we have access to water and power - we ran out of water again free camping in Numeralla - 3 days seems to be our maximum for our tanks.  We did however spark up the generator this morning for about an hour and fully recharged our battery so that side of things is working out well. 

We are heading towards the coast where there are a few camp sites inbetween the national parks that allow dogs.  We are really looking forward to being by the sea again and have found a camp site that is apparently huge and has access to water so we are hoping to stay there for a few days.  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous - the summer we never had finally!

Numeralla

We drove from Queanbeyan to Numeralla on Thursday 5 April and free camped at the Badja Recreation Reserve alongside the Badja river for two nights.  Numeralla is a tiny settlement of only about 50 people around 20 minutes drive from Cooma - up by the Snowy Mountains.  It was a lovely quiet place to camp with only a couple of other people coming and going while we were there. 

Chip had a swim in the river...it had a bit of a bank to get in to the river and at one time he 'fell' head first in to the water - it was hilarious.  Here is a piccie of our set up there - not much to do but sit, relax, read, drink wine...you get the picture!!

Canberra - Questacon, Mint, Treasures & Friends

We had another busy day in Canberra on 5 April.  We dropped Chip off at the minder again and took off to Questacon the technology and learning centre.  Its an interesting place with loads of interactive sciency stuff - a kids paradise really.  Here are a few piccies -

The robot out the front..talks, looks. shows emotion....the one on the right of the picture that is!

The funny picture things...Mal looks like something out of Lord of the Rings LOL

Ever heard of dehydrated icecream?  This stuff is delicious..made for the astronauts originally

We then went and had a quick look around the Treasures Gallery and had lunch there.  We then drove over to the Australian Mint where Ozzie and New Zealand coins are made as well as a few other countries...very interesting.

This is TiTan the robot picking up blank coins and putting them in the machine to be stamped out

We met up with some friends for tea that we met when we were in Toowoomba on the way down to Warwick at the end of last year.  Had a lovely dinner and quick catch up with them before picking Chip up again.

After a quick trip to the dentist in Queanbeyan on Thursday morning we headed off towards the snowy mountains!

Canberra - War Museum & Shopping!

We dropped Chip off at a lovely minder this morning and took off in to Canberra for the day.  First stop the Australian War Museum - we had heard how fantastic it was and it didn't let us down.  If you haven't been there its something to put on your bucket list as I reckon no Aussie can miss out on this huge bit of history.  There is currently an excellent exhibition on about Nurses in War which I was really looking forward to and it was awesome - covers right back to the early wars and these women (and some men) were just the bravest - really inspiring.  I came away with 3 books to read about them which should make really interesting reading.

The whole museum is so well set out with fantastic displays, including part of a submarine to go in to, helicopters and planes with backdrops of footage and sounds making the whole scene really realistic.  I bet most of you don't know that national conscription only ended in Australia in 1972! 

We had to take the obligatory photo from the steps of the museum looking down Memorial Avenue across  to the old and new Parliament....

and here is a photo of the soldiers doing their daily parade at the memorial fountain

and was so impressed with shiny soldiers shoes had to take a piccie

Next stop was the Canberra Centre - if you have been to Canberra you know how good this shopping centre is..massive and great stores!  Thankfully I had checked my bank account before leaving and knew that my pay including my holiday pay had gone in...yehaaa!!!

We are out sightseeing again tomorrow and then catching up with a couple we met at the Toowoomba showgrounds last year for dinner.

Bungendore

We left Warri Camping Reserve and drove through Bungendore on our way to Queanbeyan.  Bungendore is a small town in the NSW Southern Tablelands.  These days a lot of people live here and work in Queanbeyan or Canberra as the rents and homes are a lot more affordable and its not far to commute. 

Its very touristy, with a lot of cafes, a beautiful wood works gallery (very expensive but apparently a lot of Govt Depts in Canberra come here and buy gifts for dignaturies), a fantastic leather shop with all sorts of leather goods for sale, the most amazing antiques shop which goes on and on forever - you finally find yourself outside with all these fantastic statues and old pieces of gates etc.  An easy place to spend several hours just looking around.  We had morning tea at the wood works cafe and had the biggest and most delicious scone I have ever had!

We drove on through to Queanbeyan and arrived at the camp site which is right in the middle of town alongside the river (which apparently floods often).  The camp was booked out - they were turning away caravan after caravan while we were booking in (thankfully we had booked).  Took us 3 goes to get on a site big enough for the van.  After the space and freedom that comes with free camping this feels very claustrophobic - however its an end to a means and we won't be spending much time at the van over the next few days.