Merimbula Not Via Mogo

Today we discovered that Google Maps was smart enough to know when roads were closed, in our case, due to flooding. We had planned our route from Shoalhaven Heads to Merimbula, and braved the cold, wind and rain to get to the Oyster Shack at Bateman's Bay. The lady at the counter kindly informed us that the Princes Hwy further south at Mogo was flooded, and was only recently reopened to 4WD. The oysters were promptly abandoned as we reconvened at the nearby McDonald's to formulate a new plan that would see the Mazda 3 making the journey south. To our delight, Google Maps had red dashes marking roads which were closed. Trusting Google, we started our drive, hugging the coast briefly before detouring inland and re-joining the Princes Hwy at Moruya. It was a close call at Moruya with the road being closed just as we got through and crossed the river. 

We made two short stops at Bodalla and Tilba. These stops should be avoided at all costs by the lactose intolerant. For a family who lives on lite milk, full cream, non homogenized milk was heavenly. Both were essentially devoid of tourists on account of the weather. We continued on to Merimbula and arrived uneventfully. Oma delighted in trying to take photos of flooded creeks and rivers along the way. We were relieved that our lakeside rental was NOT flooded! It was otherwise as advertised although one bathroom was a bit dodgy. It was well situated near the shops and was comfortable and spacious. 

Our first planned stop

The Clyde River nearly bursting

Bodalla, ice cream and milkshake anyone?!

Very enjoyable lemon myrtle and christmas pudding ice-cream

Amazing milk says the children

The very picturesque Tilba

Interesting find...

Our rental

The view from our backyard

Pambula Beach

Today could have easily been written off as a "transit" day as we had a long drive lined up from Kiama to Pambula. We decided to provide ourselves with a carrot of a cafe breakfast to encourage us to be packed and checked out before 8am. Wheels were rolling at 07:56 with minimal threats or raised voices and so we rolled around the corner to @milkandhoney and tucked into banana pancakes and brekkie burgers. The servings were huge, the coffee was good and it was not raining, so we hit the road in a good mood. 

The banana pancakes with ice-cream because we are on holidays

The other popular and much hyped menu item was the brekkie roll. It didn't disappoint

We were driving through dairy and oyster country today. We didn't think that they would be a great mix so today we focused on dairy and simply ogled the multitudes of oyster farms and lobster shacks. Perhaps we should've picked breakfast items that didn't have a side of ice cream, but we are on holidays and we are all lactose tolerant so we indulged. 

Bodalla and Tilba are names that regularly feature in the dairy aisles. Our first stop was at Bodalla dairy shed. We skipped the cheeses here because we couldn't go past the ice-cream bar: seaweed and matcha, billy tea and peanut butter makes for a surprisingly good three scoop combo! Who knew? Tilba was only 30 minutes further down the road and we had booked lunch at the Tilba Ale and Winery. We had a very light, relaxed lunch here of shared fish tacos. The surrounds were very pretty in a rustic kind of way. We didn't stay for the wine tastings, but did try their draught IPA which was a bit like Stone and Wood. The original reason for visiting this establishment were the great reviews of their ploughman's lunch. Unfortunately that was not on the menu anymore, so we decided to buy a cheese box with added cold meats. This ended up being a great choice as it came in a neat pack that we could keep for dinner. At that stage we had only sat in the car and eaten so it was no wonder we were full.

Yes we are ready for more dairy!

Important decisions had to be made here...

They also sold other produce including "bush tucker"

Eagerly awaiting our ice-cream and milkshakes

The winning flavour (underneath and not visible) was voted to be seaweed and matcha!

Going out back to look for the baby cows

Why did the chicken cross the road?

It is lunchtime! The beautifully relaxed outdoor setting at Tilba Valley Ale & Winery 

Very good fish tacos

The cheese box with 3 types of Tilba cheese

There are two main towns in Tilba - Central Tilba and Tilba Tilba. We strolled the main street of Central Tilba. It is a quaint litttle town that caters to tourists with shops that sold various unessential items such as fudge, leather lamp shades and dream catchers. The shop frontages resembled a cross between Leura and a Spaghetti Western. We bought the fudge, as it was the least unessential, and moved on. Despite Google's best efforts we managed to drive a few kilometres down a dirt road, but hit the highway again without reaching Tilba Tilba. Hopefully we didn't miss out on too much.

We stopped at Bega Woolies to buy some much needed green, leafy vegetables, locally produced full cream milk, as well something to BBQ for dinner. We were glad that we took the simple, healthy option because our AirBnB in Pambula Beach turned out to have a beautiful backyard backing onto Ben Boyd National Park that we were able to utilise. A quick dinner also enabled us to explore the local river before dark. 

Pambula river mouth was simply beautiful. We walked from the river around to the beach at sunset past multi-coloured boulders, rock pools with perfect weather and not a fly in sight. There was a small mob of grey kangaroos on our street when we arrived home. We stopped to take photos. They make a nice change from bush turkeys and rabbits.

Walking through the quaint and tiny Central Tilba

A short single street

Who doesn't need fudge?!

The local "servo"

Very old fashioned general store where the fudge is sold

Lemon myrtle fudge because we're 'strayan

The front balcony of our airbnb with ocean views

Jonah didn't hesitate to "relax"

The phenomenal backyard backing onto Ben Boyd National Park

Modern and very well equipped kitchen

New and modern bathrooms

Dinner time!

Haloumi and pork kebabs

Visit from the locals

Pambula River Mouth

Easy walk around the Ocean side

Pambula Beach

Very quiet beach, hardly anyone here

Climbing the rocks

Rockclimbing fail...