Tuesday we went to Batemans Bay.  Dad plays lawn bowls, and he had to go do an umpires test at Malua Bay, so Jan & I dropped him off then headed on to Batemans for our errands and some window shopping.  I posted a box of stuff back to myself in Britain so I wouldn’t have to pay excess baggage charges - $96!!  I could have almost got a courier for that!  Dad passed his tests and we’d picked up some lovely prawns and mussels for dinner – so apart from the ridiculous prices for Australia Post, everything was pretty good. 

Yesterday we went fishing.  There were mini-arguments about where we should go.  We both won. :)

Dad likes beach fishing, but me not so much.  Beach fishing isn’t at all interactive – you can’t tell nibbles from surf movements, you just sort of hurl your line out (hopefully) past the breakers and then leave it for 10mins or so before reeling back in to see if you’ve got anything.  I’m not skilled enough at it to cast my own line out, it always goes sideways and I can never get it out past the breakers, so Dad does it for me.  So all I get to do is sit there and watch the surf, occasionally put bait on my hook, smoke cigarettes and wish we were fishing somewhere else. 

We went to the beach near Brou Lake, just north of Dalmeny, and beach fished for perhaps 2 hours before realising that we all had the same bit of bait on the hook as when we started, so gave up & went home for lunch.  Lunch was pies from Bodalla Bakery (YUM!) and a wee lemon tart – also YUM!

After lunch we went to my preferred spot – off the boardwalk on Narooma inlet, where the water is almost crystal clear, a lovely blue, and I can do almost everything myself.  Literally 30 seconds after I cast my line in, out came my first of 3 leatherjackets!  30 seconds!!  Love it! :)  My 3 leatherjackets were perfect size for toast (Jan’s preferred breakfast) and I also caught a wee bream that we threw back in with instructions to notify its parents of our yummy bait.  (It didn’t, but we didn’t mind too much.)  Jan also caught a leatherjacket for the pot and another wee bream, which we think could have possibly been the same one – what’s the learning curve on a fish?  Anyone?  Dad didn’t catch anything – which also happened last time I was here and we went out in the tinny (for those non-Australians – a tinny is a 12foot aluminium boat, a couple of metal seats and an outboard motor.  Luxury!  Just beware of touching the sides or changing seats on very hot days.  But it does mean you can find fishing spots that those without boats can’t access).

We were on the boardwalk for perhaps 2 hours, and Jan & I caught all the fish, in between spotting the stingrays that inhabit the inlet (they just cruise up & down, eating fish bits from incoming boats, getting their photo taken – quite a good life really) and watching the enormous bloody pelicans skim over the water.  Lovely way to spend an afternoon, especially since the fishes were throwing themselves on my line!

Today, Thursday 10 April and my last full day here, we went into Narooma and wandered about for a wee bit before heading off to Dalmeny Point for a picnic lunch.  After lunch a few hours sitting in the sun were followed by a trip to Naroom a to pickup the fresh lobster we ordered yesterday – lobster thermidore for dinner tonight!  :) 

I’ve been so spoiled on the food front this trip.  Thurs 27 = fresh fish & chips in Ulladulla on the way home form the train station.  Fri = fish & chips for lunch, spag bol for dinner that I cooked.  Sat = pies for lunch, steakfor dinner, I cooked.  Sun = roast chicken, roast pumpkin & lost of roasted veges, I cooked.  Mon = fresh flathead.  Tues = fish & chips in Batemans Bay for lunch, prawns, then fresh mussels in white wine & cream for dinner.  Wed = whole snapper (which I didn’t manage to finish on account of the size of my plate compared to everyone elses).  Thurs = lobster thermidore!!  WhooHoo! I’ve been properly seafooded, which is what I wanted.  The memories of this fabulous aussie seafood has to last me until my next trip, after all, so there’s no point mucking about! :)

I’ve had a great time here, I really do like coming to Dad & Jan’s.  And not just for the seafood!  Really! :)  Swimming in the sea, fantastic countryside, lovely wildlife (rosellas visit the balcony every morning, bellbirds everywhere, magpie and kookaburra song in the mornings, galahs eating grass-seeds in the lawns, fishies, dolphins in the sea that you can see from the balcony, seals, penguins…).  If you’re visiting Australia, I heartily recommend the Sapphire Coast – the NSW South Coast.  Bateman’s Bay to Bega.  You won’t be disappointed.

I’ve had a bit of a fab time all round this trip.  Nell & Gavin’s was lovely – it’s wonderful to be with my sister again.  I miss laughing with her so much!  Mum & John’s was good – brilliant to see all the family (tho exhausting!) and I’m glad I got to set Mum up on the internet.  It should make our conversations much easier! ;) 

But I think, after all this, I’m ready to go home.  I want my own bed and to cuddle my cat.  I’ll even suffer the bloody snow (now I’ve got a reasonable tan ;). 

Oh – and as a final note – thanks to every one of my readers.  I average 45 readers a day, and have passed the 11,000 total mark.  This post makes 299, I should do something special for number 300 I think.  Thanks for your support, thanks for your comments, and thanks for making me believe that someone, somewhere is vaguely interested in what I have to say.  Bless your cotton socks. :)  

See you in Britain. xx 

‘there’s this stuff in the chemist called Quell’

Up at 05:30 this morning for a quick breakfast before heading out on Dad’s mate, Gary’s boat for a bit of deep sea fishing.  And luckily I’ve got my body clock so well trained that I tell it I have to wake up and it does the job for me – I woke on my own at 05:22.  Nice when things work how they’re supposed to.  Tried to stay up late and watch the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix, but it started at 22:30 here and I was fading by then.  Jan & I sat up for perhaps the first half hour, then both gave up & went to bed. 

