Exploring the Sapphire Coast, NSW

Saturday the 5th of May.... We are staying at an amazing Caravan Park, called the Big 4 Marimbula Beach, it would have to be among the best we have stayed at since we left.
It sits high on a cliff overlooking the coast and the views are breathtaking... it also has two heated pools...

One of the caravan park's heated pools

The park caters really well for children, with activities planned throughout the day.
That said, the kids were keen to take part in yesterday morning's face painting and art and craft activities which allowed Richard and I to have brekky in the caravan park coffee shop.
After Nina emerged with a dolphin on her face and enough craft to fill the fridge twice over (the boys thought they were too big for it all), we ventured into Merimbula to check out the main street.

A dolphin faced chookie

Merimbula is situated on the NSW south coast and is surrounded by ocean and lakes, so everywhere you look there is water...it's a popular holiday spot because it's in the middle of Sydney and Melbourne and not far from Canberra.

We then went for a drive into nearby Pambula, where we had lunch at one of the old country pubs.
The boys were keen to get back to the caravan park by 3 o'clock for a kids cricket game, so I took the kids back while Richard continued his Saturday arvo, studying (very badly), the race meets around the country.
He arrived home around 5ish and we all got dressed to go to dinner at the local Bowling Club.

We were amazed (a) to see how big it was and (b) that the footy (AFL) was playing on the TV.
These clubs are totally foreign to us West Aussies. The only place you can gamble in WA is at a racecourse, a TAB or the casino.
Thank goodness we don't have them in the west. Although they seem to provide a great financial boost to the local communities, I can't begin to imagine how much havoc they wreak within families.
Anyway, the line for dinner was way too long so we ended up grabbing take away pizza and having it in the caravan park while watching the rest of the footy... It was a nice relaxing night.

Today, Sunday the 6th of May, we ventured out to explore more of the region...
We had been told about a local market that was on in nearby Condola. We expected to find a few stalls but were amazed at how big they were...

The Condola markets

Filled with local produce, craft and bric a brac... we ended up buying a few bits and pieces, among them, a bonsai tree that I couldn't resist. I must be missing my garden...

My bonsai tree

We then headed towards the famous cheese making town of Bega and did some cheese taste-testing at the factory. The entire area is full of dairy farms, all with a Bega sign at the front gate. It really is great farming country with water flowing freely from the mountains making the area lush and green...

The Bega cheese tasting house

The sign on the door - cute!!

We liked the toilet signs

Back on the road and a sharp turn to the right by Richard had us heading towards the Sapphire Coast Turf Club, here was trouble!!!... It turned out being a great afternoon, the race course was huge, and we all had fun picking the losing horses.. Oh well...
I did learn something today, that horses in NSW race in the opposite direction... clockwise, rather than anti-clockwise. It was a bit weird to watch at first...

Not the horse we picked ;-(

The kids in front of the Sapphire Coast Turf Club

We did however get our picture in the local Merimbula Post... The kids think they're going to be famous...we must have stuck out like sore thumbs...

The photo for the local rag


We then drove home via the tourist route.. taking in the coastal views along the way

Where the ocean meets the lake

The coast off Merimbula

The fishing jetty

The sun sets over Merimbula


We also stopped at a local aquarium where Nina was excited to see Nemo and Marlin... too cute!!

Nemo and Marlin


We arrived back at the caravan park with plans to have a night in eating the meal from the slow cooker... but the boys decided they'd prefer to watch the footy at the Bowls Club. So the girls stayed behind, washed their hair, did some colouring in, ate from the slow cooker and watched the full moon rise over the ocean... beautiful!!

The full moon rising