Thursday 04/01
Vlog by Isabelle: see below
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By me:
We wake up quite late: 9am. It rained again during the night. We take our shower, prepare the breakfast and then we realize that the checkout is at 10am. I ask an extension till 11am. Time to eat the breakfast and to pack everything (we have 2 tents, the one on the roof being easier to fold) and we leave at 11:30am.
We first go to Hyams Beach, the beach with the whitest sand in the world. We put the kids at one spot and then walk the entire beach, which is 2.5 km long. The weather, which was bad (grey) so far, becomes suddenly very nice. It’s something we notice in Australia: you can never predict the weather: not only the weather forecast is often wrong (contrary to the other countries we’ve been to) but the weather changes so quickly. Even when it’s raining in the morning, you have to put sunscreen since the sun might be shining a few minutes later.
Our walk lasts one hour. We swim a bit with the kids; the water is cold. We walk in the other direction, towards Chinaman’s Beach and go back to our camper.
It’s 2pm and the kids are hungry. Isabelle finds a picnic area on her app WikiCamps, which is quite useful (it indicates and details all the camping sites). We prepare a salad and install our table and chairs on the grass in the shadow. Nice place for a picnic.
We continue our drive South. We have to pick Ludivine at the bus station in Mogo at 7pm. We stop on the road in Ulladulla. Kids eat an ice cream (6.5 $ per scoop!) and we then go to a viewpoint near the lighthouse. From there we go down to the sea to see what the fishermen catch. One of them got one big abalone clamp, another one got 2 octopuses. Florence and Jules take them in their hands and even if they are dead, their tentacles still suck their fingers.
We continue until Mogo where we arrive 2′ after Ludivine, waiting for us at the bus stop of this sleeping village.
We continue for 10km, till Moruya. We want to eat something (it’s 7:30pm and everything starts to close) before we stop for the night. Tonight we sleep in a “free” camping, i.e. in a parking area along the motorway, where it’s permitted.
In Moruya, we eat in a basic ‘fish & chips’ on the main road. We take different fishes and some squid rings. We go and eat in the nearby bar where Isabelle ordered a beer.
We drive 5 km backwards, to the parking where we’ll spend the night. There’s nothing except (basic) toilets. Other campers are already there and more are arriving (the zone is nearly full, with a bit less than 10 campers).
The most annoying thing is not the lack of shower (we are still salty and creamy) nor the dirty toilet nor the noise of the road nearby but, as often, the fact that we can’t settle ourselves in a “proper” environment to read or work on our laptop.
We set up the roof tent, where the kids fall rapidly asleep (9:30pm). Isabelle and I decide to sleep inside the camper (it’s not worth to set up the tent just for a night; we’ll leave early tomorrow morning). It’s not too uncomfortable.
We fall asleep around 11pm.
Friday 05/01
By Ludivine:
This morning we woke up and ate breakfast; cereal and fruit like every day. Then we took 45 long and annoying minutes to pack up everything (tent, table, etc). A few minutes after leaving we stopped by a small shopping area to buy flip-flops for me because I had lost them, post a letter to my grandparents, and more. After 2 hours on the road we got to a beach where we went on our air mattresses on the waves which was pretty fun. After that, we made a salad and ate by our hippie van. Even after that we went back in our car for 2 more hours where we read, listened to music, played on our phones, looked out the window and such. We stop at Woolies to get some food for tonight then we head to the camp. At the camp we’re on our way to the pool when we see other children feeding rainbow lorikeet with bread so we get bread and start feeding them and they come in our hands and it was so cute, except for the fact that they pooped all over us. Then we’re about to go to the pool when we see kangaroos across the road! So we go there and take pictures and it’s actually so cool how they jump to get around. Then we finally end up going to the pool for a while then we take our showers. After our showers dad found a tick on his leg so we have this whole surgery thing and finally decide not to go to the hospital until he feels the symptoms of possible diseases that the tick can transmit. By then it’s 8:30 and we go the kitchen to make dinner. By 9:30 dinner is ready and we eat bbq salmon, beans, and rice. After that we went to bed and we sleep well.
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By me:
We wake up around 8am. The night was not too bad.
Most of the cars / campers that were on this camping spot are still there; they are packing, to be ready to leave. We take our breakfast and pack everything. It’s not the best part of the day.
We stop in Moruya. I go and print some documents at the local library. These municipal libraries are very nice, with free Wi-Fi. We could consider these places to stop for a few hours to do the homeschooling when we are with the camper.
We stop on a nice beach, in Mystery Bay, in Eurobodalla National Park. Sand is white and water very clear. We swim and walk on the beach. We prepare our lunch (salad) and eat in the nice picnic area.
We continue to Merimbula, our destination today (roughly at mid distance between Sydney and Melbourne).
Before arriving, we stop at a lookout in Tathra.
In Merimbula, we stop to shop for the dinner of tonight. I buy fish in a nice fish shop: salmon, snapper and squid rings (calamari) while Isabelle goes to Woolies.
We arrive at the camping site around 6pm.
The kids feed lorikeets. The girls swim in the swimming pool.
We then see a big group of wild kangaroos, just alongside the camping site.
Then, after the shower, I discover that I have a tick in my left leg. During lunch, a lady warned us about ticks in the place we set up our table (she had one last week and had to go back to Sydney to cure her serious illness). I don’t panic easily but I must admit that I’m a bit afraid. Isabelle tries to remove it with our special tick tweezers but one “part” stays inside, which is apparently the most dangerous thing because it can expel ‘venin’. Isabelle tries to remove the remaining part with normal tweezers and I then put ice on it. One of our neighbours calls his mother who is a nurse. She says that if I don’t feel nauseous during he night, everything will be fine. Otherwise I must go to the hospital. Let’s see.
It’s already 9pm. We prepare dinner in the nice kitchen. I cook the fishes on the barbie. It’s very good.
Kids are in their roof tent at 10pm. We follow them shortly after. We sleep in our tent tonight.
I write the summary of the day on my phone until 11:30pm.
