Back at camp we had breakfast in the kitchen area and chatted a bit to the park managers. We packed up as quickly as we could, and Caitlin walked into town to buy a shirt that she'd seen the day before. We were ready to hitch up before 10am which is very rare for us. Daryl (the park manager) helped us hitch and Caitlin arrived back just before we were about to leave. We were out of the park around 10.20, dropped Caitlin back into town because the shop she'd gone to wasn't open when she went, grabbed a few supplies from Aldi then met Caitlin at the shop (and I bought a wrap to wear over my swimmers, or when hiking, which I was pretty excited about) and were out of town by 10.50.
I had been a bit concerned that if the wind changed in the wrong direction the fires near Nowa Nowa (a little north east of Lakes Entrance) could impact the road out of town. The fire didn't move significantly overnight though, so the road was clear and we didn't see much sign of the fires except for smoke - although the skies were pretty clear where we were. The drive through the rest of Victoria was beautiful - some green river plains, lots of rivers with a fair bit of water in them, some lush forests as we went over hills/mountains, glimpses of the old rail line on some cool trestle bridges.
We passed into NSW which is always exciting, and drove on to Eden. The views of the bay as we came in were pretty impressive. I directed us through town to the lookout at the end of the peninsula. We'd known it was a hot day but getting out of the car was a bit of a shock - 34 degrees with a hot wind. We walked out to the lookout and could see a large part of Twofold bay and lots of the mountains around. It was the wrong season for whale watching, but still a very enjoyable view. I wandered around the fence line a bit to look down into a little rocky cove that I always like to see when I'm in Eden. The wind coming off the water there was much cooler. We sat at a picnic table in the shade and had wraps for lunch - the heat was fairly intense but not quite as bad in the shade. After lunch we walked around a bit more and Tony found a path to the side of the cove which gave quite a good view (although it was at the top of a cliff with no fence so I was a little scared...)
We kept driving north, through Bega and back around to the coast. I love driving through the hills around that part of Australia - although it looked so dry and parched, not green like I've seen it in the past. We headed for a bush camp at Mystery Bay, a little north of Bermagui. When we arrived the kids and Luna headed down to the beach, while Tony and I found a place to set up camp. We decided not to camp in the area closest to the beach, it seemed quite crowded, and instead found a place a couple of hundred metres walk from the beach - we could see the sand from our spot, and it was a bit more secluded and set amongst lovely tall gum trees (different to what we're used to - there were no leaves or branches down low, just tall bare trunks and lots of leaves higher up). There were plenty of other campers around but it didn't feel crowded. We had a quick walk around on the beach, which had great rocks to climb on and explore at the northern end, and sheltered water to swim in due to rocks off shore. It was so gorgeous and I immediately fell in love with the place and never wanted to leave. We set the tent up then headed down to the beach again for a swim. The water was pretty cold, but the waves very gentle and it was deep enough to swim around a bit at times.
We had pasta carbonara for dinner, then took Luna down to the beach for another walk. She loved being near the water and exploring the rocks, chasing crabs, playing with other dogs etc. We didn't let her off lead because she was likely to run, but she still had a great time. Back to the tent and it was getting dark so we settled in to go to bed.
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