The saga continues

Rightio, now where was I up to when I posted last???  Better go back in again and find out …

When we arrived in Bermagui, we decided to get a motel room as opposed to a cabin – and arrived just in time before the heavens opened up and it poured down with rain.  There was a fish and chip shop/restaurant directly across the street from us, and once the rain eased off a bit we walked over to find at 7pm they were closed for takeaways … what the?  Anyway, we then took a short stroll in the drizzling rain into the main township and found another place for fish and chips, so we decided to sit in and eat before heading back to the motel room.  Unfortunately I personally have to say it was the worst fish I’ve had in years … it was marketed as Blue Grenadier, but when questioned what sort of fish that was we were told kiwis may know it as Hoki – I had reservations, as I was sure Hoki was one fish I’m not keen on, but ordered anyway … and was proven right, it was bl**dy horrible!  The chips and salad were nice, though, and we still cleared our plates as we were so hungry – I definitely wouldn’t go back there again though 😦

The next morning we re-packed the car and had a quick look around the area of Bermagui.  It is only a very small little hamlet, but very very pretty.  Straight opposite the motel was the harbour of fishing boats (I won’t bore you with too many photos, but let’s just say I took a fair few photos haha), and it was a wonderful sight to see.  After going photo mad for a while, we drove just around the corner to look back at Bermagui from the ocean inlet and took another photo.

From Bermagui we started our trek back up the coast again.  We took a small detour just up the road to see Camel Rock – and spent a short time watching the surfers catching a few waves.

The next detour we took off the main highway was to go to Pebbly Beach – on a lengthy unsealed road, it was a lovely drive through Murramarang National Park to get there, and we had stopped and ate our ham-filled bread rolls under the trees.  A friendly crimson rosella flew over to see what was on offer, but unfortunately we didn’t capture him on film as the camera was in the car.  Anyway, I was thrilled when he hopped up on my knee, then started walking up my chest … I put my hand out and he sat there for ages … all the while trying to get my filled roll!  We had fun watching him each a grape, then he pinched the last inch of my bread roll from my fingers, the little sod – it was great fun!!  Not so great was when a great big black bird of the raven family started to try to do the same thing, and trying to take the entire bag of grapes … at that point I decided it was time to stand up and leave!!  We did manage to see one female kangaroo and her joey near the beach, which Pebbly Beach is quite famous for.

In fact a great thrill for us on the whole trip was the different amount of native wildlife we saw on the way – we had an echidna, a wombat (unfortunately the victim of a car accident, I think, as it was laying on the side of the road with one paw up – I don’t think he was trying to hitch a ride), a snake (thankfully half-dead on the road, also the victim of a car), kookaburra, galahs, pelicans, rosellas, kangaroos, and koalas (Mum saw them while I was driving).  It was wonderful!!

Anyway, after Pebbly Beach we pretty much drove straight up the coast, and just had a short stop in Woollongong.  While we were driving we saw a wonderful temple on the skyline – when we saw tourist signs giving directions to get there, we thought “what the heck” and took a quick detour.  I’m so very glad that we did!!  What a gorgeous place – unfortunately the temple itself was due to close in a few minutes time, but we could still have a quick look at a small part of the gardens.  I definitely want to go back again and spend more time there.  They have a website, so you can see more of it there – it’s called the Nan Tien Temple, and it’s a Buddhist temple … it’s just exquisite!! 😀

It was then back on the road again – we looked at the map and decided it was easiest to miss the final hour of coastal driving into Sydney itself and headed over to the Hume Highway, as that then linked to the M7 which took us up to where Brenda and Nigel live.  We arrived about 7pm, and after chatting for a while we popped around to the local Outback Restaurant where we had dinner.  It was wonderful to see them again, and we’ve had a lovely week here with him so far.  I’ll go more into what Mum and I got up to during our two days free before I started work in another post … right now I need to get dressed and head over to the other side of Sydney to look at a flat! 😀