Day 79 Narooma

I woke at 4am to another beautiful Victorian summer morning of pouring rain, van-rocking winds and a brisk 8 degrees with the expectation of a high today of a sweltering 18, with thunderstorms. Woohoo!! How can this be summer?
It was so cold, the family just slept, and slept, and slept until about 8am, when I woke the boys and then Jacqui, so we could make our escape by the 10am deadline. The guy that owns the park looks like an extra out of Underbelly. He’s solidly built with close cropped hair and seems unreasonably interested and nosey. I asked him what he did before buying the caravan park, (he’d volunteered that he was a new owner), and apparently he made his fortune as a salesman selling the plastic bases for flower pots. He must have sold a heap of em. He stood and watched and like many others, he was impressed with how efficiently everyone chipped in to pull the van down. We’ve had plenty of practice.
As we drove out of Lakes Entrance at 9:30, the temperature had climbed to an impressive 12 degrees but just 10 minutes up the road, it was back down to 10 and staying in the warmth of the car all day seemed like a good idea. We cruised through what is without doubt, stunningly beautiful (but cold) country, and we slowly made our way to what we intended would be our next stop, Eden.
We drove into the car park of the Australasia Hotel and found the sign promising a counter lunch before pulling up some chairs for a family conference.It’s cold and we keep seeing the signs showing the distance to Sydney. The boys are keen to see their friends and Jacqui would like to see them settled for a few days before sending them off to school. I am acutely aware of the text message I received from Eddie a few days ago saying, “the closer you get to home, the more you start to feel like a homing pigeon”. A vote was taken and the decision was made to keep driving to get ourselves into a position to make a run for Mona Vale on Tuesday.
I was keen to spend some time at the Eden Killer Whale Museum before heading north, so we ate lunch and then began scouting around town for the museum. The Museum was a great experience and we all learnt heaps. I’d never heard of the pack of Killer Whales that helped the shore based whalers during the 1920’s & 30’s by herding Humpbacks, Sperm Whales and Blue Whales into Twofold Bay, then alerting the whalers to come and get the catch. Who knew that a man at Eden was once eaten by a whale, but survived when the whale was caught and he was cut out of its stomach? Jacqui and the boys got an added bonus when they looked out to sea from the museum’s balcony and spotted a bunch of dolphins cavorting and putting on a show, just off shore. We spent almost 3 hours at the museum and it could well have been much longer.
We drove on through the mountains but by about 4pm, I was getting a little drowsy and told Jacqui that I’d be needing a 15-20 minute power-nap. I pulled into a little roadside stop on the side of the highway outside a small village called Quaama. I asked Jacqui to take the boys to a small table in a shelter and play cards, while I dozed off. I was a little surprised when I woke about an hour later and couldn’t see or hear Jacqui or the boys. I assumed they’d gone for a walk and when I saw the clips on the van unlocked, I began locking them down so we could leave when they returned. As I locked the clips, I faintly heard Jacqui calling, “Jorg, Is that you?” I looked around wondering where the voice was coming from when I heard it again. It seemed to be coming from the van but that wasn’t possible. The van was completely down, but for the clips. They couldn't possibly fit in but then I heard the voice again. I opened the door to the van and sure enough, there they all were, squeezed in like foxes in a borough. To escape the cold and the wind, they’d made some room near the door and squeezed themselves into the van. The only one with any chance to move around was Jacob. Jacqui said they’d opened the door a few times, much to the shock and surprise of people in their passing cars.
Now, completely awake, we all piled back into the front vehicle and made our way further north, to Narooma. It’s a pretty little town and if the weather was warmer, we could happily have stayed for a few days. While checking in, the caravan park owner told Jacqui that it had hailed here this morning so in our current circumstances, we found a spot for the night and settled in to prepare for the dash to Sydney in the morning.