Anyway, up before the sun today, and at Gary’s house for 06:30.  He’s got an 18ft fishing boat that he takes out as often as possible and offered Dad & me a mornings fishing which, of course, we jumped at.  Gary had all the tackle and equipment, so we rocked up to his place and then with his other mate, John, headed down to the boatramp.  On the way to the boatramp saw a pod of 4-5 dolphins frolicking off the beach near Dad’s. :)  Quiet morning on the sea, very still and calm in the inlet, I was feeling quiet good about the whole thing.  When we got out of the inlet and headed into the actual sea things got a bit rougher.  The boat was being tossed a bit, partly because of speed, partly wind, but I could see a slight swell picking up – nothing to worry about though, and I was with guys experienced in these waters and the boat had plenty of lifejackets.  I felt fine, looking forward to a good day’s fishing in the deep blue.

We headed out to the north end of Montague Island, about 5 miles off the coast, and paid a brief visit to the Australian fur seal colony there.  The sun was just coming out from behind the clouds and I got a couple of lovely photos, as well as just marvelling at the lovely furry beastie’s amazing abilities in the water.  And the fact that they really did like to show off! :)  We headed around the eastern side of the island and then down to the reef on its southern tip, where the water shallowed to about 50-60ft to wet our first lines.  Didn’t have much luck, seemed to feed lots of fish but none came on the hook!  John caught himself a lovely big leatherjacket, but that was about it so we moved on to spot 2. 

I was starting to feel a bit green around the gills at this point.  See, a small boat tends to move to every single little wavelet in the bloody ocean.  I was having trouble finding my sealegs, I seemed to have left them bloody far from where I really needed them.  Despite the bit of toast and cup of tea that constituted breakfast, my stomach started to feel that there was a hell of a lot more in there than that.  I held myself together with a stalwart determination.

Spot 2 fared better.  We each caught a Maori Rasse, which are really pretty fish but not very good eating so they all went back in the sea.  A few little rock cod also jumped on John’s hook (‘See it takes talent to catch one this big!’), and I got myself a small grouper, which was very pretty as well, but all also went back to the sea.  Gary started asking if anyone had a banana on board, which apparently is the cause of most of the fishermen’s woes.  We didn’t, but we were beginning to wonder where the fish were – we’d been out there about 2 & a half hours and only had one leatherjacket to show for it (good eating, but not my favourite – I was after a nice snapper).  I was feeling greener and greener.  My hands and feet were cold and my feet were tingling.  I couldn’t stop yawning or burping, but the nausea seemed stuck in my chest – it wouldn’t come up or go down, it just sat there.  Tried to concentrate on fishing, but looking down at the water made my head spin.

Moved on to spot 3 for a final go before giving up.  Gary found the spot by GPS and said that he’d never come away from there without a few flathead (lovely eating fish!).  I think by this point he was feeling a bit guilty that we hadn’t caught dinner and I was feeling poorly.  I halfheartedly threw my line in again, lost some more bait, then gave up & just tried to control my stomach.  The men kept it up for another 30mins or so and Dad also caught a lovely leatherjacket to add to the lonely one of John’s in the bucket.  The guys were all giving me advice and apparently ‘there’s this stuff in the chemist called Quell’ which is brilliant for seasickness.  Pity the bloody chemist was 6 miles away, onshore!!  Anyway, shortly after they took sympathy on me and  called it quits.  The fish weren’t biting, only nibbling our bait away, and I definitely wasn’t up for an extended session.  We packed up the gear and pointed the boat toward home.  As soon as the boat started moving again my stomach felt better – it was purely the movement of the open sea in the drifting boat that made me queasy.  Took a slightly circuitous route home so I could take some photos, and I was feeling loads better, before getting back to the boatramp about 11am. 

John gave us his leatherjacket to go with our own, and Gary felt bad enough that we didn’t catch anything that he gave me half a dozen fresh flathead fillets from his previous trip out the day before!  Bless him!  Gary, we had them for dinner tonight – absolutely lip-smackingly beautiful!  I do love a good bit of fishy. :)

Got back and went for a swim with Jan.  It’s the middle of autumn here but the water temp is still 20deg and it was lovely!  Spent an hour in the back garden with a book, trying to make the colour on the back of my legs sort of match the residual colour on the front of my legs. My sumburnt legs have healed really well, and they just look brown now – but only on the front.  The back is still pommie white.  Anyway, the hour yesterday and the hour in the sun today helped, there’s a bit of colour there now, definitely enough to prove I’ve been on holidays. 

Saw on the news tonight that it’s still snowing in the UK!  Hehehheeeeee! :)  Got picture message from Begonia showing me the snow in her garden.  I sort of half hope it’s still there when I get back.  Only half though, because I want the warm weather to come now!

Have also made a decision about my job.  My mind rests better.  Tell you later.

hope all are well & happy & not suffering cold feets.. :)  xx