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Bourke & Beyond - Day 10
Oct. 15th, 2020 07:29 pmEden to Shellharbour
An early start, so we could be on time for our morning oyster tour on the Pambula Lake, just north of Eden. We found one of the 2 open cafés in town & picked up a light breakfast, as we knew there’d be more food during the tour - of the oyster variety!
Only a short distance north of town was the boat ramp for the lake, so we parked & waited for Captain Sponge, so his Magical Oyster Tour could begin. Yes, that’s his name - given to him by other oyster farmers on the rivers & yes, that’s what he calls his side business of taking tourists around the oyster beds & gathering spots on Pambula Lake & then down the Pambula River closer to the ocean. I still think he should call it the Magical Oystery Tour, but maybe he's more of a Stones fan...
We’d actually tried to take the Captain’s tour a couple of years ago, but the motor in his boat seized up & refused to budge us from the landing dock, so he sheepishly fed us some oysters & refunded our fees. We told him we’d come back... we just didn’t know it would be 2 years before we kept our word. Anyway, here we were & here he was, in the same boat, at just after 9am. 8 of us were on the tour, which made us relatively Covid safe, as there was enough room for us to be sufficiently distant. Julia & I held our breath as the Captain engaged the gears &... the boat moved off into the lake!!
From there, it was an informative 2 hours around the lake & river, showing us how the oysters were caught ‘wild’, then tumbled, graded & bedded & then tumbled & graded again, at various intervals over the next 2-3 years as they grew big enough to be either a snack, an entree, or a meal. We were also in Wedgetail Eagle & Sea Eagle territory, as evidenced by a few nests high up in trees along the riverbanks & by a rather large Sea Eagle flying over us at one point. There were also several ‘middens’ of oyster shells which had been gathered, opened, then left in haphazardly stacked piles by the local aboriginal people over the last 4-5 thousand years. Amazing that a shell which takes an oyster only 3 years to grow, can still be intact after thousands of years. Will anything we build today, be able to claim the same?
After a veritable feast of freshly shucked oysters, lemon & pepper, we made our way back to the landing &, of course, we headed straight to the little shop attached to the shucking sheds, where we bought another dozen to fortify us for the journey up the coast today
It had been a little cold on the lake, so Laura’s heaters were switched on for the first time this trip & probably for the first time in quite a few weeks, bringing feeling & mobility back to cold hands
Probably only 20 minutes into the trip north, we started to see evidence of the bushfires which had not only ripped through Kosciuszko National Park, but had blasted through the south-eastern coast of New South Wales all through last Summer... in fact, all through last Spring AND Summer. There were blackened red trunks & stumps not only on the sides of the road, but also up on the hills & ridges. Many have regrowth sprouting from their trunks, but there were some where that regrowth had tuned brown & the tree was dead or dying. Still others were just black, with no regrowth at all. There were road crews all along the highway, most of whom were involved in cutting down the dead trees closest to the roads, as well as running repairs to rails, signage & fencing
Well, we were on our way home. The questions now were - how far did we want to go today & did we want to take any detours into other areas between here & Sydney, to postpone our inevitable return? We have a few ideas, but regardless, expect to get back to town some time tomorrow, then claim Bella back from her lodgings on Sunday, leaving us, especially me, a few days to actually relax & enjoy a bit of rest, without recreation
From oysters & seafood, then into cheese country. We had to bypass Bega, as their cheese factory is currently closed, but Tilba & Bodalla, our preferred sources anyway, were both open & tempting to palates & wallets... & tastings. So, with the travel esky more fully loaded than when we left home, we continued north
A stop in Batemans’ Bay for a seafood snack & it was decision time. Do we stay here for the night, or go a little further north, maybe to Kiama, where we’d have the option of detouring into the southern highlands, or through the Royal National Park. We decided to book accommodation in Kiama & pressed on up the highway as the sun began to sink behind the escarpment that separates the coast & the Great Dividing Range. It tuned out that our Motel is in Shellharbour, not Kiama, but it was only about 20 minutes further, so still no problem for any detours tomorrow. We'd never been to Shellharbour before - it looked to be one of the more developing south coast towns, given its proximity to Sydney, I'm sure a lot of people are heading down this way to escape everything from the Plague, to the outrageous real estate prices. Our Motel room was in another place attached to a pub, but basically comfortable enough for us
Kilometres travelled: 394
An early start, so we could be on time for our morning oyster tour on the Pambula Lake, just north of Eden. We found one of the 2 open cafés in town & picked up a light breakfast, as we knew there’d be more food during the tour - of the oyster variety!
