Today we drive to New South Wales, we are ultimately heading to Canberra but have an overnight stop on Merimbula on the way. Merimbula is actually only about 3.5 hours away but as always we have a couple of stops on the way but first we decided to drive up to the lookout at Lakes Entrance because this morning it was clear, no fog or sea mist so the view was great. The lookout is directly opposite the entrance so you could really see the difference between the lake and the open sea, after this it was time to get on the road so we set off and about half an hour into the journey we stopped at the Stony Creek Trestle Bridge. This was built in 1919 and was in use until 1988 although a sign said that it suffered damage in a forest fire in 1980, I assume they repaired it then it closed eight years later but it didn’t mention that on the sign! The bridge is 247m long but more impressively is 20m high, the car park is at the bottom so you really get the feel of how high it is. We walked to the top as we thought you could probably get a good view along the bridge but it is rather overgrown and looked a little dodgy so we walked to the side which gave a great view then came back down and continued. Our next stop was the McKenzie River Rainforest Walk, which basically takes you down to a river which is in a rainforest region with boards explaining what is happening to the vegetation as you go down which was really interesting, once you can see the difference in under growth followed by the changes in the trees that grow in the different areas. We stopped for lunch in a picnic area then continued to the Eden Lookout which provides a view over the bay which was once the home of the whaling trade but now is more famous for whale watching as they come through in winter / spring. It is one of Australia’s deepest natural harbours and you get a great view of the coastline although you can’t see round into the fishing port as the town still has quite a large fishing business. Our plan was to continue to the hotel from here but as we were driving along the road we spotted some Kangaroos on a golf course, we have been told that this is where they hang out and finally we have seen it! We sat watching them and more arrived which was fantastic, after a while we decided we needed to move on so we drove the last couple of km to our motel. Just as we got to the town there was a massive clap of thunder and the heavens opened, not with rain but with hail. I am not sure I have seen anything like this for a while it crashed so hard on the roof we were worried that it would be dented. It rained for about 15 minutes then eased off a bit so we quickly drove round to the motel to get into the room before it started again. The road was almost totally white it was just like snow. When we arrived at the motel we have a fantastic room which we think has a good view down to the river but the storm continued with thunder and lightning so the visibility isn’t very good, funnily enough it is still quite warm, it has been as high as 28C today but it was still about 20C even with the hail falling, very strange!
