Days 178-180 Mallacoota to Shell Harbour

Day 178

The following morning we packed the tent up quickly and went to have a look around Mallacoota. As we are in the winter season it was very empty looking, but we wandered around for an hour before driving on.

Our plan was to stop in the next town of Eden for food shopping. This part of the journey meant leaving the State of Victoria and entering New South Wales.

Eden is an old whaling site, as it has a large, deep bay and whales are known to pass through when migrating to warmer waters.

Eden is particularly well known for the resident killer whales (orcas). When Eden was a whaling port, the whalers were helped by the killer whales that would alert the whalers of the presence of whales, and herd the whales into the bay to trap them. Once killed the whalers would leave the whale for 24 hours for the gasses to float the carcass to the surface; in the meantime the killer whales ate the tongue.

A whaling boat - I'm not sure that I would want to be in one of these against a whale

The skeleton of 'Old Tom' - one of the more notorious killer whales.

After Eden we headed to a lovely little coastal town called Merrimbula. That evening the wind picked up.....

Day 179

On Tuesday we started to drive to Batemans bay.

On the way we stopped at a lovely beach for a cup of tea. We were also looking for a place to try oysters as this part of the coast is well known for them. Unfortunately, we were either passing through places at the wrong tome of day, or they didn't have any oysters, so we were quite unsuccessful.

The Batemans bay lift bridge

We settled into Batemans bay for a second windy night...

Day 180

On Wednesday we drove to Shell Harbour just south of a place called Wollongong. This was another driving day, but on the way we found another lighthouse.

We also drove to a very windy headland and after ordering cake (takeaway because of miscommunication) we fought to eat it all before it blew away!

Sorry, unfortunately, to make it to Cairns on time we have to have a few driving days, the next few posts will be more interesting.

Till Next time

David & Joanna