Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 299 (Wednesday 26 October) - Eden & Ben Boyd National Park

8.30 a.m. I struggled to wake up today after we got to bed just after midnight (gastronomic tour de forces do take some time and do tire a boy so don’t you know), and since my gorgeous guy kept snuggling in and didn’t showing any signs of rapturously leaping from bed, and greeting the day with the sort of joy reserved for long lost lovers, and caramels ice cream sundaes, I lay there too, not really stirring apart from some Twitter meanderings till about....

10.05 a.m. (or so) when I got up, had a shower, toasted the crumpets (forgetting we had planned to cook up some scrambled eggs - d’oh!), poured the juice, and set the table for a lovely breakfast for my slowly rousing man. We did think we could wolf down breakfast - although that surely is not want one should do on this, or any other holiday when you actually have time to savour the food you’re eating - and bolt out the door in double quick time, but we didn’t, and after watching a Lifestyle Home program or two or three, we finally left at 11.55.

12.14 p.m. Grabbed some petrol at Pambula, which looks like it has a cute shopping district, which awaits exploration on our next visit, drove by Eden’s historic but still much used wharf, and then headed out to the stunning beauty of Ben Boyd National Park (escorted part of the way by an RTA truck through a very long stretch of road works), which has a great love affair with long, winding dirt roads, once again fringed by ant mounds, delicately beautiful heath flowers, and towering gums awash in rampant lush green undergrowth. Yes, the ride was over corrugated dirt and bumpy, and we had to avoid heading down to view Pinnacle Rock and City Rock, because we feared we may not make it back up the tracks, but oh the extraordinary spectacle that greeted on those parts of the parks we did reach....

1.40 p.m. After driving across 21 km of the bumpiest roads I have encountered for some time, and passing cars coming in the other direction on roads so narrow I feared we would be eternally linked to each other by the car doors, we stopped at the Disaster Bay look out - the bay was so named because of the countless ships that foundered, and were wrecked there - and were greeted by a tableau so beautiful it took my breath away. The bay sweeps in an effortless, sand-tinged arc from headland to headland, dense bush hugging it all the way around, and filled with waters so blue you can well understand why they name this area the Sapphire Coast.  Truly awe-inspiring beauty, and again so lovely that since we were there at a non peak period, that we got it all to ourselves...

2.08 p.m. I had been urged to go to see the scenery from Green Cape Lighthouse by a friend at work, and I am so glad we heeded her advice. Not only was the view up and down the coast a delight but WE SAW WHALES! Three or four of them surfacing and diving, their plumes of water spray soaring high above the waves, as their tail flukes, and backs came into, and quickly disappeared from view. It was frustrating trying to capture all this on film with our small compact cameras, and there was often a long wait between sightings of anything but we cared not. WE SAW WHALES and it was beyond magnificent, and it took all my effort to look away finally (when the sightings grew less and less frequent) and check out the beautiful heath scrub, the skinks with Cardassian armour plating along their backs (only a Star Trek : Deep Space Nine aficionado will truly understand what that means), and the heath flowers of vibrant yellow and purple. The lighthouse too was impressive, its blue and white colours a perfect match for a sky that should have been grey and showery, if you believed the weather forecasts, but which was instead gloriously blue all day with only a few stray clouds to mar the perfection. It was wonderful to inspect the lighthouse, read the history of the place, and see what their lifestyle was like (remote, and yet it appears they were the social hub of the area which makes you realise how deprived everyone else must have been!), and how hard they worked, even to get mail and supplies from nearby Bittangabee Bay...

Whale shot 1

Whale shot 2

Whale shot 3

Whale shot 4

3.15 p.m. Back down the track to Battangabee Bay, a camping site, and a sheltered bay with a ruined loading dock and storehouse, where ships would dock safe from the awful weather out near Disaster Bay, and unload the supplies needed by many people living in the area. It was another truly beautiful place, with dark rust red rocks, pools of seaweed, and odd green deflated plants that looked the beach head (literally) of an impending alien invasion, lush bright green bush land, tall ant mounds, a dark tea tree lake beyond the beach that reminds me of Lennox Head’s impressive body of water, and tumble rocks that rambled into the slow moving water. What a delight, made even more so by seeing kangaroos, including a mum with her joey kicking his leg out of the pouch and looking like he was weighing her down as she grazed, in something approaching a natural habitat, and not a wildlife park! I was enthralled and we only walked away when the kangaroos decided that the grass was greener on the other side... of the camping site. How cliched are they. We stopped briefly on the bumpy drive out to photograph the most vibrant red heath flowers before swing out onto the highway and a very late lunch in Eden...

