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Sat, 01 Jan 2005

Camping down the Coast (Part One) - 10:49
Vania, Ben, Travis, Leiliane, Rachel and I camped down the coast over Christmas. We stayed at Hobart Beach on Wallagoot Lake in Bournda National Park. The park is sorta half way between Merimbula and Tathra on the Sapphire Coast. Quite a wonderful place.
For more info see NPSW Merimbula Office or call them on (02) 6495 5001
Rachel left with Travis, Ben and Vania on Wednesday. I had to work through till Friday lunchtime. I picked up Leiliane at noon on drove off towards Cooma. It was very sunny and bright as we arrived, then a huge thunderstorm came through as I munched my kebab. There was little to indicate a huge storm would hit us as we drove down towards Brown Mountain, first there was rain, then really heavy rain, lightning and thunder. Then the hail started, little stones. I decided to take refuge under some trees at a roadside rest area and as I was parking under a huge gum huge hailstones started to fall, some the size of baseballs. When the 10 or so minutes of hail had finished I had been joined by four-five other cars in the rest area. Most people were sensible enough to pull over, as visibility was virtually non-existent. When it was all done, the card was damaged, two circles on my windscreen where hail had hit and numerous other little dents on the roof. So, we dove on, taking it easy as the rain was still coming down very hard. A few more hailstones and another quick stop under some trees left us a bit behind schedule.
We got into Tathra about five, I rang Rachel on her mobile, no answer, I did not expect to get any coverage. So, we followed the directions set out for us, only to end up on the wrong side of the lake. But Leiliane go to see hundreds of roos, she was very excited. I was happy to see to occasional smaller wallaby. We got to the campsite a bit late; the campers had already set up the tents from the night before. The big debate was over the weather and if they should stay in or go out on the town to get Thai food. Travis insisted on having a shower before he went out, but by the time he got back food was already on the BBQ. In the end it did not rain that night.

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