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Today we leave the coast of Victoria and head into New South Wales. The road quality has a subtle difference and the signs are different but still we travel along mountainous roads lined by National Parks of dense forest. The trees are now spotted gums and there are many more tree ferns. The constant tinkle of Bell birds is the predominate bird sound. ‘Watch out for wombat’ signs still appear frequently, though evidence of them is insignificant. Back in Victoria it was not uncommon to see them basking in the sun legs heavenward looking more chubby than normal. The signs in Victoria are a dark silhouette while here in NSW it is just an outline of their shape. Is that a message in itself?
A daring black cat taking a risk, raced across the road. We must have only just missed it. An omen?
We stayed in the Big4 Caravan Park about 4 km from the town of Eden. It was nestled in a small valley that overlooked Quarantine Bay.
A peaceful bay with a largely sandy beach, steep ochre cliffs, a few rocky outcrops and waves that seemed to break simultaneously from one end of the
beach to the other in a noisy crash.
When it is low season you often get to walk around the park and choose your own site. Here we were given a raft of sites from which to choose. As we wandered most of these were towards the back end of the park. We noted one facing the foreshore which was not occupied and wondered why we hadn’t been offered that one. Back in the office with our selection, the girl said to us, ‘Of course there is this one but it is a bit more expensive.’ She was offering us the one we had just discussed. This one would be $28 per night. ‘We’ll take it.’ This was much cheaper than many of the other places we had stayed previously so off we went chuckling to ourselves.
A short stroll to the beach for a fish … in fact you could just about pitch your line from this site. Greg even managed to catch 5 fish, although 4 he returned. Two double headers even.
This was election day. We had brought a bottle of bubbly red with us especially for this day. We figured
it would be for celebration or commiseration. Like many we were stunned by the result. It was not at all what we were expecting. At least retirement can go on!
On one side of the bay way in the distance is a Naval wharf and near it a woodchip loading wharf. Once a quarantine location, the wharf on the opposite side of the bay is now used by many amateur fishers who use the fish cleaning stands
to clean their catch. A heap of birds, mainly pelicans and a number of very large stingrays hang around for an easy feed.
Eden is a busy deep-sea fishing port. Both times we were in town … the wharf area is the hub of dining and tourist activity … trawlers were unloading their catch. One boat had entirely Australian salmon. These were being off loaded, packed in ice and loaded into the back of a semi waiting to take them to Sydney. These were large fish, 2 – 3 kg each. Traditionally these have been used largely as lobster bait but there is a push on to make them more attractive to the consumer market. We had a very
nice Australian salmon dish at Miriam’s in Lakes Entrance. Another case of making something plentiful, cheap and less attractive into a desirable product.
Next day another trawler was being off loaded. A variety of fish, obviously deep sea by the large size of their eyes.
Apparently, Cruise Liners also call into this port. Current wharf development will allow more and larger ships to use the port.
Near the wharf are a number of mussel leases. We dined on these and other local seafood for lunch and then locally smoked mussels and Greg’s fish in a pasta dish for dinner. Unfortunately, due to the drought, eels for smoking have been in short supply. Pity, we were really looking forward to getting some of these.
Back to dabbling a line in the afternoon and then some preparation for moving on in the morning.
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