As we were driving along the road just outside of Bermagui, we passed two cyclists peddling their little hearts out. Their bikes were packed to the nines and, considering it was only 7:30am, they looked like they'd be going at it quite a while. Tom and I had a little chuckle to ourselves and realised that we weren't doing it anywhere near as tough as what we thought we were. Afterall, these two crazy people had their lives strapped to their bikes and really were feeling every kilometre of their journey - while I sat with my feet hanging out of the window in the passenger seat. Seeing them certainly made me appreciate the Troopie a whole lot more.
We hadn't heard anything about Bermagui so held very little expectations about the town. If that means that there are very little people preaching the word of Bermagui then it really is quite an untouched little town. The town itself isn't exactly pretty but it's location is absolutely unbeatable... Even the Fruit & Vegie shop had oceanviews.
We decided to stick around for a little, just to get a feel for this beachside town. So, Tom through a line into the water at the marina. Within less than a minute, "Simpson strikes again"... Tommy Boy was reeling in yet another Flathead. And quite a friendly sized one to!! He had all of the attention from the patrons in the overlooking cafe, he appeared to them as a real expect. Now, looking back, he really should have quit while he was ahead because he then proceeded to stand there helplessly for another hour with not even a bite.
After Tom filleted our dinner and we packed it away, we set about heading out of Bermagui and onto our next camp. As we were leaving, we passed our cyclist friends just arriving into Bermagui. Once again, we thought it was rather amusing that these people had been peddling away while we were busy doing.. well nothing really.
We had been told about this quaint little town called Tilba Tilba just south of Narooma on the NSW coastline. It was a lovely little stopover and had some cute little shops for us to browse .. we're getting exceptionally good at browsing!!!
Beautiful gardens at Tilba Tilba...
After we had exited the bakery to stock up for the day's lunch we drove off in search of our next campsite at Mystery Bay. As we were driving up the 45 degree hill that the Troopie struggled to exceed 40kms/hr, we once again passed our cyclist friends. Poor buggers would have wanted to throttle me when I stuck my head out the window to ask them "Would you like rope?". I instantly felt very guilty for being such a lazy smart arse perched on my lambswool seat with my feet hanging out the window like I owned the town.
Mystery Bay was absolutely divine. I was intrigued by how it got it's name because as far as we were concerned, there was no mystery... we were simply in a beautiful setting with turquoise blue water and white sand. After further investigation, I've since learnt that the bay was named after three men that left in a canoe from Bega heading north to the open ocean and were never seen again. Several months later, their boat was found, no bodies but very heavily blood stained timber. Hence the name of Mystery Bay.
Once we had perched ourselves on our very strategically chosen campsite, we could see on the horizon two figures approaching at a very slow and steady pace. As they came closer, we realised that our cyclist friends had followed us (to come and smash me over the head for being such a smart arse). As we had crossed paths so many times throughout the day, we just had to stop and have a chat. Turns out, they couldn't actually understand me when I said my rope comment so I could have gotten away scott free!!
Lachie & Rebecca were really friendly. They had driven down to Merimbula and were riding their way back to Sydney before Christmas. We invited them over to our place for a couple of cold ones (as we figured they probably didn't have room to refrigerate beers). After they had revealed that the night prior, they were forced to eat raw hokkien noddles because SOMEONE forgot to bring the matches... we were delighted that they accepted our invitation for a very fine dining experience in our dining room. The four of us enjoyed a roast chook (British Translation : CHICKEN!!!) cooked on the camp fire and shared lots of laughs and later discovered that they too had actually stayed at Aragunnu Beach the night beforehand also and somehow - still managed to arrive at Mystery Bay at practically the same time as us! We must drive slowly!!
1 comment:
Hello there Troopsters! Bike girl and bike boy here. Well, we have returned to the world of beds and showers, but really wish we were still hauling our bikes up the hills of the South Coast. We had an awesome time made all the better by meeting the likes of your fine selves! We ended up pulling in at Congo on your advice and loved it, absolutely beautiful. Also, many thanks for the roast Chicken, we feel that we dined like Kings, couldn't have done better with gas or electricity! Yet to try out the beer bread recipe for ourselves but won't be long, I assure you. So Guys, have the Merriest Christmas, here's to an awesome New Year, and stay in touch, we expect to hear from you re: South Australia. Luv Bec and Lach xx
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