Author: Mrs A
Location: Eden, NSW
Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny so we decided to launch our kayak in Curalo Lagoon, beside the campground. Our friends from Canberra, Catherine and Dave also had kayaks so joined us for an explore. The lagoon is very shallow, so we only paddled about 4km all up, and predominantly just floating on the glasslike surface. Not a bad way to start the day, however!
After a fabulous team BBQ brunch, a group of us decided to try burning off some of the calories with a bike ride into town. Eden is famous for its incredible coastline with spectacular views. This means of course hills so we really did burn a calorie or two, but the views are worth it.
We rode down to the wharf where a large cruise ship had just arrived, and enjoyed coffees down there before heading back to camp.
John, Eveliene, Mr A and I decided to go for a stroll along Aslings Beach, hoping for a return visit of the dolphins we saw the night before. None showed themselves, but it was a lovely walk nevertheless.
After showers it was most certainly beer o’clock and the evening began. A delicious Ward spag bol was concocted followed by a very tasty dairy free chocolate birthday cake from Jenny. Much fun and laughter and a lovely birthday eve eve had.
We finally emerged onto the main waterway of the Bega River, and decided to explore upstream.
Minimal breeze meant mirror calm water, perfect paddling, with a few observers from the shore.
A quick ‘comfort stop’ and we headed back to our launch point, being carefully tracked by nosy roos and 13km under our belts.
It was time to move on again and make the short drive down to Eden, stopping en route at the beautiful little town of Perimbula for some supplies.We set up camp and shortly after, the gang arrived from Sydney. It was great to see them all after the emotional events of the last week. Nothing like old friends to help you get perspective.
So let the good times roll, after a short ride along the beach then back for some afternoon nibbles and drinks. We made everyone dinner and then some more friends from Canberra arrived. We had a full team.
Around 6pm we decided to head out to the Tathra Hotel for dinner. It had been recommended as a spot to go to, and we could see it was a nicely painted heritage building from the outside. As we entered, I expected the usual stinky sticky carpets and dark dingy walls of the typical Australian pub, but was nicely surprised. The interior has been freshly renovated, with a lot of money spent and some great interior architecture and design in place. It looked fantastic, with high ceilings, and huge windows making the most of the views across the ocean. We settled onto a table with an ocean view and ordered our food. We accompanied this with a craft beer for Mr A and a local winery Tempranillo for me – just delicious. The food was great too – my curry a little mild for my liking, but still tasty.
Wednesday morning saw us packing up and driving to a MUCH nicer campsite just 5km away in Kalaru. Lots of space, birds, wallabies, unspoilt bushland and close to the Bega River for potential kayaking opportunities. We set up early and relaxed with brunch to make plans for April, realising we have the Easter period quickly approaching when every decent campground is likely to be fully booked and full of children. We made bookings, including a couple with friends who have kindly offered us places to stay at the busiest times, and now feel a lot more in control.
We then jumped on our mountain bikes to head off on a ride. We had only made it about 500 metres when a phone call came which shook our world. We had the horrible news that a good friend back in Sydney had lost his battle with depression. Just awful, we feel there must have been something we could have done to prevent this happening…how could we have fun while a friend was in so much pain? We spent a tearful hour or so calling other friends to let them know the bad news, and considered heading back to the caravan to reflect.
Tonight is not to be an alcohol free night. Barbecued lamb chops on a pumpkin hummus will be accompanied by spinach with toasted walnuts and a lemon and lime dressing. We will toast our friend and hope he is in a happier place tonight. There will certainly be more tears from us before the day is out…
We climbed up into a forest of spotted gums, the smell after the rain was just amazing. 
A very quick run back down the hill and we had made a great little loop ride (15km). I’m absolutely loving the new gears on my bike. A twist grip rather than levers which were so painful to use with my dodgy hand (touch of osteo). Mrs A struggled to breathe a bit on the hills but with her usual can do attitude just got on with it. She’s determined to not let this illness hold her back if she can overcome with the power of her mind.
The area’s traditional custodians are the Yuin Aboriginal people, and evidence of their use of the lakes as a food resource is evident in the piles of shells (middens) that we could see around its edge. Cormorants dived around us, black swans took flight even with our stealth like approach. Catherine spotted a bush wallaby looking apparently surprised to see this a 7 plus metre long boat disturbing his morning constitutional. The lake is so shallow kayaks are the only craft that animals would see on most of the water. Jellyfish were moving along in swarms, quite beautiful the way they just ripple along.
Nine kilometres later and we were back at our caravan, and me racing to turn on the BBQ. Delicious sausages brought from Orange, fresh eggs and of course baked beans resting on home made toasted sourdough. A brunch fit for paddlers!
