4 months on the road

our travels so far

Yes folks we have been away 4 months, time certainly goes by quickly! Some have asked if we could DO a map to show where we are, so here is our journey so far. A bit of zigzagging, but then we didn’t have a set plan and as you know plans can change!

We have been staying in a variety of accommodation – National Parks, Caravan parks, showgrounds, and the street. For all accommodation except caravan parks, we rely on solar to use our appliances and keep warm. Not a problem when the sun is shining.

One weekend we decided on a bush location – quite cheap, had a picturesque dam in the middle and a bush drop toilet – one of the cleanest drop toilets I’ve seen to date. It even had magazines to read, books to swap, pamphlets of the area and fairy lights – essential in the pitch black of darkness when trying to locate the loo at night. Honestly when it is pitch black it is easy to get disorientated.

All good except when we arrived a thunderstorm was looming and when it broke out it was quite spectacular to watch from the bus. However, it pretty much poured all afternoon, all night and the next day. Was cold and although we did manage a fire to cook up some locally caught fish (not by Don), the rain persisted.

This was the first time that it had rained for so long and we were trapped in the bus. There was no where to go, was cold to boot and with no sun shining on our solar panels, turning on the electric heater was not advisable (remember we have a full-size fridge that runs 24/7). The priority suddenly became the diesel heater.

Odd thing, being marooned in the bus consequently we didn’t move about much because of the minimum space in the bus. Our legs were very sore from sitting! Both of us are people who move often and not ones to be seated for too long - even when I’m working I get up every couple of hours, go for a walk etc, but being stranded in the bus and perhaps the lack of blood circulating, our legs were extremely sore!

We decided that in future if we think it will rain for a long period, to camp in a town where there is more to do and keep warm and be in a caravan park with power! Or rent out a house on Air BnB!

2 pants suit and 1 dress

Heading out of the campsite through the town of Moruya, I spot a dress. It’s on a mannequin outside the shop and told Don to immediately pull over.

We headed in and one of the lovely things about country towns is time. People have lots of it. The dress had only just arrived – wasn’t on the rack in the shop. The lady very kindly went out the back, got my size and zipped me up. It fitted beautifully and not only did I buy the dress, I also bought two (on sale) pant suits. Ok they were for summer and summer was ending, but so super comfy and ideal for the outback!

Of course, each time I buy a dress the inevitably Is there a special occasion? No not really, I said,  We dance and I enjoy wearing dresses. I do vary my responses from time to time, but today it was I dance. Well not only did the sales lady get excited, so too did a couple of the other ladies in the shop. They wanted us to do a quick demo (in the dress), which we happily obliged, which they filmed and were going to upload to their facebook page. They asked where we were headed and told us to look up dances in the area and were so helpful! I left quite happy with my purchases.

If you are ever in Moruya stop in at Eve’s Place Fashions, look around and chat with the lovely and friendly attendant and locals.

Tathra
Well wasn’t this a big secret. Where do I start? Ok I’ll start with the pub.

Tathra Pub	View from Tathra Pub

We walked inside and immediately felt the difference. It had been renovated recently and guess what? No pokies, No large TV screens blaring sport, No gambling, No spilt drinks - it was like such a different feel.

So what was there? Live music, an amazing view as it is situated on a headland, great food and a quirky crowd, with a few quirky bits – such as…

• We started the week with live music on the Sunday night where we had a bit of a dance.
• Monday saw us attend a film makers night where we wanted to see if we could get any tips regarding our videos which incidentally paled into comparison to theirs, but they were very supportive
• The Thursday night it was pub choir night, so we hot footed ourselves back there again to join in with the singing (well me actually – read below).
• Friday was open mic and were treated to some great music from Tathra’s younger community, who incidentally were pretty good.

I believe they had live music on the Saturday night - a 3-piece Japanese Celtic band that I would have loved to hear – just the quirkiness of the name made it sound interesting – Japanese doing Celtic??  but it was time for us to leave by then.

Before	After

At the Tathra Pub

On the menu at the pub was Tathra Oysters – locally grown we were told, just up the hill. So we took a walk and found the place. They have been winning awards consistently since 1991. We were rewarded with the best dozen oysters we have had in a long time!

Being entertained by
Frankie J Holden

As a side note, the caravan place we stayed, unbeknown to us, is partly owned by old rocker FJ Holden (Old 55) who on the Sunday evening when we arrived, gave a little concert where he sang some of his old and new songs. Was an entertaining night.

Old Wharf
One of the lovely things about these coastal towns and villages is the history. Tathra had is Wharf where once upon a time it was a hub for coastal shipping and now it's a heritage listed wharf that is also an gallery and excellent cafe. More importantly was the view!

Enjoying the view at Tathra old wharf Tathra old wharf

Yoga

We got ourselves organised and found a couple of yoga classes to attend. The first one was your typically yogi – all Zen, calm but also involved the use of a chair for stretching amongst a few other equipment ie bolster, block – normal in yoga class. We went along with it.

