The morning sunshine revealed that our upgraded status had provided a balcony in addition to our larger bed!  It was a shame we weren’t going to be staying long enough to use it! Nevertheless we appreciated the sentiment.

Our breakfast was perfectly cooked.  I ate my poached eggs, eyeing the mountain of food being consumed by the young man across the way.   The plate veritably groaned under the weight and it almost had to have extension boards on each side to hold it all up!  He was as thin as a reed of course!! I couldn’t help but have that ‘ah but wait until you are older’ thought pass through my head!! I am becoming Mrs Bouquet!

Breakfast over we left the good offices of Bateman Bay Manor and were able to see where we were – perched up on a hill with several other large establishments with drives as big as the lane we arrived down. This caused some initial confusion as we couldn’t get out of the area!! Stupid girl! When we found the correct route we crossed a rather attractive river with lovely reflections in it

Having overcome this early challenge, we wandered along to downtown Batemans Bay to see what it was all about.  What we found was a town with all the trappings of a holiday resort in a quite dramatic setting in that the sea appeared to come in through the town along a wide river.  A sort of huge inlet.  We drove up to a spot along the river side close two young men were fishing. The water in front of us was a bit odd in that it seemed to have fast moving wrinkles.  It took us a little time to realise that what we were watching were a ‘pod’ or a ‘school’ of Dolphins. (I had to ask for the collective term – my wordsmith did not fail me!) it was not very much later that our two fishermen starting packing together their equipment – the Dolphins were consuming all the fish in their path!

It was an amazing sight.  Another new experience on a trip that seems to give new experiences at every turn!

It was then back on the road.  Wendy and Sarah had recommended two possible stops on our journey as it is not too far in terms of Kilometres – what we had not legislated for was that it was Fathers Day in Australia.  This coupled with our getting closer to Sydney meant a lot more people around.  However the drive was delightful – the landscape more akin to Derbyshire than anywhere else we decided.  Soft rolling hills and green meadows.  Still the interestingly named creeks appearing at regular intervals.

Berry our first stop, was a very bustling town.  We arrived around lunchtime and it was buzzing.  We visited the bakers recommended and bought ourselves a couple of rolls and then, finding things too bustley we moved on to Kiama.  By this time the day had become overcast but we sat on the headland munching the rolls filled with delicious smoked fish we had purchased in Eden and watched some young lads practising their surfing manoeuvres in the bay below us.

Kiama being equally full of celebrating families we moved on to our last port of calll Wollongong  it was only a few kilometres away but we had the distinct feeling of getting towards the city.  We passed major road improvements, the highway had increased to two lanes and our creeks and tree lined roads were in the past.

Our accommodation was also back to ‘city fayre’ in that we had a suite of rooms with cooking facilities.  The good thing was that the sea was not far away and we wandered through a ‘family resort village’ to find the beach   Here we looked out on what tankers and container ships that must have been at anchor on the Sydney ‘roads’ waiting to berth in Sydney.   We were very close to the metropolis.  The sandy beach was empty except for a lone figure looking out to sea.

It

We decided not to intrude on her contemplation and turned back to the apartment taking advantage of the limited supplies provided at the ‘resort’ shop for supper.

We then spent an entertaining of television.  The first Australian viewing we have done.  First a Grand Designs we had not seen and then the Australian equivalent of Strictly.  It was awful!!!!  We are going to have to report back to the Strictly Culture a club in Peckfam Bush that we have a far superior offering!!!