The Globetrotters: Bega to Batemans Bay

Saturday, November 29, 2014

After an early start we passed a road stall again with cherries for sale, which, from memory, must have been near Bodalla. Since Patricia is very partial to them (not that I dislike cherries...) we stock up and drive on to our coffee stop, which is in Moruya.

We arrive at 10.15 am and discover a nice spot in a small park (Apex Park) dotted with wooden sculptures, and as we later discover, these sculptures are everywhere.

We have coffee first and while relaxing at the picnic table I look in my GPS if there are any caches around. If there are? Plenty! So, we decide that it's time to have a caching day, but first we walk around and have a look at some of the shops. We stop at a coffee shop for a vanilla slice!

Then it's on to the first cache, which is across the road at the parking lot of a shopping centre.

Park and Grab

An easy one as you can literally almost get it from the car if you stretch your arm far enough into the guard rail!

Next we walk to the library to find another cache, but on our way we still see sculptures and other interesting items.

Then the cache:

Double Tap

This cache was quite interesting, not only because it was hidden in a library book, but since it was at the library I thought the librarians would know about it. So, when they asked me if they could help me I told them what I was there for. Geocaching? What is that? said one of them, but lady nr. two knew all about it, because she had a family member who was 'into it'. Little did I know that they had never been informed about a cache in the library, so I had spilled the beans! Together we went in search for it and it was sound discovered in one of the (former) library books. After the fun and more chatting we left in good spirits to find the next one.

On our way we saw this monument, dedicated to the granite quarry workers, I believe. Some of the granite has been used to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

A few streets further down we look for the cache.

Park It

Park It was an easy one, although we discovered that it was on the corner of a B&B where we had been in full view of the visitors on the balcony. Hopefully they were more interested in their morning papers than in us...

The next cache was a bit further away. It was hot and we stopped off in a shaded area to enjoy an ice cream before moving on to the next cache in the van.

Albert Stewart Park

In the above picture Patricia is placing the cache back in its hiding place. This one took a bit to find, -under- the bridge and in an akward spot, but Patricia found it nonetheless.

And the last one in town before we got too hungry:

Gundary Park Skating

Gandary Park Skating

While Patricia was looking underneath the bridge I kept an eye on the GPS and stuck close to GZ. If this was sheer luck, I don't know, but I spotted something in the grass next to the yellow sign and, bingo!

We had done well and since it was way past lunch time we got into the van and were on our way to the closest picnic area, which happened to be on the other side of the bridge, just outside town.

Lion Park Moruya - DNF

We had our lunch at this picnic area on the river. A beautiful spot. After that we went in search of the cache, which we didn't find. The clue was that we had to climb onto the table, but it was nowhere to be found. After checking a few weeks later it appeared that we had searched in vain. It had disappeared...

By the time we had lunch and searched for the cache it was just about 3.30 pm, so time to move on.

We had planned to stay the night at the Depot Beach Campground (#614), but for some reason we ended up at Pebbly Beach (#613 S35 36 23, E150 19 33) instead. Both are in Murramarang National Park past Batemans Bay.

As we have arrived quite early we sit down and relax after having set up camp. I read a bit and we have 'happy hour' after which we go for a short walk to the beach and enjoy the sight and the company of the kangaroos. Next we have dinner and afterwards we go for another walk until dusk.

Then it's time to return to the van.