Eden (The Garden Of)

John hard at work in the office.

Our stay in and around Eden has been lovely, but again the rotten weather has played a role. We have had the odd beautiful day, but most have been cold, cloudy and windy, or a combination of all three. The Garden of Eden is a lovely quiet park, and our surrounds of parkland give us a feeling of camping in our own garden paradise.

It has given us the chance to do a little necessary van and car maintenance, as the services are good here for both. Unfortunately the same can't be said of the food scene! There will be no glowing reports for the establishments of Eden, other that to say that the Fish & Chips at "The Great White Bite" by the harbour, was first class. Thank heavens that girl of mine is good, inspired and cooking up a storm.

The golf course here, Eden Gardens Country Club, is a nice, country style layout, with kangaroos being the greatest hazard. They lay around on the fairways in large groups of 30 to 50, having trampled over the greens and left large pot holes and poop in their wake. They don't seem to mind the golfers at all. I played the Saturday comp with 3 fun locals, and together we played horrible golf, in cold, windy conditions. But we had fun. I new it would be a great day when on the first tee Gary joked "how do you make your wife scream while your having sex? Answer, phone her up and tell her where you are!"  No wonder the golf was bad. My sides were sore from laughing.

Candelo River in the Bega Valley.



The Bega River off the main bridge.

We toured the area up the coast, that we had missed, because of the floods and wheel mishap. Everywhere we went in this area, the evidence of the flash floods could be seen. It was amazing to see debris, some 20 to 30 feet up trees, and river flats strewn with trees and rubbish.


The Sea Wharf at Tathra

We went as far north as Tathra on the coast, to see where we would have stayed. This is where the Bega River meets the sea, and at the river mouth, huge machines were still moving trees and logs washed down the river, and the sea was a brown stain for 2-3 kilometres out from shore. Tahra's most famous landmark is the historic timber sea wharf, the last of its kind on the east coast of Australia, and a reminder of the busy coastal ship trade of the 19th and early 20th centuries.



The inlet at Merimbula.

 From Tathra we headed down the Sapphire Coast to Tura Beach, Merimbula and Pambula. All these areas have grown enormously, with large housing estates everywhere. The coastal scenery is beautiful, and with a variety of large lakes and picturesque inlets along the coast, it is a paradise for swimming, boating and fishing, when the sun shines! Everyone you talk to, tells us how unseasonal it is.  Merimbula was our favourite, right on a beautiful inlet, and it has a lively feel about it, with bright shopping areas, and a vibrant cafe scene along the waterfront. We went back a couple of times.


Carol at the Bega Cheese Factory.

The second time we went back to Bega, to take in the famous Bega Cheese Factory, which was thankfully spared by the floods. You have to go and check out all those famous cheeses we've been eating for years. Remember the old Kameruka Cheese? Amazing to think, that in this day and age, such a big business is still a Co-Operative controlled and operated by the dairy farmers of the Bega Valley. Good on 'em I say. Looks like they are doing a dam fine job of it, and we sure helped their bottom line!

Back around Eden there is a lot to do and see. The Killer Whale Museum is a must. The whole history of the long discontinued whale industry, is all around Eden. The skeleton of "Old Tom", the last killer whale to help the whalers, is at the museum. Can you believe that the killer whales actually herded the larger humpback and southern right whales, for the whalers, in return for the sweet meat of the lips and tongue, which the whalers didn't really want. It is an amazing story, and apparently in the wide world of whaling, only ever happened at Eden.

The equally popular wood chip industry took over from whaling.The greenies were very thankful that they didn't have to leave town, just change industries! Seriously though, all those problems seemed to have been sorted out now, and the industry is a big part of Eden's economy, shipping about 40,000 tonnes a week to Japan.


The Seahorse Inn at Boydtown

Another very interesting part of Eden's history, revolves around Benjamin Boyd. He was like a Christopher Skase of the 1850's! He made a fortune in whaling and timber, using other peoples money, and had grand plans to get the government of NSW, moved to Eden. He created his own town, Boydtown, on a beautiful sheltered bay south of Eden, but everything went pear shaped when a big depression hit, and Boyd headed for the goldfields of the USA in a fast ship! Still he left some interesting infrastructure around. The old house has been fully restored and is a beautiful hotel and restaurant called The Seahorse Inn, where we did manage to have a drink on a sunny Sunday afternoon. There is also Boyd's Tower on the headland at the entrance to Twofold Bay, built by guess who, and only to be used by his whaling boats. The Government didn't like that plan and insisted it be available to all shipping, Boyd refused, so the lighthouse never got lit, but still stands proudly on the headland.


Candelo Markets

Enough of the history lesson. On to things shopping. We just so happened to be in the area for the once a month Candelo Markets. (First Sunday of the month). Candelo is a very quaint village nestled in a valley, by the Candelo River. Once a month they host the markets, and a huge crowd of both stall holders and shoppers, comes from far and wide.

We parked in a nearby paddock, which I think the owner mows and mans the gate, and charges $2.00 to park in. He was a lovely old fellow of Italian descent, as we soon found out, as when we got to the market entrance a big sign said "NO DOGS". We headed back to the car, but our gatekeeper saved the day, and said leave her with me, and go shopping. So we did. It was mostly food and local produce, so we re-stocked the larder with lots of fresh fruit and vegies at very cheap prices, and managed to find some other beautiful home made goodies to spark up our taste buds at various stages in the near future. There was also the usual, clothes, jewellery, craft, furniture etc. plus a few buskers, that made it a really nice day out. We headed back to the gate keeper, and paid him with a white chocolate & raspberry cupcake, for his dog minding duties, of which he now had three! (Dogs not cupcakes!)

Tomorrow is our last day in Eden. It will be wash the caravan and car day, before we head for Mallacoota, just over the border in Victoria. Yay! we've made it out of the state.