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Published: March 29th 2014
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Moruya North Heads Camp Ground
Settled into our nook by the airfield. Barry is watching the Rex Aircraft taking off. If you zoom in above the trees you'll just see it. We set off for Moruya, after doing the dump and making sure we had a full fresh water tank because the only fresh drinking water at Moruya comes from a large concrete tank that you can fill a container with and carry back to your site.
We had to go through Bodalla on the route we were taking and I was keen to stop and find out why Bodalla Cheddar Cheese was no longer available, as it had been my favourite for years. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see anywhere we could stop with the van on the back so we just drove through it. I’ll have to persuade Barry to go back there another day (which will take some doing as he doesn’t like to backtrack).
We arrived at the campground, which was quite a bit larger than I had expected. There was one area under shade trees and another in a more open grassed space right next to the Moruya Airport runway. We’d been told we couldn’t have the shaded sites as they were all booked for the long weekend that Canberra was having (similar to our Labour Day, I think) so we went to look for a spot
Moruya North Heads Beach
Enjoying the cool refreshing water that was flat and a bit protected. We found a nice nook quite close to the edge of the airport with a small stand of trees beside us. It was roped off for revegetation but still looked nice and housed lots of birds, mainly Red Wattlebirds and Little Wattlebirds. We could hear Rainbow Lorikeets in another cordoned off area of scrubland near us.
We could also see and hear the light planes taking off and landing but that didn’t bother us. In fact, we enjoyed watching them. We saw some planes doing “touch and goes”- doing many take offs and landings in one lesson so you learn quicker. Another plane went up and came back after about five minutes, followed soon after by three parachutists, who had jumped from it. The biggest plane to come in was a propjet for Rex Airlines (Regional Express) which flies to Sydney or Merrimbula, doing two flights in the morning and two in the evening – we think it was like a commuter jet.
Once we were set up we went into the town of Moruya to get some sealant, as Barry had discovered that the fresh water tap to the tank
seemed to be leaking. The township was much bigger than we expected and had a wide range of shops, including a Harris Scarfe, where we bought a sheathed kitchen knife, some teaspoons and some cheap clothing items. Barry found the sealant, too, so we took it all back to the van and he sealed the tap.
There was a beach just over some dunes at the campground so we went to investigate. Typically for Australian beaches, there was a wide expanse of sand with water just on the tide turn. It looked very inviting so I rolled up my pants and went for a paddle. The first step was a bit chilly but it felt great soon after – lovely and fresh. I couldn’t persuade Barry to join me but he strolled along on the beach until we reached a breakwater. Just before it, Barry called me out and pointed to a Bluebottle Jellyfish in the water with its stinger thread trailing behind. Barry was stung by one when he was a child and remembers how painful it was and how long it lasted. This was only a small one – juvenile- but I still decided I’d rather leave
Bluebottle Jellyfish
The long blue threadlike tentacle is full of stingers and hurt a lot, as Barry remembers. the water. We spotted two more washed up on the shoreline, also small ones. Definitely time to leave the water so we headed for the breakwater instead.
The breakwater was made of huge boulders of granite piled up, with a concrete path on top. Moruya is well known for its granite and we discovered that the granite for the Sydney Harbour Bridge came from here. They are very proud of that. We could see fishermen at the end of the path so we strolled along to see if they’d been lucky – they hadn’t! Two cinnamon brown-coloured mammals, similar to rats but moving with a “hoppity” kind of gait, ran across the path in front of us and disappeared into a crevice in the boulders, too quick to get a photo, unfortunately.
At the waterline of the breakwater we could also see some boulders covered in something black, which were occasionally spitting once the wave had passed over them. Barry thinks they are a kind of sea cucumber. As we watched we could see small crabs picking away on top of them. I don’t know if they’re eating the cucumber or trying to eat plants growing on them.
On returning to the van, I started looking for something to make for dinner. I was surprised to find that a few of the vegetables were beginning to go off so I had to do a quick salvage and use up what was left. I ended up frying pieces of red and green capsicum, golden butternut pumpkin, mushrooms and tomatoes, served alongside boiled carrots and green beans. Barry still had a portion of the lasagne to have – except I couldn’t use my microwave as we had no power. I wrapped it in a foil package and dropped it into the boiling vegetable water. Surprisingly, this worked really well and quickly. I also grilled the leftover chips from yesterday, which tasted fine. We topped it off with a wine for me and a beer, "150 lashes", for Barry. It tasted very nice for a knock-up meal!
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