My gorgeous guy by one of the giant ant hills scattered through the bush

4.34 p.m. We briefly stopped in to Boydtown, and the historic - so many things were historic that we ended up referring to them as ‘hysterical’ which frankly was lots more fun, and aptly captured some of the more hyperbolic claims to historical greatness - Seahorse Inn, which had a beautiful view yes, but no food, no signs of life (bar two guests sitting on the balcony of their room), and had an air about it of one of the places Dr Who visits where everything seems mysteriously and unnerving quiet mere moments before all hell breaks loose, and they are sucked into another dimension or Daleks appear from behind a curtain. Frankly it was just odd, and after a brief drive up to what looked like more hysterical houses - faux historic really, all built not that long ago - we got back on the road, still hungry, raced through Pambula where everything was shut tight, and into Eden, where we got two freezer bricks from Thrifty Link hardware so our precious Bega cheeses don’t go to crap on the drive home - before driving back to Merimbula, and chips, dips and wine for a leisurely entree (effectively a very late and much delayed lunch) at home in front of the news...

The view from the inn

8.33 p.m. Finally actual food! We did try to get into Zanzibar’s Cafe which has made it into many a Good Food Guide - they seem  very proud of the fact, splashing all across their windows - but were politely turned away so we walked down the street to the Thai Noodle House, and indifferent, if polite, service but thankfully delicious food (a chicken stir fry with chilli, pineapple and broccoli, among other things, and a yummy duck salad). Country Asian restaurant cliches be damned the food was good! But in a sign we tempted fate by going to eat dinner at a Sydney time in a country town, even a resort one, the restaurant did pack up somewhat around us, switching off the drinks machine and mopping, but, eating out gods be praised, not going all Dulwich Hill on our arses, and stacking the chairs around us. For that we were thankful but the meal was quick, and we were home by 9.20 p.m. barely an hour since we left the apartments...

10.20 p.m. Time for dessert! Fruit mince pies (early Christmas yes!), fruit and ice cream... man I love holidays since I would eat anything this bad so late at night, or often at all...

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 298 (Tuesday 25 October) - Roadtrip 3 - Bega & Mimosa Rocks National Park

8.55 a.m. We slept in and it was freaking gorgeous! I did have vague thoughts that we should be out and about touristing our brains out till they’re sauteed in a pan and served with dinner (how very holidaying Hannibal Lecter of us I know) but frankly lying in bed, way after I would normally be at work, with my guy beside me, with no desperate need to be anywhere, was deliriously good. I could seriously learn to live like this, but as my gorgeous guy reminded me, they don’t pay you for this. That seems odd since the universe wants me happy right? Well, yes it does, but it seems to have fairly restricted cash flow so I best enjoy all this lazing around while I can until next Monday comes around...

10.01 a.m. Finally showered, and up and about, and watching Home Heist where two very camp, funny Scottish guys, makeover a house. I know it isn’t edifying, deeply intelligent TV but frankly I don’t care. It’s so much FUN! God bless cable TV...

11.58 a.m. We finally made it out the door after one of those long lovely breakfasts you wish you could have on a week day morning when you’re working, but never have the time to manage since you’re rushing for the train, trying to find the right connection, and wishing you were anywhere but on the way to work... we ate the Coco Pops that Silvana gave me - see my blog of my last day at Optus - followed by crumpets slathered in peanut butter and honey (well I slathered; Steve demurely spread which is far healthier) ... and hit the road, chased by ever more substantial drops of rain, headed for Tathra, a small town nestled about 25km from increasingly un-sunny Merimbula. We did the obligatory ‘are there funky shops, and engaging slightly idiosyncratic town centre?’ drive around, decided there may not be, so instead headed for the Old Tathra Wharf, the only surviving South Coast wharf from the old steamship days (build in 1860s), which also has, or rather HAD, a museum, Even sans-museum, it was fun to look at and the views gorgeous... and there was a gull being all Alpha-ish so all was well...

12.25 p.m. A very friendly beer-holding fisherman told us that he’d just seen whales go past so we dashed up to a nearby lookout, and tried in vain to find said whales which must have moved insanely fast, or been quite adept at not being spotted because all we saw was of rain pelting the windscreen, choppy waves and nary a cretacean...