Only a short distance north of town was the boat ramp for the lake, so we parked & waited for Captain Sponge, so his Magical Oyster Tour could begin. Yes, that’s his name - given to him by other oyster farmers on the rivers & yes, that’s what he calls his side business of taking tourists around the oyster beds & gathering spots on Pambula Lake & then down the Pambula River closer to the ocean. I still think he should call it the Magical Oystery Tour, but maybe he's more of a Stones fan...
We’d actually tried to take the Captain’s tour a couple of years ago, but the motor in his boat seized up & refused to budge us from the landing dock, so he sheepishly fed us some oysters & refunded our fees. We told him we’d come back... we just didn’t know it would be 2 years before we kept our word. Anyway, here we were & here he was, in the same boat, at just after 9am. 8 of us were on the tour, which made us relatively Covid safe, as there was enough room for us to be sufficiently distant. Julia & I held our breath as the Captain engaged the gears &... the boat moved off into the lake!!
From there, it was an informative 2 hours around the lake & river, showing us how the oysters were caught ‘wild’, then tumbled, graded & bedded & then tumbled & graded again, at various intervals over the next 2-3 years as they grew big enough to be either a snack, an entree, or a meal. We were also in Wedgetail Eagle & Sea Eagle territory, as evidenced by a few nests high up in trees along the riverbanks & by a rather large Sea Eagle flying over us at one point. There were also several ‘middens’ of oyster shells which had been gathered, opened, then left in haphazardly stacked piles by the local aboriginal people over the last 4-5 thousand years. Amazing that a shell which takes an oyster only 3 years to grow, can still be intact after thousands of years. Will anything we build today, be able to claim the same?
After a veritable feast of freshly shucked oysters, lemon & pepper, we made our way back to the landing &, of course, we headed straight to the little shop attached to the shucking sheds, where we bought another dozen to fortify us for the journey up the coast today
It had been a little cold on the lake, so Laura’s heaters were switched on for the first time this trip & probably for the first time in quite a few weeks, bringing feeling & mobility back to cold hands
Probably only 20 minutes into the trip north, we started to see evidence of the bushfires which had not only ripped through Kosciuszko National Park, but had blasted through the south-eastern coast of New South Wales all through last Summer... in fact, all through last Spring AND Summer. There were blackened red trunks & stumps not only on the sides of the road, but also up on the hills & ridges. Many have regrowth sprouting from their trunks, but there were some where that regrowth had tuned brown & the tree was dead or dying. Still others were just black, with no regrowth at all. There were road crews all along the highway, most of whom were involved in cutting down the dead trees closest to the roads, as well as running repairs to rails, signage & fencing
Well, we were on our way home. The questions now were - how far did we want to go today & did we want to take any detours into other areas between here & Sydney, to postpone our inevitable return? We have a few ideas, but regardless, expect to get back to town some time tomorrow, then claim Bella back from her lodgings on Sunday, leaving us, especially me, a few days to actually relax & enjoy a bit of rest, without recreation
From oysters & seafood, then into cheese country. We had to bypass Bega, as their cheese factory is currently closed, but Tilba & Bodalla, our preferred sources anyway, were both open & tempting to palates & wallets... & tastings. So, with the travel esky more fully loaded than when we left home, we continued north
A stop in Batemans’ Bay for a seafood snack & it was decision time. Do we stay here for the night, or go a little further north, maybe to Kiama, where we’d have the option of detouring into the southern highlands, or through the Royal National Park. We decided to book accommodation in Kiama & pressed on up the highway as the sun began to sink behind the escarpment that separates the coast & the Great Dividing Range. It tuned out that our Motel is in Shellharbour, not Kiama, but it was only about 20 minutes further, so still no problem for any detours tomorrow. We'd never been to Shellharbour before - it looked to be one of the more developing south coast towns, given its proximity to Sydney, I'm sure a lot of people are heading down this way to escape everything from the Plague, to the outrageous real estate prices. Our Motel room was in another place attached to a pub, but basically comfortable enough for us
Kilometres travelled: 394
