More from the NSW South Coast

We are often asked "What is the most beautiful place you have been?"  It's a bit like asking "Which of your children do you love the most?"  Our answer:  Everywhere is different and we've seen so many beautiful places we just can't pick one.  The New South Wales South Coast is certainly one of them.  It has everything from magnificent beaches, to rolling farmland, to rainforest, to the coastal mountains etc etc etc....

We had a relaxing time at the Tuross Beach Caravan Park and we were kept busy socialising with family in the area.  







Our campsite was bordered by NZ Christmas Bushes in full bloom, so we had plenty of birds keeping us amused as they fought over the nectar filled flowers.



From the beach at Tuross Head we ventured a few kilometres inland to Nelligen, about 10km from Bateman's Bay at the confluence of Nelligen Creek and the Clyde River at the base of the Clyde Mountain.  Over the years we have often travelled through Nelligen, on the King's Highway from Canberra to the coast, but we've never stopped there or explored the area.  The only "downer" was the lack of phone or internet coverage - something we expect in rural areas, but usually have in towns, even if it's slow and unreliable.  Here there's nothing even though we are only 10km from a busy town.  Nevertheless, we had a fantastic time.  The Big 4 Caravan Park we stayed in, just out of town, was excellent and was very good value.  We chose a large drive through site looking over Nelligen Creek - away from the playground and bouncing pillows!





Nelligen town is on the Clyde River, a tidal river popular with fishermen.  They weren't having much luck while we were there although some flathead and bream were caught.





There are some lovely drives in the area, through the state forests towards the coast.  We drove from Nelligen to Runnyford where we crossed the river before making our way towards Mogo, well known for its zoo and heritage buildings.  The river is home to many black swans.

A few days later we drove north along the River Road to Shallow Crossing.  This road joins the Princes Highway near the Bawley Point turn off.  As we drove we had some lovely views of the Clyde river.  We forded the river at Shallow Crossing.

Our last night at Nelligen we had heavy rain.  The caravan park ducks were all out in the morning swimming and paddling in the large puddles around the park.









Now we are further inland house-sitting at Lake Bathurst.  This small town is about 30km from Goulburn on the Goulburn-Braidwood Road.  Another small place we have often travelled through.  In fact we often stopped at The Tea House and Lavender Farm for lunch or coffee.  Unfortunately this lovely establishment is now closed and is up for sale.  

We're looking forward to exploring the area at our leisure.

In the meantime we have magnificent views and we are making friends with the 3 dogs, 6 chooks, 3 ducks, 2 alpacas (a first for us) and a ferret (another first).

Update on the Lark Quarry Dinosaur Stampede

Here's another update on the dinosaur stampede at Lark Quarry in Central Queensland.  We were there in December 2012 (check the December 2012 blog entries for details).  Dinosaurs are fascinating and it's good to see that scientists can have an open debate about events that occurred about 95 million years ago.

Check out this link if you'd like to read more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22382503

Back to the Coast

We're taking a few days to travel to the NSW South coast - holiday park for Canberra residents.  Our first stop is Cooma - gateway to the Snowy Mountains with their magnificent scenery and winter ski fields.  We have friends there and we camped on their large block among the chestnut trees.  We had cold nights and sunny days.  The autumn trees were at their best and Cooma was awash with colour.  We visited the NSW Corrective Services Museum which is attached to the Cooma Jail.  This is an excellent museum and is well worth a visit - an eye opener.  A visit to the prisoners' craft shop is worthwhile - we bought a walking stick there on a previous visit and this time bought a chopping board.

After a couple of days in Cooma we drove south and down Brown Mountain to Tathra, on the beach, where we booked in for a week.  Tathra is just one of the many picturesque coastal towns in this area.  The main industries in nearby Bermagui are fishing and tourism.




Tathra is surrounded by National Parks with many walking tracks, mountain bike trails and campsites suitable for tents.  The coastal scenery is stunning.  We detoured to Mimosa Rocks where we walked along the boardwalk with its interpretation signs of local Koori sites, to the pebbly beach.

Bega is about 20km inland from Tathra on the Princes Highway in dairy country.  We called in to the Bega Cheese Heritage Centre and Museum which is alongside the Bega Cheese Factory.  Bega cheese has been made here since 1899.  After our visit to the cheese factory we drove to a nearby lookout.  The Beautiful Bega Valley is well named.

After a very pleasant week in Tathra, we have travelled north along the Princes Highway to Tuross Head, where the Tuross River flows into the ocean.  We're here for a week, soaking up the autumn sunshine before we head back inland.  We've got relatives in this area so we are doing plenty of socialising.

Autumn in Canberra

Canberra is beautiful in the autumn.  Crisp, clear days and chilly nights with lots of colour in the deciduous trees.

We're camped at the Cotter Campground for a couple of weeks.  Peaceful with no phone or internet reception, but close enough to civilisation that we can keep in touch when necessary.  We also have our satellite phone so we're not completely in a communications black hole.  It is amazing though that we're only about 10km from suburban Weston Creek and our communications are so limited.  The Cotter was one of our favourite spots when we lived in Canberra.  The Cotter Campground is lovely with hot showers and plenty of water, however no power so we are relying on our solar panels and generator.  Although there are a limited number of sites, the campground has been pretty full most nights. Nearby is the recently completed Cotter Dam which has dramatically increased Canberra's water supply.

It's been great to catch up with family and friends and also to take in some of the sights.  We visited the National Library to see the presentation about Walter Burley Griffin and his wife, Marion Mahoney who designed our National Capital.  A display well worth the visit if you can get here before it closes in June.  A bonus was the fantastic views over the gardens and lake.

We looked after our Canberra grandkids for a few days and visited the Deep Space Tracking Station at nearby Tidbinbilla - always a favourite place and worth a visit.  Entertainment was a trip to see the Great Moscow Circus with our grandchildren.  We're all kids at heart and had a great time.

We've had a busy time here and will be making tracks towards the NSW South Coast in a few days.

More From the Armidale District

Our few weeks in Armidale are drawing to a close and Armidale is a blaze of colour.  The trees are a mass of red yellow and orange as the autumn display is in full swing.









The first 2 weekends in April saw the nearby town of Uralla celebrate a Food and Wine Festival.  We drove the short distance to Uralla and bought a "Passport to Wonderland" which gave us entry to a number of local attractions and gardens.  We had a magnificent lunch at the Eastview Winery, with the largest scotch fillet steaks we had seen.

One of the gardens had lots of exotic bantams running around the roses and Alice in Wonderland themed garden areas.

We continued to explore the local area and took advantage of the Scenic Drive leaflets we had picked up at the Information Centre.  We stopped at the privately built Dangarsleigh War Memorial.  This was built by Alfred Perrot to commemorate those who died in World War I.  His son was killed in 1917.  The symbolism of the memorial is that the circle and globe represent the World, the five pillars represent Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada and India, the triangle represents England, Ireland and Scotland and the octagonal spire represents the eight countries combined.





Further on we entered the National Park to see Dangar Gorge.  Unfortunately there was no water flowing over the falls; nevertheless the gorge was spectacular.















Then it was on to Gostwyck where we saw the octagonal shearing shed and the picturesque Gostwyck Chapel with its colourful windows.

Tomorrow we are back on the road continuing our journey south.