Paradise Beach, campsite #82, the best ever free camping site we have been to. Miles of golden clean sand-endless ocean-on a clear day we could see the oil rigs – at times up to 19 can be seen. We saw 2 in the distance and what we thought was Tasmania-but it was low cloud. (I can hear our cuzzie bros/ettes laughing, but have you experienced standing on the beach at Kaiteriteri and being able to see the North Island? – well, that is an awesome experience!
Fishing was relatively successful at 90 Mile Beach. I caught a 2-3 kg salmon on our small rod-baked in the fire-yes, fires are allowed here. It was a bit dry but still fresh fish is always tasty. Murray caught a small mullet-which was moist to eat.
Camping facilities are pretty good too – for a free camp. We camped at Paradise Beach which allows dogs-on a lead. There are toilets and water and on Sundays the ranger comes by and collects your rubbish for a gold coin – consequently we had no mice problems. There are no designated sites and over the weekend the campground does get crowded. We were camped in a fairly private area and this was the first time we really got to know our neighbours; Penny and her dog Bella who ate raw fish heads – they have been on the road 4 years, Ursh, Rachel and their dogs Molly and Beer, Mark and his caravan, Anna and Rod in their 5th Wheeler-Anna does all the driving – ‘The Community’.
This was the first time we had a ‘community’. One Sunday night Anna and Rod, Mark, Murray and I went to the ’dogs’ at Sale. Sunday night is the Greyhound racing night. Apart from Murray-the rest of us had never been-we had a great night betting on names/numbers or studying the ‘form’. The girls came out even and the boys were down!
At other times-we shopped for each other, shared fish, Mark chain sawed wood for the community, generally we helped each other out.
There are 20 camps along a 20 km stretch-some holding up to 20 campers, or some just a few tents-most nestled among teetree-brilliant for putting on the fire to keep the mozzies away, and the gigantic March Flies-what horrible bugs these are-huge blow flies that land and bite-a sharp nip and then about 6 hours late the itching starts-and sometimes swelling-my arm was swollen for 2 days.
Not all sites have toilets and allow dogs-but at the entrance to the sites are NP signs to inform the camper of facilities.
Over the weekend we were joined by 2 German backpackers – Jacob and Mandy who shared our camp fire……
Due to the weather-floods and road closures- preventing us moving we stayed 3 weeks at this campsite. On our last night we hosted the MKR Bake Off-cook bread in your camp oven on your own fire. 5 contestants – 4 men and 1 lady chose their own recipes, myself, Rod and Valerie were judges-judging taste, smell, texture, colour and shape. Everyone won a prize-a bar of Kiwi chocolate eg buzz bar, perky nana, pinky etc. Mike ex Kiwi from Bay of Plenty iwi bought along smoked kawhai-Ozzie Salmon), I made a pot of chicken soup, Mike and Dan made a sweet loaf which spread with homemade plum jam finished off the evening. Anna made sun dried tomato bread, Mark a cheesy rye loaf and Murray a wholemeal seed loaf - A wonderful evening amongst like-minded camping friends.
The next day we left via the Info Centre at Sale-dump our waste and fill with water for our next adventure.
Flood waters and cow dung mixed with a hot day produces the most horrendous smell, rather like putrid sewerage-this is what we smelt as we drove through Orbost- a small country town that was hit hard by the flood.
Bega Cheese Factory – we intended to stop but the carpark was so full and no room for us so we drove on.
We camped beside ‘Dry Creek’ – but as you can see by the photos – it wasn’t dry-the local council had mown the levy bank to kill the snakes – these were making their way into the township.
Eden, Batemans Bay countryside reminded us of James Herriott Country-rolling lush paddocks-so much like NZ. Driving through everglades of mixed un-aged silviculture. We thought we had developed a squeak – so stopped on side of road, squeak still there and stayed with us all the way to Batemans Bay – turned out to be the local bell birds!
After a drive, from Batemans Bay towards Queanbeyan, climbing up to 800 metres, over hairpin bends and through country towns – busy with craft, giftware and cafes, we arrived at Carwoola, to stay with Jan’s sister and family. We are now camped 700 metres above sea level-so far warm days and cooler nights. We wake to the sound of roosters crowing and black cows – Bill, Ben and Flowerpot.
