23 November 2008 - Rene's remarkable drive!!

19th November

This morning we cooked a lovely fry up, it seemed a good time to do it as we had a hop and grill I the cabin. It would also set us up for the day as most of it would be driving to Eden which was about 250km away.

We left the cabin at 9.30, Sarah had a horse riding lesson booked for 10am and we had to find the place first. We had to go inland some more, it was very noticeable how arid the landscape was getting, although there was grass and leafy trees they weren’t very green! As usual and much to the land owners delight we bought the rain with us, according to Sarah’s horse riding coach they hadn’t had any proper rain in years!!

Sarah had a great time horse riding, thankfully the rain didn’t get heavy until after we had left. We drove back to Cooma for a cup of tea, some very tasty tarts and a few last bits of food shopping, whilst in Woolworths (THE OZZIE VERSON OF SAFEWAY) Sarah spotted some advent calendars, which she bought us as a treat. We are hoping that the calendars will make it feel a bit more like the run up to Christmas, at the moment I am stuck in July I guess this is due to the weather, as it had been consistent sun until Sarah’s arrival.

We drove south and started to get concerned as our petrol was running out, thankful we reached a fairly big town so we were relieved, this was short lived as when we stopped to ask where the petrol station was we were informed the nearest one was 40km away, this was not good, we had no idea if Rene would make it that far, we just hoped and prayed that she would get us there. As it happened she did get us there, thankfully 10kms of it was down a mountain so Dan was able to coast his way down in neutral, the rest of the way we made it on fumes!

We pulled into the petrol station in this small town, Dan got out the van only to find that it was closed, despair started to set in, there was no way anyone could get us to the next town another 40km south. There was a garage opposite the station so Dan went to find out where we could get some fuel, if we had to we would just have to stay in the town over night until the service station opened in the morning. Thankfully the mechanic siphoned off some fuel from one of his cars and sold it too us for $25, he certainly got his money out of us as he gave us just enough to get to the next town but we were grateful all the same as without it we would have been stuck.

After a very late lunch Sarah decided tat when we got to Eden she would stay in hotel as it had been raining non stop since we left cooma and she couldn’t face a night of possible getting wet! I have to say I couldn’t blame her, also this way she would hopefully get another good nights sleep, she needed it after the last week of not sleeping well.

We found a hotel hat was $40 per night, it wasn’t as cheap as a dorm bed in a hostel but there weren’t any around so she had to make do, as it was it was a nice room and had an ensuite. Dan and I parked up in a picnic area just down the road where we would be able to spend the night.

We had a wander around Eden before dinner, it is a lovely town and would be great to spend a few days here if we had better weather and more time! Eden is on a peninsular and has a bay on either side, as the bays are so deep they attract humpback whales as they fatten up their calves before migrating to the Antarctic, these whale in turn attract killer whales which try to prey on the calves.

We had hoped to go whale watching in the morning but because of the weather they ad cancelled the trip, I was really disappointed as this is the second time this has happened now, maybe we’re just not supposed to see them!!