With our water depleted, bread, yoghurt and – most importantly – beer and wine supplies dried up, it seems time to leave the nice Reeves Beach campground. Just before we left a young couple setup a tent next to us. It seems not for sleeping in, but to stake out a place for Australia Day, which is only a few days away. With that in mind we are considering to find as soon as possible our next location. Overnight the wind picked up and in the middle of the night we pack up the awning and anything that can be blown away.
In the morning it is still blowing hard and it seems that the wind left behind soot from nearby bush fires.
Also the surf is much wilder.
So it’s time to leave.
Upon departing at around 9 am a fellow camper drinking a beer gave some helpful instructions in finding the next camp site: ” left at the pines, right at the honey suckle then you come to an arch made of gum trees to the entrance”. He had heard on the radio that several camp grounds were closed due to bush fire threats. We thanked him and then decided to rely on the GPS.
First we headed to Sale for groceries, grog, fuel and water and to visit a vet for Nossi’s attack of nasty bites. It worked out that the bites were from mites probably picked up in the bush from a wombat hole and we got a military strength antidote. Traveling from Sale to Paradise Beach we passed a farmer chasing his herd. He didn’t tire himself and used his ute instead.
Any stray sheep was quickly taken care of by the dog on the back of the ute.
Then we came through an arch of flowering trees (was the morning beer drinker right?) near the coast.
The tent squatters at Reeves Beach weren’t fools; the camp site at Paradise Beach (still part of 90 mile beach) was packed and we left. Then we followed the coast where 10 smaller camp grounds were designated for bush campers and found a spot we settled on number five.
We went to the beach and found that the shape of the surf is such that the swell rolls in close to the beach and then with much force slams on the sand. Not able to stand where the waves break, we just let the water spray us.
Marjo spots something struggling further down the beach and it works out to be a seal.
Nossi doesn’t seem to make any distinction between birds and seals and despite Marjo’s stern warnings he still makes the seal go back into the ocean.
At least we know now that the seal is healthy enough to go back out to sea.
We take a shower in a makeshift shower cubicle formed by shade cloth, clamps and our bush shower to spray off the dirty sand from the camp ground, have dinner, watch a movie and sleep tight.
An ok stay.
Posted from Briagolong, Victoria, Australia.
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