The second one we attended, Don and I though we could walk it – after a 40 min trip past the sewerage works (the name of the road/bush track was aptly named Poo Ponds Mountain Bike Trail – I kid you not, then up (read uphill) thru the burnt-out bush (from last year’s fires) we came to an ordinary house. She ran the class for just the two of us. This one too featured a chair, along with 2 bolsters, blocks, mat, strap, another bum seat and a chair. In the one-hour class, we used every bit of equipment, including the wall and it felt hurried from one pose/stretch to another. By the end of the session we had used every bit of equipment and basically built a small castle where we sat inside to hide in and Zen out….

Burnt out bush

more burnt bush

The town is still recovering after the bush fire. There was plenty of evidence of the fire, even though the regrowth has started. One caravan park lost cabins and is still closed a year later.

We sprung a leak

Another rainy night, so here I am making myself a hot almond milk raw cacao drink, spilt a bit, cleaned it up and then started organising a few of my clothes when suddenly, I feel water splashing against my arm. 

Thinking I hadn’t turned water off, or left some sodden sponge somewhere, I look up to see water pouring out of the skylight. I call out to Don who was transfixed on some soccer match online. He promptly gets into action and pulls off the skylight cover and looks about. Yep there was a couple of holes where water was getting in. 

We were booked on the courtesy bus to head up to the Tathra pub to participate in the pub choir and the lift was due. Don said, you go, I will follow once I sort this out. So, leaving Don to sort out the leak, I headed up to the pub on my own.

When I arrived, the pub was empty but within 15 minutes it was packed for the pub choir. It is so good to see the community support such events. What, a lot of fun the pub choir turned out to be. We were taught to sing along to two original songs with the guy who wrote them.

The leak? Well Don kept texting to give me updates. Eventually the rain stopped long enough for Don to “lift” the front of the bus onto blocks, thus putting the bus at an angle so any water would “drain” away rather into the holes and into the bus. This was an interim until such time that Don could borrow a ladder and silicone up the leaks.

He texted to say send the courtesy, bus to collect him, which I did. The driver went to collect him but somehow, he missed Don and returned. Bus driver came to me to say he wasn’t there. So I’m texting Don who was saying send him again and I was about to when the pub choir ended. It wasn’t meant to be for Don that night.

Merimbula

Ok I’m getting better now at researching what’s available in towns. We leave Tathra and head to Merimbula, where I scheduled in Yoga, movie nights and through the power of Facebook (and our new-found friends in the Moruya dress shop), found some old time dances that were held during the week. I did contact them via FB and although they were happy to have us come along, they did feel that perhaps their music wouldn’t suit our style.

We arrived in Merimbula on a lazy Sunday afternoon - after a quick look around, we drove out Pambula way to the Longstocking Brewery

Gary Carson Jones’ band was playing and was such great music. We got up and had a dance along with a few rock and rollers. A woman came up to me after we sat to catch a breath, with her phone opened on my personal FB page and asked me if that was me. After saying yes, it turns out she was one of the ladies from the old-time dance group - Dance Merimbula! She enjoyed our dancing and welcomed us to the group the next evening which we turned up. She told us we were lucky as it was “supper night” and we would get tea and cakes! Well with that kind of invitation how do you refuse??

The dances

We attended on the Monday night and managed to even “bring a plate”, Don made vegan bliss balls! There was about 20 people and the dance floor was superb (it was in a church hall). We marvelled at how well they danced, and we managed to dance to their songs, and even learnt a couple of their dances! They marvelled at how well we danced! 

We even both individually won prizes – I chose (there were choices - from a box of tea, blocks of cheese, jar of peanut butter and jar of honey) honey as it was from Beechworth and we needed honey and I love the honey from Beechworth! When Don won he chose a block of cheese! Super friendly and although we had walked and were happy to walk back (about 20 min walk each way) they kept offering us lifts back to where we are staying!

On the Sunday night (after the lovely afternoon at the brewery) we headed to the local RSL where they had a karaoke night. We aren’t fans of karaoke, but we thought we could get a couple of dances in before people drank enough to get up to sing. So, I went up to the guy and asked if he could play some songs for us to dance (our kind of music that is), which he happily obliged.

As we sat to catch our breath, two women we had met at Moruya at the dress shop spotted us and headed over to join us for the evening. They had remembered us from the shop! Small world.

The highlight of the night was when a 4-year-old got on the dance floor for a bit of a jig, just as Don and I were leaving the floor. The DJ put on Baby Shark - you know the song. I can report to tell you that I sang along with the little girl and performed the actions AND I knew all the words AND the actions and performed a rousing rendition of the song with her – to the applause of the audience!

Buckwheat pancakes

I'm getting good at cooking in confined spaces. One morning I decided to make buckwheat pancakes - from scratch. Ground the buckwheat and made a very sloppy batter, which is always the case when you go a little alternative. Nevertheless I persevered and got the best tasting pancakes!

The Picture Show, Merimbula

As we did in Huskisson, we like to support local picture theatres and there was one in Merimbula, so we decided to catch a couple of movies. The first we saw was Hotel Mumbai based on a true story and filmed by an Australian. This was rather gripping from beginning to end! The second was Shazam – well let’s say if you took a ten-year-old boy – he would have enjoyed it.

Well enough for now - till next time....