12.45 p.m. Whale-less, but happy we tried, we hit the road again (I love road trips!) for the Mimosa Rocks National Park, which turned out to be down a winding two way narrow dirt road, fringed by tall gums, and orange dirt ant mounds, and totally worth the trip. We were alone, save for a party of Swedes who turned up just after us, and headed for the 250m walk to Moon Bay beach while we walked the 450m to Wajurda Point which overlooks stunning Nelsons Bay. Inbetween delirious gasping and oohing and aahing at the sheer beauty of the crashing waves, craggy headland, and ragged rocks, I tried out my new 360 degree app which allows you to capture a, you guessed it, 360 degree wrap around view of the scene before you, and renders it as a fabulous photo which my blog may not do justice to, but which makes up for the frustration you feel when a single photo or two (or 300 in my case) doesn’t adequately capture the beauty you’re witnessing... and the beauty was considerable. Still wishing we could stay longer at Wajurda Point, we headed down to Moon Bay, passed the Swedes on the way, and walked onto a beach on which we were alone, with only driftwood, and seaweed strands for company. To be alone on such a pristine stretch of beach, with the man you love, is romantic beyond all else, and in-between taking huge amounts of photo, we strolled along the beach from one end to the other, walking along the sand and admiring gum trees that grew up and down the cliff face to amazing effect. It was beyond beautiful, and I am so thankful that someone somewhere thought it a good idea to save these areas for posterity, a sentiment no doubt shared by the kangaroo that bounded across the track as we were driving out of the park (far enough ahead that we didn’t hit him thankfully), and very helpfully stopped in the scrub on the other side in relative plain sight so we could snap some photos of him. What well trained compliant wild life!

2.55 p.m. Back to civilisation and the urban thrills of Bega. It is a lovely town and we had a great time walking around it but finding somewhere distinctive and one-of-a-kind to eat lunch was a challenge, late though the lunch was. We settled on Pepper Beef pies (and for dessert for me at least a pineapple tart, which I haven’t had in years) at Wood’s Bakery and Cafe, which while making ‘famous’ very yummy pies, lacked a great deal in the cosy, unique eating establishment atmospherics. Hilariously we had no sooner walked out of it and back to the car than we passed the Red Cafe, a funky cafe, with a cool menu, mismatched furniture and all the Newtown vibe you could ask for.Still, the food we ate was yummy, so I am sure we will cope with missing out on the charms of Red Cafe....

3.57 p.m. We ate cheese in Bega! Naturally, we had to go to the Bega Cheese & Heritage Centre just out of town, tour the cheese-making museum (using a lot of castoffs from dairy farmers in the area), find a giant 3 uddered plastic cow (as you do) on the upper floor, shopped in the gift shop upstairs with pensioners (as one does on a week day when normal working folk are chained to their cubicles, crying into their lattes), and bought delicious cheddar in tins (for export only usually; reminds of the Kraft cheese I had in my childhood), 19th Century Cheddar Cheese and Kameruka cheeses which you can only buy in Bega. Love the cheese tasting as we chose them!

5.35 p.m. Back to Coast apartments, via a fine foods store for duck/pistachio & orange sausages, and Woolies for dinner supplies (potato for mash, squash/carrots/broccoli for veges) and a whole lot of chilling while we watched the news. I almost fell asleep but we realised we had no red wine for dinner so we dashed back out and drove the whole 2 minutes to town (so far!), got back, decided we needed some pre-dinner white wine, and spices (it’s a serviced apartment so all the groceries have to be brought in) so dashed back out again convinced the lady at Woolies Liquor would think we’re alcoholics, and came back home for what can only be described as a gloriously romantic dinner. My gorgeous guy had secretly grabbed some candles at the store next door to the fine foods place, put them on a tray surrounded by grapes (red & white), and we ate the duck sausages covered in a fabulous red wine & orange juice gravy with a funky caramelised onion chutney on the side. My god can he cook and the presentation is always superb! So delicious and romantic and we had the loveliest time lingering over pate/crackers for entree, the sausages/mash/veges for dinner and icing sugar covered strawberries with ice cream. I love being surprised like that, and it makes me love him, and this wonderful holiday, all the more....

The most beautiful snuggly end to a lovely day.