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Published: April 15th 2010
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Early morning at Depot Beach Day 336 - Depot Beach to Mystery Bay
We woke up with a big of a spring in our step this morning so hot footed it down to the beach to see what we could see. A beautiful, undisturbed stretch of sand greeted us with soft waves and gorgeously tempting blue ocean. It looked good but one dunk of the toe gave away the fact that it was freezing cold!
Talking of toes, I’m lucky to have all of mine still intact! A couple of crabs had dug themselves into the sand about 5ft from the shore line and accidentally stood on one of them. He wasn’t too happy and flexed his muscles a bit so Dar decided to dig him out and return him to the sea so he’d have a better chance of survival. And there you all were thinking that we were going to cook him …. we could have, but we didn’t!
When we’d left the caravan it had been surrounded by Kangaroos and quite a number of them were still around when we got back. They’re inquisitive little things and not nearly as big as the ones we encountered in South Australia!
So today we’re on the move again and that means we’re getting less likely to be able to catch up with Donna, Ross and little Jackson before we leave to return home. It’s disappointing but we didn’t give them much notice we were in the area at all and Donna is back at work in Sydney CBD these days. We know that she will relish being back in the corporate world but she’ll miss Jackson terribly so it will be a tough time until they get used to their new routine. Next trip we’ll make sure to catch up with them all again but for now we’re going to continue travelling down the coast towards Mallacoota.
There are a couple of prospective camp grounds for us to lay our weary heads this evening, Congo Point is the first one we check out. It’s 10km south east of Moruya and right on the beach. As we’re driving in the phone goes and coincidentally it’s Donna. It’s great to speak to her and we’re sorry to have come so close to meeting up again only to miss the opportunity. The reception is rubbish and the phone cuts in and out which
Sea Eagle
Depot Beach drives us both crazy so we agree to talk again before we go home.
Congo Point is nice enough, some would probably say it’s gorgeous but there was something about it that didn’t seem quite right for us. It’s $10 per person per night so it might have been the cost that put us off but it was more likely to have been the potential for mass mozzie attacks when the sun went down as it was right on the estuary next to the beach. What ever it was after a few minutes discussion we turned around and travelled back to the highway to check out the next option which was further south.
There’s not an abundance of free camping along the New South Wales coastline, in fact we’re not sure there’s any at all! What we do find (with the help of Camps 5) is a site called Mystery Bay Primitive Campground. This one is south east of Narooma and that little bit closer to the road we need to take when we start heading back towards Mansfield and the high country.
We find others already camped up but there’s lots of space left so check
out the prices and talk to those here enjoying the atmosphere already. There are clean drop toilets here (which don’t smell, always a bonus!) and if you squint your eyes you get a beach view from the caravan! Just like there was something not quite right about Congo for us, we feel there’s something exactly right about Mystery Bay. What a funny thing, can’t really explain it but Mystery Bay will be our base for the next couple of days.
I’m so behind on the blogs that I decide to spend time looking out over the view and working on some of the updates. Darryl supports me in that decision by going for a walk down on the beach, around the camp area and over the cliffs! I hate missing out but today I have to get stuff done so tuck my head in and get on with it.
Whilst I’m sitting in the car working away a stream of women come past chanting and singing. Now I’m not one to stop what I’m doing and stare, but I just can’t help myself! None of them are talking, just humming, singing or chanting and they’re heading for the
beach. Good luck Dar!
What Dar saw was a group of women wandering down to the beach, congregating in a single area and then either going for a swim or remaining in the group reading or chatting. He smiled and said hello to a couple but didn’t get much of a response, maybe they’re a ‘women only’ group?!
Bored with aimlessly wandering about Dar decided to have another shot at fishing and we drove down to the other side of the beach where I remained seated in the car still working on the blogs but at least I had a different view!
Dar went clambering over the rocks with his rod, bait and tackle hoping for some much earned success! After an hour or so I heard him yelling my name and urging me to run to the rock. I didn’t catch why but chucked everything in the car and started running in his direction. Unfortunately I was a bit slow with my climb over the rock and I missed the huge pod of dolphins which had been swimming close by - they were the reason for the urgency. Good on him for trying to get me
down there in time though.
The bay was named in memory of a real life mystery, the discovery of an abandoned small boat in 1880. Five men had been aboard the boat, 2 of them were government geologists and none of them were ever seen again. It's a mystery that has never been solved.
Hmmm, it had been a while since I’d last clapped eyes on Mr Howells. Perhaps I should go and check!
Of course I found him safe and sound but it took a bit of searching! He was on the highest point of the furthest rock and the chap who was fishing with him was packing up because the waves were getting too rough! Darryl now had his left over bait too so there was no way he was going to move until the sun came down. When he did finally make his way down his bucket was still empty and his exit path was flooded with the incoming sea water!
Back at camp we were tempted to light a fire but without wood it was a bit difficult. We hadn’t really come prepared had we! Camping without power but with the caravan
is a breeze. We can go for a couple of weeks now without power, my how we’ve learned the tricks of the trade over the last year. If only we’d known what we know now at the start.
We get new neighbours quite late on in the evening but they’ve brought plenty of fire wood with them so we’ll be sure to get to know them in the morning!!
Dar and Sar
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Isabelle
non-member comment
Bravo!
We are 21 days away from going to Australia. We are a familly of 4. My kids are 8 and 6 years old. We will be renting a camper van for 14 weeks. Anything we should know before getting there? Our blog address is www.mytb.org/parentbellemare but it is in frech.... It seem like you were able to put a blog entrie almost everyday... is the internet connection easy to get or were you saving your entries and posting them whenever you could get a connection? Any advice on what we should absolutely not miss??? Thanks a lot and good luck on your return.... it will be hard getting back to your old life and habit, that year trip surely changed you... isabelle