South Coast 2019 - Final post

 Before leaving Robertson, Mum said to go and look at the Waratahs 

up in the park near the bowling club.

Beautiful!

Obviously the right growing conditions.

All different colours.

 

and finally, home..

Pleased to say the Wolf Wagon proved fit for purpose.

and the doggies are very pleased to be home again.

Its only for a few weeks and then we are off again!

Batemans Bay - The Famous Family Bridge Photo

Okay...

That's me trying to recreate the family photo circa 1971-ish.

This time, I didn't attempt to do the leap in the air after the seagulls, 

because I would probably have put my back out....

They are putting in a new bridge, so this view will change forever...

Below are my niece's and nephew doing their own recreation.

Circa around 2000, seeing as Rachel, the baby, is now 20.

So what else did we do in Batemans Bay?

We ate oysters...

Then we unsuccessfully attempted to gold pan, at the Mogo Gold Rush Colony.

And, thats it...

Goodbye, South Coast.

Back to Cathy's for a night and then onto The Wedding on Sunday.

 

Whale Tails

Hello, My Dear Readers.

After touring around and hearing the stories of the whaling industry,

it was finally time to get a close up view of some happier whales.

So we took a whale watching cruise and certainly saw plenty of whale life!

The weather's been a lot cooler on this trip than we expected, 

I packed lots of summer clothes.

So we had to quickly nip into Vinnie's to buy something warmer to wear on the boat. 

Fortunately, everything in Vinnie s was 50% off so we spent a whole $6.

The whales didn't do anything spectacular like breaching, but I did get lots of tail shots.

And below, this may just look like a photo of the sea,

but it is actually a Humpback that came right up to the side of the boat

to have a look at us.

Really easy to see with my polarised sunnies,

not so easy to capture with my non polarised camera lens!

And everyone had to don a life jacket while crossing the sandbar.

The water is so clear and blue here.

Around Bega

Todays exploring started in Bega, at the Bega Cheese Factory.

You couldn't actually go into the factory, for WH&S reasons, 

but they did have a museum and coffee shop.

And, of course, the novelty rest rooms as in the photo above...

Above - this cow is udderly ridiculous!

Below - this was part of Bega's display and the Royal Easter 

show about 20  years ago. All made from seeds.

 

Above;- I didn't know that Cheese required training?

I guess we couldn't have wild, unruly cheeses let loose all over the country. 

I also bought a bib for Florence.

So after all that cheese excitement we drove down to Tathra for some lunch.

We thought this looked a pretty place for a pub lunch..

 

Surprise! Went inside and it has been completely renovated.

 

Ate lunch while watching the whales playing in the bay outside.

 

We have been having a bit of overload of seafood, fish & chips,  

and I am at saturation point with salt and pepper calamari.

Davidson's Whaling Station and the tale of Ben Boyd

This tranquil beach above is where they would bring the dead whales ashore to dissect them and then boil them down to get all the fat and oils. Whales were used to produce many goods, from oil for lamps, soaps and cosmetics, and bones used for corsetry.

Until, thank the Goddess, they found other ways to produce these 

goods and killing Whales went out of fashion.

I can only imagine the mess and the smell that must have come from the processing of whales.

I guess the whalers did what they had to do to survive, 

and didn't comprehend, or value, the damage they were doing to the whale population.

I wonder what Edith's grandchildren will think about this current generation of humans,

burning fossil fuel as if the supply is eternal, and destroying the earth with pollution and plastics.

In the year 2100 they may be just as appalled at our behaviour in 2019 

as we are by the whalers in the 1800's.

So I choose not to judge the whalers too harshly, but hope our generation have learnt a lesson about repeating mistakes of the past.  But we probably haven't, we'll just make different mistakes.

Must have been very isolated living way out here.

Then we visited Ben Boyd tower.

Mr Boyd was a very rich land holder, 

he built this tower to be a lighthouse, but when it was built he couldn't get 

permission for the light so it just became a whale lookout tower. 

A bit of a folly, really.

Here was a rich man who thought he was above the law.

He imported native persons from some of the Pacific Islands to use as workers.

Sounds a bit like slavery to me folks!

Anyway, he ended up bankrupt and joined the Californian gold-rush.

Then he met his comeuppance, in1851 he was killed by natives in the Solomon Islands.

They never found his body, I hope they ate him.

But they named the National Park, Ben Boyd after him.

Below, Wolfies first dirt road!

We had to give him a bath on the way back.

And I bought a boat painting at the local craft show.