Mystery Bay & Narooma

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Sun at last! And some warmth too :-) Our wet clothes were going to take a while to dry out but we were just so glad to be able to spend time outdoors again.

First off, we explored Bermagui by bicycle. We watched the (now calmer but still pretty wild) ocean and Dean had a dip in the manmade sea pools. The waves were so high it looked like he was going to get swept away!

Bermagui done and dusted, we headed onwards to Mystery Bay. A number of people had recommended this place to us and we certainly regretted not having driven the extra half hour to spend the night there instead. It’s absolutely beautiful: a very basic campsite in the foresty Eurobodalla National Park, stunning sandy and rocky beaches, picnic area with gorgeous ocean views … and nothing else! No shops or anything to detract from the simple beauty of the place. The name “Mystery Bay” stems from an incident that occurred there in 1880: geologist Lamont Young and his assistant, inspecting new goldfields for the NSW mines department, hired a boat and crew of three. After they were reported missing, an extensive search only recovered their boat – with heavily blood stained timber – but no bodies. Today, it’s hard to imagine that a crime might have been committed in this idyllic settlement with a population of less than 200.

After Mystery Bay came Narooma, which is a lovely seaside holiday town. You can tell it’s geared towards tourism but it still retains plenty of charm. There are lots of fresh seafood shops and a few charters that will take punters diving off Montague Island, 10km offshore where fairy penguins nest. We opted to cruise around Narooma (I think about four times – it truly is a maze!) and hire a canoe to go out on the water. Except we got the dodgy canoe: it kept going in a circle! Although Dean maintains otherwise, I’m sure that had nothing to with any dodgy paddling! We went for a nice walk before cooking an awesome curry and going for a (slightly creepy feeling) after dark cycle around the foreshore.

We’ve come to the conclusion that our van is possibly haunted. It regularly makes a funny noise – sort of like a large mosquito – when the engine is off. As everything seems to be working fine, we have decided to call our friendly ghost “Lula”.

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Comments

[Simon]

Mystery Bay - Lamont Young
Hi - great to hear you loved Mystery Bay. I am a avid researcher / historian of the Mystery at Mystery Bay. Could you tell where, how or perhaps who you got this information from: "...boat – with heavily blood stained timber..." Having read most of the Police and Mining Files on the case and a book written by Cryril Pearl in 1978, and currently writing a script myself this is the first time I have heard or read the boat was "heavilly stained in blood". Very interested to know more...? And if it so happens you think you may have misquoted somthing or someone that's ok, lots of people have done that - but if there really was blood in the boat I would really like to know for my own research etc. Cheers, Simon

[TeamJD]

Hi Simon Ah, what a great place to research! We really did love it there. Sadly we couldn't stay there overnight, but we plan to go back another time! This is the website where I found the information about the blood stained timber: http://www.exploroz.com/Places/25275/NSW/Mystery_Bay.aspx Admittedly, it's the only reference I saw that mentioned any blood, but I kind of liked it so picked that as part of the story. If the police report didn't mention that though, then I expect the author of that website exaggerated a bit. I hope this helps and good luck with the research :-) Cheers Jackie