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Saturday, November 21, 2015

Merimbula

Having a change to take an extra long weekend trip, we headed down the Far South Coast for some much needed time out to explore and relax. Leaving early in the morning the drive down the coast is approx 4.5 hours, we had all day to take our time and stop along the way to admire the countryside and coast. First stop was at Narooma where we pulled up by the Marina for a quick bit to eat and check out the ocean and also view Montague Island in the distance. Andy is on a mission to find some seals this weekend, wanting to get some pictures of them in their natural environment.


I've grown up with lots of holidays/drives down the coast fishing and diving with my family, I always feel once you pass Batemans Bay the countryside changes and a different mindset sets in, a more relaxed and less stressed feeling. As we drove along we stopped to take some great pictures of the lush country side and anything that caught our eye.


Arriving in Merimbula we had booked a small self contained budget room for $60 a night, staying for 3 nights. We soon off loaded our gear and headed down to the town centre for a look around and do a little grocery shopping for snacks, breakfast and lunches. We also found a cheap little Thai restaurant for dinner which was really good. Staying at Merimbula worked well as its a centre point its half hour from Eden, close to Pambula,Tura Beach, Tathra, Wallagoot Lake and both Bourna, Ben Boyd and Mimosa Rock National Parks.

 
The following morning we headed down to the waters edge where we found a board walk along Merimbula Lake this walk was beautiful, walking along the waters edge for a few km return, its amazing how the tide changes the perspective of the lake as it became high tide during the walk. It was beautiful lots of wildlife and bird watching.
 
 
We then headed down to Eden for the afternoon, the view from the Rotary Park lookout was amazing, as soon as we arrived we saw a number of whales splashing about. We stayed here for a while as there were whales everywhere. We stopped down by the harbour for some lunch and strolled through the museum. The small seaside town was busy preparing for their annual whale festival. We drove around town and found the beautiful Aslings Beach miles of white sandy beach and Curolo lake behind it.

 
We visited the Ben Boyd National park on the return trip back to Merimbula where we walked the Pinnacle Track, a short easy 1 km loop walk, There are two lookouts along this walking track that make ideal spots to view the Pinnacles formation, an erosion feature that consists of cliffs of soft white sands capped with a layer of red gravel clay. It was deposited during the tertiary geological period – up to 65 million years ago.


Moving on to Pambula we came across the river opening from the ocean, hidden behind a long winding road, again we were taken in by the beauty of this place, old boat sheds lined the waters edge it was so quiet with just a few people wondering around walking their dogs along the waters edge.
That evening we eat a delicious Italian meal that put us both in a food coma for the remaining of the evening.


The following day we were up early and headed north to Tura beach and Tathra, this was nice but very touristy. We stopped at the old wharf then down to the park for a coffee, we spent the morning looking around the area then we decided to head back south to Green Cape light house. The drive in was very easy on a un-sealed road for approx 20km, when arriving the wind was blowing, while here again we saw whales, we walked around the light house and surrounding grounds and sat and watches the whales for a while eating lunch. Heading back to Merimbula for our last night we found another really good asian meal before finishing the night back at our room.
 

Having such a lovely relaxing time we were a little hesitate of leaving this place, quiet and relaxing with no stress, would of been so easy to just stay a few more days. Heading home we made a few stops along the way, first Wallagoot lake, we had by passed it a few times so we thought we would have a quick look, and im so glad we did. The lake had a aura about it very inviting, we drove to the end of the road where there were a few cars parked. A guy came running out of the bush with a surf bourd which looked bizarre as it seemed we were in the National Park and we only saw a lake. I asked where the surf was and he pointed towards a long haunting track. We ventured along the track for approx 500 mtrs and came to an amazing private beach with a cave like entrance, hard to explain but our cameras were out, smiles on our faces snappy away. This place was amazing and we will definatly be back to explore this area in more detail again.


Lunch was a stop at Bermagui and again more whales, the whole weekend Andy was hanging to see a seal, but all we saw where whales. We kept driving back into Narooma again and parked down near the other side of marina, there is a popular rock formation there of a large hole in rock that looks like Australia, posing for some pics we were about to leave when we saw a few people looking out on whaft. It was a family of seals. we watched for ages as the baby swam around showing off and splashing about. Andy was a happy!!!


 We seemed to take forever to get home as the drive is so beautiful we kept stopping for scenery shots, along the way, we had such a great trip and looking forward to taking another run down this area.