Pambula, 30th April, 2025

 Got away at 8.00pm as we had a big driving day stopping and starting between the Towns north of us in Pambula up to Betmagui  and back down again for our 2nd night in Pambula. Doing this has completed going up the Sapphire Coastal Drive  which we started on Monday in Wonboyn and completing today at Bermrgui.  We left this morning in the rain and immediately thought why are we doing this big drive today. But hey, we are here to see these places Hail Rain or Shine. Off we went and had a real mixture of Rain Cloud and sunshine. The photos will show when raining or thick cloud and sun. Long day got back to camp about three. I have given headings of the name of the towns we are at going through.

MERIMBULA

Still raining having a drive round our first town MerimBula looking down over the bar from Rotary Park

Zooming in over the bar.

Looking over the Oyster beds

TATHRA

Driving on  out to Tathra Heads.  Standing on the lookout platform you can see the rain storms out at sea. Still overcast here but the rain easing off.

Looking down over the cliffs. Very swelly seas coming in and slashing against the rocks and rolling out again. Apparently Anzac weekend the waves were so high they went right over over the top of these cliffs right down this path (cliffs on the right of above photo) and the water rushed down the path below photo into the next bay. Amazing. And the cliffs in the photo were a lot higher than they look.

There is the footpath which started from, where we looked out in the above two photos. Now walking down to the historic Wharf. This is where I said above, where the sea water flowed down, which came over the cliffs.

We now have sun, looking down over the historic Wharf. We were on our way down to talk to the fisherman we could see.

Now down on the wharf to have a chat with the fishermen. PT is standing at the end of the wharf having a chat.Note the wet decking on the wharf after the last big shower that went through. Which is now going out to sea as you can see. 

This Guy was so excited when he caught this long tail tuna just here off the wharf.

Walking down to the beach nearby.

Looking back up to the Wharf from the above beach.

MOGAREEKA

Mogateeka inlet. You can just see the sand bank in the distance protecting the inlet from the exposed seas.

Looking over the bridge back at Bermagui headlands which

we have just left. 

MIMOSA ROCKS NATIONAL PARK 

Heading north, the disaster of the day. I was trying to get us to the Mimosa Rocks a famous group of rocks where the oceans pounds over.  We left the sealed road and drove 3 kms down this narrow rough road which ended up  amongst a lot of trees with a small peep through to the sea nearly at beach level. The road got very steep in places and by this stage PT was panicking but kept driving. As it turned 

out it took us to the start of the Mimosa Rocks coastal walk, no where we thought we were going. All we could see was a muddy track amongst trees. PT said we are out of here wasn’t going to leave the car in this isolated car park in the bush. So then back out over 3kms of this steep rough road. We both were glade to be out of there. Not sure how I went wrong I either set google maps wrong or google got it wrong. As she often does. 😩

BERMAGUI 

Looking down over the blue pools. Didn’t look too blue to me. These types of pools are built for swimmers  along the southern roughNSW coast where it’s too dangerous to swim or too rough. They flush out by the incoming tide each day. Looking down from above the cliffs.

Further along the cliffs. PT said it would have been blowing at least 40 knots. It was so powerful he had to hold me while taking these photos and l felt it would have blown me away. The sea was just so rough.

Further along again looking down the coast to these rough conditions.

Drove down behind this bay and drove up to Sunrise Point at the other end of Bermagui town. Still windy but much more sheltered this side of the head land that we were up on. 

Now looking out on the other side of the point. Quite sheltered here. The entrance to the harbour and looking over another bay.

Looking down over the cliff at the peak of the point.

Entrance to the Boat Harbour.

Little boat going into the harbour.

This is what they call a salt water swimming pool which has been made for a safe place for children/ people to safely swim behind this netted barrier. They have even created a little beach at the other end. Great idea.

Now at the Boat Harbour admiring the Pelicans

This is the beach end of the salted pool, this whole area is well catered for the disabled as you can just see on the right there is a ramp built into the pool. Also up on the cliff path  there are no stairs, all ramps and flat paths everywhere.

Now we have finished our trip up the Sapphire Coast Drive so back on the A1 highway back to Pambula.

Got back to our camp and while the sun was still shinning went down to the beach in front of our camp Discovery Holiday Park.

Pambula beach.

