Sorry for the no-show last night, neither the electrical Internet nor the mobile phone network has reached Tathra, our stay over last night. Oddly though we did see people walking around with books, tin cans and huge rolls of string........
Day three started to, and ended with, glorious warm sunshine, as we cooked breakfast at Paynesville and made our way down to Raymond Island. This is a two minute ferry ride, free to those on foot, across from Paynesville. A decent long-jumper could probably do without the ferry, to be honest. The purpose of our visit is koala. There is a colony on the island. It's not long before this is a proven fact as we see one of these two feet square balls of fur in a tree near the ferry. We walk along a little way and a guy drives up, offering to take us to a site where there is a mother and baby. We get in, a little daunted; the man is wearing a bib and brave. I'm thinking Deliverance and look round the car for evidence of recent misdemeanours. But no need the guy is as good as gold and typical of most Australians, friendly and helpful even if we are English......and sure enough a couple of hundred yards up the road he drops us off and there, lo and behold, are Mother and Baby up a tree. They are truly beautiful little creatures.
Not only do we have several koala to wonder at but a passing 'roo pops his head up too, just by way of an extra treat. We also see a truly rare sight in the wild; a koala, out of his tree (and not a drop of Victoria bitter in sight) and walking around on the ground. Wow. Raymond Island is the very best, maybe just topping the other night's penguin parade. We very regrettably leave Raymond island after an hour or so to make our way to our next stop which is Tathra, a destination suggested by a very kindly 'grey nomad', the term round these parts for retired gentlefolk who spend their time touring round in caravans, campers, tents and what-have-you. It's a long way and I'm edgy about making it there before six when the office closes. Still, I want to stop at the bend which caused so much navigational consternation the day before to gather photographic evidence that Wayne would indeed have ended up in the geraniums had she attempted a left turn at a right hand bend. Wayne reminds me of the presence of the large knife in our little kitchen and the softness of the ground in Paynesville..... I shut up and we drive on.
We set our lunch point as Lakes Entrance, which we se little of apart from a spectacular view from the top of the hill above it, and a small rest area at the bottom. Fed and watered, we press on and into one national park after another. This means endless trees (Diggins, you were right on that one) and twisty bend after twisty bend for a hundred kilometres or more. The van is showing signs of its age today, the suspension is knocking, belts are squeaking and the steering is groaning on full lock like a pensioner in a supermarket queue. Will we make it to Sydney? Who knows? Jucy Rentals will certainly know about it if the van lunches itself before we get home.....
We arrive at Tathra with no Internet or phone, with twenty minutes or so to spare and book in. First impressions are it's Bogan City....... But we're stuck here for the night so, so what? We head into town and despite the total comms breakdown, we find signs of civilisation: a kebab shop! We buy fish and chips and a kebab and head off to the beach to eat. We are watched by 27 seagulls. The food is excellent and the seagulls get the chips we cant' eat. We round off our day looking at photos gathered thus far and have an early night. Tomorrow is a short run to Ulladulla, we think. Be nice to take it easy after pushing it today.....
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