Nelligen (Batemans Bay)

The river frontage we were camped on at Nelligen

Oh dear not the tow hitch!  That was not how we wanted to start our trip to Batemans Bay.  But know that we were heading to a large coast town we knew we could do something there.  So we booked in at Nelligen Big4 which is around 10 km west of Batemans Bay.  We visited several tradies and mechanics before heading to Nelligen and in the end the car was booked in to get polyairbags. Not only did the tow hitch give us a headache but so did the rain. From the time we arrived at Nelligen to the time we left it rain more often than not.  Nigel and I set up in the rain while the kids sat in the car and watched a movie.  While we set up the entire time we watch a bloke sitting under his umbrella fishing on the banks of the river. The rain slowed down over the next two days and that allowed us to a few things.  Firstly we Leon (the crazy wet fisherman)and Cathie a lovely couple who were a tremendous help over our stay at Nelligen and secondly Nicole, Shane, Lachie, Luke and Emily another family travelling around Australia and on the road a similar times to us.  It was good speaking to someone with the same amount of experience as us and similar problems. We spent two days talking and chatting and getting to know each other which was good for all of us.  The kids had someone to play with.  I had females to gasbag with and Nigel and Leon could talk about fixes for the tow hitch.



Austin watching the rubber inflatable speed boats



Day trip to Mogo

Our first stop was the historical gold town.  We watched a panning display and Jordan was given the little piece of gold that the guide found. We then wander around the town looking at the different buildings and listening to stories and facts around the gold town.  We even got to pan for gold ourselves and I was lucky to strike it rich also. My nugget was huge.  Worth at least $3.00 on the market.  We then went to Mogo Zoo and wandered around the park.  The kids feed the deers and watch tiger cubs basking in the Sun.  They were even happier when they got to see the lions being feed by the zoo keepers.  It was an amazing experience to see and watch and listen to the zoo keepers talk about his hand reared lions.

On returning to Nelligen we went out to tea with Cathie and Leon at the pub across the road.  It was a very enjoyable meal and the kids got a free ice cream each from the barmaid for being so well behaved.  We were so proud of our three cherubs.  That night the rain came back with vengence and flooded many park visitors.  The rain continued on and of all day and the grounds became a quagmire.  Austin was trying to become a fisherman so was helping Leon on out.  Leon by the way had been fishing all week with no success until late on Sunday when he finally caught his first one.  Austin stood with Leon for ages and just wanted to have a go so Leon gave him the rod to mind.  Austin was postive that something had taken the bait but when Leon checked the line it had gone limp again. We were having tea so Austin was called in at that time Leon also realed the line in and low and behold on the end of the line was a flathead.  Austin caught his first fish.  Yeah to our little man.  The next morning we woke to constant rain and a flooded caravan park.  At one stage as i was driving the car out of the site i was spinning the wheels and not getting any traction.  But luckily no need for a tow as we got out of the bog. We later found out that the rain had dropped 6inches in 2 days. A little wet for our liking and that the much of the area had major flooding.