Southward to Merimbula

Our trip continues with a drive 450 km south of Sydney to Merimbula to visit Jodi's family.
We had planned to make the drive in three days, with two nights spent camping.
An hour or so in, we passed a sign indicating that the highway was closed due to bushfires and that we must detour inland. After a few extra hours winding up and then down some steep highways, we arrive in our destination, Batemans Bay. Since it was now 8:00 and the sun had set a few hours ago, we stayed in a motel rather than trying to find a campground and setup the brand new tent in darkness.
Monday morning, we traveled up a short distance to Murramurang National Park to camp. This being a weekday in late winter, we had the campground to ourselves save for other people stopping by to see the dozens of kangaroos lounging near the beach. We spent the day wandering the beach, and then defending our dinner from some aggressive kookaburras and magpies.


We then continued on to Merimbula, arriving later afternoon at Jodi's Uncle Robin & Aunt Margaret's house. This brought back many memories for Jodi, as it was primarily the only place she had visited on previous visits to Australia. The next day we traveled back north to Bermagui to visit Jodi's cousin Kara. Like Jodi, Kara is also a schoolteacher, and that night we attended her school's winter variety show. It was impressive, with each class putting on a musical number or skit. Never before have I seen a fifth grade class present a montage of Weird Al Yankovic's parody songs relating to food.

Friday morning was spent golfing in Merimbula and avoiding the many kangaroos on the course.