These fellows were there to greet us when we go back.

This chap was having trouble with an itchy tail.

Mother feeding baby.

Our entre for dinner.

(PT here)  What a lovely couple. One is a birthday girl. Not sure which one though. 

Lakes Entrance to Pambula via Eden, 29th April, 2025

 We got away promptly just after 8.00am travelled 290km and six hours later arrived at our destination in Pambula. It sounds a long time but we stopped  at places on the way. We woke up to sunshine this morning so that was a nice surprise but late afternoon the rain came back. 😢 Today we crossed the Victoria / NSW border  just before we arrived at Wonboyn  230km north of Lakes Entrance. Wonboyn was ten km off  the A1, which is the main highway which we have been travelling on all day. Except when we turned off to go to Wonboyn and spent some time in Eden. Once we crossed over the border between Wonboyn and further up the coast to Bermagui, this area is called the Sapphire Coast. They say the stunning Sapphire Coast is dotted by charming coastal towns and country villages full of charm and character. We have two nights here at Pambula so tomorrow we will spend the day travelling north to Bermagui and back to Pambula. So by then we hope that we will have covered a good part of the Sapphire Coast in one day along the Sapphire Coast Highway. So when we leave Pambula on Thursday we will just go straight out to the A1 Highway and travel up to our destination without having to stop at all the little towns. Will cross fingers 🤞that rain passes through tonight.

We are now in NSW

We have now turned off the highway to drive 10km down to Wonboyn on the coast. Straight to the lake as I read that you could purchase oysters at a family owned oyster farm located on the edge of the Lake Wonboyn. But no we couldn’t find them. The above is an inlet on the lake.

I found these guys so went and had a chat to them. They were very tame, I just walked right up to them.

As there seemed to be no life around anywhere tried to find the centre of the little town to ask where can we get oysters. Strange, houses dotted around amongst the trees but no sign of shops. We came to Wonboyn not just for Oysters but to see this so called picturesque fishing village, 30kms south of Eden, pristine beaches surrounded by Forrest and good lookouts of the their beautiful beaches and coastline. Well we didn’t get to the beach and wonderful coastline as that was another 5kms more, gave that a miss. Back to looking for the shops. We stopped at a little building saying Post Office, thinking that a Post Office is the centre of Town. No luck it was shut. Looked around and then this lady appears so I asked her where is the town and she said this is it. Then we asked where the Oyster Shed on the lake. Then we were told the owners have that business on the market and are packing up, buying a motorhome and going to travel around Australia. So no shops in this so called picturesque Village. We all had a good laugh and chatted about the area then just got on our way. so that 1O km  side shoot was a bit of a waste of time but I think the Pelicans enjoyed some company.

We have now arrived in Eden and the first stop was the butcher as we were told you can buy Wonboyn oysters there. We then drove out to  the Eden lookout to see the coastal views.  First stop was this view looking through the trees to a small cove below. So nice to have the sun. The water and sky is blue again.

Another small cove below.

These two photos were taken from the main lookout out on the point. 

Now down at Snug Cove we’re all the fishing boats come and go. A little bit of art in the park.

Walked over out onto the pier to look at the boats and have a chat with a couple guys. Eden seemed to be a very nice place with its historic buildings, deep harbour and surrounded by National Parks.

Looking over to the other pier.

We have now arrived at our Cabin at Discovery holiday Park in Pambula. I haven’t included photos of the inside as it is exactly the same as the last two nights. When booking these cabin the photos in their websites looked immaculate inside but this one and the last two nights we feel a little disappointed that the insides are quite tired need a good paint. Not like the first park it was immaculate freshly painted and all new, so that set us a high standard but they are still comfortable.

When we arrived at our camp the Kangaroos were out on the grass in front of us so tame. You can walk right up to them. Mum with baby snuggling up to mum just lying in the sun.

They are coming in closer to us probably hoping for some food.

Three photos above, the kangaroos just crept closer and closer to us sitting on our deck. This above fellow was climbing up trying to get on out deck but he didn’t have enough clues to walk round to the side where the stairs are.

PT has opened half the oysters and we have ate them straight away yum,

The waters of Wonboyn and Pambula Lakes supply 130,000 Doz oysters which were shipped to Sydney Restaurants in 2016 - 2017