Australia January 2013

On Friday 18 January we arrived in Melbourne, collected our hire car and headed off to Bendigo, a major regional city in the state of Victoria where we were staying with friends for the weekend.  We spent a lovely afternoon sat on their "faux preau" catching up.  Saw parrots and Galahs golore in their garden.  Amazing to see such exotic birds.  Bendigo is notable for its Victorian architectural heritage and gold mining history.  (http://www.bendigotourism.com/).  It is also famous for the Bendigo Tramway and we took a tour around the workshop and had a ride on the tram - a great experience. (www.bendigotramways.com)

All too soon it was time to say goodbye to our friends and head off to Paynesville, a small town in Victoria on the coast.  The main reason for stopping here was to see the Koalas on Raymond Island.  We took the chain ferry to Raymond Island and began the Koala walk (you follow the signs and it's all very low-key).  (www.raymondisland.net).  My expectations were low, it was 5pm and I really didn't expect to see any.  Just five minutes later we spotted our first Koala - I'll never forget it!



The Koalas were introduced to the island in 1953.  By 2003 there were around 600 so they had to introduce a program of sterilisation to keep the numbers down. The Koalas and residents of Raymond Island seem to live happily together.  In the end we spotted 12 Koalas in all.  We also spotted some amazing birds.  Raymond Island is paradise.
We stayed at the Mariners Cove, which was ideally situated with a patio overlooking the water.

Next stop was Eden an easy drive from Paynesville.  The scenery changed as we went over the border to New South Wales.   We were now driving along the Sapphire Coast and it was stunning.  We stayed in the Seahorse Inn just outside of Eden. (www.seahorseinn.com.au) It's located in a great area overlooking Twofold Bay.  


The next day we drove to Pambula and Merimbula.  Merimbula was a bit touristy, but it did have a calm beach in the mouth of the river/inlet, which meant great safe swimming.  We stopped off at the lovely fishing village of Tathra and walked through the memorial garden and then down to the wharf where there was a great cafe/craft shop.  Whilst there we saw huge stingrays. (www.southcoast.com.au/tathra).  We drove on to Bermagui and it's stone rock swimming pool.  Then on to Tilba Tilba, which was a small  historic town.  In fact, it was so small we drove through it and ended up in Central Tilba, which was like stepping back in time.  Tilba Tilba and Central Tilba are surrounded by rolling hills, which I was expecting at all.

We arrived in Narooma in time for dinner.  (http://www.narooma.org.au)  Narooma is ideally placed for a boat trip to Montague Island, where you can see penguins.  However, the sea looked a little rough and there was no guarantee that we would see penguins so we decided to give it a miss.  Instead, we visited the tourist office and a very helpful lady gave us a map with the walking routes.  After a coffee in the Quarterdeck, a great place overlooking the Wagonga Inlet, we went walking.  (http://www.narooma.org.au/quarterdeck.html).

On the walk around the coast we saw seals on the rocks below so stopped and watched them.

Later the same day we saw another stingray as we were taking a walk along the boardwalk.  So much wildlife!  Narooma had another safe beach in an inlet, which was ideal for swimming - beautiful turquoise sea.

Next stop was Jervis Bay, where we stopped to sit on the beach before driving on to  Shellharbour a little coastal village where we found a lovely motel - The Shellharbour Village Motel.  From Shellharbour it was a very easy drive to Sydney airport the next day.   We were lucky to be arriving in Sydney on Australia Day.  The place was packed with people celebrating.  In the evening we went to a free concert by the Australian Symphony Orchestra in The Domain - great.  The weather deteriorated for the next couple of days courtesy of a tropical cyclone further up the coast in Queensland so we spent a lot of time in the local museums where we learnt a lot about the early settlers and the indigenous population.  On our last evening we managed to get front row tickets at the Opera House to see a performance by Meow Meow.  A fitting end to a great trip.