Christmas 2008

Another Christmas, another adventure on the Australian coast. Christmas 2005 was spent in Adelaide. Christmas 2006 was spent in Tasmania. Christmas 2007 was spent in Merimbula. Christmas 2008 represented a return to coastal NSW, with visits to both Mallacoota and Bateman's Bay, followed by a quick over land dash to Canberra.
We headed out from Melbourne to Mallacoota on the 22nd of December, setting up camp in the Foreshore Holiday Park. My memories of Mallacoota revolve around large numbers of mosquitoes and an encounter with the legendary (and quite tasty) jellycake. However, we did manage a couple of treks into Croajingolong National Park, and I managed to narrowly avoid stepping upon a Brown Snake, the species of snake responsible for the most deaths in Australia. I'm beginning to believe that thoughts such as, "hey, I wonder where this path leads. . ." should not be acted upon.

From Mallacoota, the drive to Bateman's Bay was only a couple of hours over familiar ground, although we did stumble upon this grizzly car accident south of Eden. In Bateman's Bay, we camped outside of town (the town being the least attractive aspect of the region) in the community of South Duras at the South Duras Caravan Park. The caravan park was chock full of stereotypical Australian wildlife including kangaroos, possums, and goannas, all of which spent the nighttime hours attempting to steal half of our stuff and shitting on the other half. Nevertheless, South Duras Beach was a lovely playground. We also explored Pebbly Beach in North Duras as well as Mt. Duras (where we got tangled up with a leech or two). We spent one magical evening on Duras Lake, paddling with Bay & Beyond Sea Kayak Tours, and our final night on New Year's Eve was celebrated with a minor feast, but we didn't quite stay awake long enough to ring in the New Year. From Bateman's Bay, we drove inland to Canberra where we spent a couple of days soaking up a little Aussie history, before attending the wedding of Nick and Dominique. We spent a morning in the National Museum of Australia (which I think we agreed had one of the most kick-ass gift shops of any museum we'd ever been in), followed the next day by a visit to Parliament House and the Australian War Memorial. That left us a bit fatigued for the night's wedding festivities at the Canberra Yacht Club, but we managed to rally.