We had followed our noses and found ourselves at Bermagui Fishermans Wharf. A $5M development funded by the government to try and support the fishing industry after revoking of licenses to try and create more sustainability.
We had ridden almost all of the way on dirt or back roads. What an awesome ride. Oh and just before we arrived back there’s a sign for the Camel Rock Brewery! It was meant to be. I ordered “whatever you’re brewing” and the barman said “we’ve actually run out”. Just as I was picking myself up off the floor the other bartender comes round the corner and says “the new brew is just ready on the tap”. It was just that kind of day. It was delicious. A cold beer and a cycle are a marriage made in heaven.
This area has been a gathering place for various Aboriginal tribes, the abundance of seafood in the many lakes and estuaries seems to have been the big draw card. The boards talked respectfully of tapping into the knowledge of the traditional owners to help manage this beautiful stretch of coast. It really does look like the councils here actually have a coherent plan. There were no out of place developments spoiling views. The public areas all neat and scenic.
The cycleway seems to be another success judging by the amount of use it was getting on a weekday. It was a community project started in the 60s and stretches from the south of Narooma through to the next town to the north, Dalmeny. Over 600,000 volunteer hours where contributed by the locals. All inspired by the town mayor with a vision, not of feathering his nest from developers dollars, as seems to frequently the case, but to link the two communities and inspire them to work together. The end result, a 12 kilometre stretch of some of the best coastal riding we’ve ever experienced. It was heartening to see it so well used by local cyclists of advanced years – more advanced than me even.
On the way back we stopped by a boat ramp as we saw a crowd had gathered, and there were more seals being fed fish scraps, and then massive stingrays 2 metres across were amongst them. The rays even came up onto the concrete ramp for a pat (or a fish titbit I suspect). Narooma is like one big sealife show – fantastic.
We finished the day with a stroll from our campsite out onto Handkerchief beach a few hundred metres away. The storms over the last few days are still making themselves felt with a powerful swell. 
However, we have rebooked on our Montague Island trip tomorrow, so hopefully the sea has calmed a little more overnight, or we are in for a very rough ride.
It was bed sheets and clothes washing today, blustery and sunny, ideal conditions, in fact so windy Catherine nearly took off with the sheets. While they dried we headed off on the bikes for our customary exploration of our surroundings. A big thumbs up, we have riverside, beachside, surfside, the lot.
(Below: one of the many jellyfish we spotted in the creek)
Superb surroundings, and looking forward to sharing them with our friends Michelle and Dan who arrive tomorrow night for the weekend, complete with their double kayak matching ours.
We returned to camp via a few groceries, and made a start on packing up ready to move on, before having showers and getting ready for dinner. Mr A called out in delight as he found a family of ducks and ducklings exploring around our kayak – they were the cutest and definitely deserved a photo!
We had decided to book dinner out in Huskisson, originally not realising it was Valentines Day, but then post justifying our dinner decision with that as an excuse! A few friends had mentioned Wild Ginger as a location – a restaurant specialising in South East Asian food, particularly Thai but incorporating a multitude of flavours and influences. The chef had worked at some top Thai restaurants in Sydney, so we had high hopes.
All the food was delicious, the service was a little average – a 45 minute wait between entrees and mains, and staff that carefully avoided eye contact when you tried to reach their attention! Still, we had a lovely evening, and cycled the 2km safely back to camp afterwards along the cycle lanes.
We also noticed that the town looked pretty much the same as it did years ago when we last visited. After our shock at how Orange had changed (and not for the better), it was a relief to see at least Husky has not been exploited by developers with a friend on the council.
Brunch was calling so we headed park to our launch point and I fired up the Weber. It was our first bacon and eggs of the trip, and won’t be the last I can tell you! Catherine toasted some sweet potato slices instead of having bread…not bad.
It really was awesome, massive sting rays were lurking in the water, their blinking eyes the only clue they were there.
After we got past some houses we didn’t see anyone else on the river. Very tranquil, its what we love about kayaking. We saw heaps of water birds, including a kingfisher flashing his bright blue wings as he chased some lunch. Cormorants aired their wings in the sun, an eagle flashed overhead chased by a crow. We felt at peace with the world, remembering that this was a Tuesday morning and how privileged are we to be enjoying this life.
We paddled back to camp and decided to head into Nowra, we wanted to buy a Soda Stream and this would be our last chance. We drink a lot of sparkling water and wanted to be free from picking up our 6/7 bottles a week and then creating all that plastic waste, often in areas with no recycling. We tested it out and were pretty happy with the result.
We returned for a fabulous salad of fresh produce from Barb and Omar’s garden and sheep cheese for lunch.