Cousin Tracie had mentioned the town of Eden in an email. The Eden-based Disaster Bay Chilli Company created the world's first commercial chilli wine made entirely from fermented chillies.

Twofold Bay, on the NSW Sapphire Coast lies between Melbourne and Sydney. Boydtown owes its existence to the early Australian whaling industry, which was already flourishing in Twofold Bay in the early 1830’s. In 1843 a flamboyant entrepreneur named Benjamin Boyd decided to establish a base for his whaling and pastoral operations and Twofold Bay became the centre. Seahorse Inn is a beautiful, luxurious boutique hotel on the shore overlooking the bay to Eden, set amidst sprawling rose gardens and tight green lawns, it is breathtaking in both architecture and old world charm. We didn't stay there, but rather, we set up camp in the park.
Amelia-jane, Kevin and I spent 3 happy days in the sunshine, exploring the coastline and dining on boiled eggs and crusty damper dripping with butter and honey.
Amelia-jane played the Weber Concerto in F minor for clarinet, Kevin chewed sticks by the campfire and I wandered for hours along the beach. Things had come right!






We were slow to pack and leave the beach, where all that mattered was firewood and milk for our tea. The cousins wanted us in Wollongong.

The Journey Continues.

...The plan was to spend the first night at "Lakes Entrance" then head inland
and camp under "Mount Little Dick"!
It had snowed earlier, the weather was wild, windy and wet.
Heavy hail and gale force winds meant the tent was no longer a possibility.
All the motels were booked out in Lakes Entrance.
The ladies in the information center were horrified we considered camping!
Nothing else to be done but keep driving in an attempt to outrun the weather.

Just on dusk we pulled over on the Highway for a short stop. The Jeep headlights began to flicker: on and off... Amelia-jane noticed a shabby motel directly across the road. It felt defeatist to spend our 2nd night in a motel. Amelia-jane ran over in the pouring rain and the manager said the rooms were fully booked. Huh?
Sitting in the cars all night on such a night, not a pleasant thought, we tried the Jeep again and the lights worked, we drove on into the darkness.

A State Forest track led round and round through tall trees, the track became deep sand and was so narrow it was a 14point turn before we were heading in the direction of the highway once more! Adventuring in the dark? Hmm.
Further on, a sign to the right promised camping and cabins at Cape Conran.
19kms of winding narrow track mimicked an American horror movie setting...we saw no cabins but a shabby sort of hut, a windblown notice board and a pay phone entombed in spider web. Eek.

We drove up and down tracks weaving through the bush hoping for a flat clearing. Sleeping in the cars began to look an almost pleasant option.
Choice made, we parked and set about erecting the tent which we had never seen out of the box and as Amelia-jane cut open the carton, the Jeep headlights began to flicker and throb with strobe-light effect.
Both torches faded and died.
Lunch was some 10 hours earlier and we were cold and somewhat deranged though cheerful! This is what an adventure is like isn't it?

A search for firewood, found only wet twigs and stringy bark, the small fire burst into flame with added firelighters, covered us in smoke and fizzled.
Amelia-jane laid the tent out and with frozen fingers we fitted bits together...the instructions were sewn into the carry bag!
The jeep lights flashed on and off creating a weird atmosphere!


The tent up and pegged down firmly Amelia-jane unpacked the air mattresses and ripped open the box containing the rechargeable pump!
The nozzle was missing...after a rummage through the tool boxes for a DIY bit and using brute force of our lips we reconciled ourselves to the thought of sleeping on the stony ground...hmmm...

Stiff, aching and hungry we scoffed into a cold can of Stagg Chilli and a few slices of bread...it was sometime after 11:30pm.
Terry (back on the island of Tasmania),
had phoned hours earlier to see how far we had driven.
"We'll phone you when we arrive somewhere".
I guessed this was somewhere.
No mobile signal!
Ah...Kevin in his little Drizabone doggie coat, Amelia-jane and I in ours with phone-torch in hand wandered through the scrub.
Amelia's pockets jangled with change for the phone and
with every rustle in the bush our hearts pounded,
shadows became animated demons and
despite the freezing temperature sweat dripped from our hands.
It was scary! It was a very wrong turn!
Amelia-jane pushed the coins into the slot...
"Hi Terry, we are ok but"...brrrrr brrrr brrrr.
Over and over..."Hi Terry, we are ok but"...brrrrrrrr.
We had to be satisfied Terry had heard the words,
"we are ok".
Walking back to the camp, we wondered aloud if we were ok.
Exhausted we crawled into our sleeping bags, having folded our day clothes.
We lay in the dark in Betty Boop pyjamas, silently wondering where this journey would lead.(Amelia-jane in the pink to match her new Foxy Lady sleeping bag, me in her purple set).

The Journey Begins.

Finally I am sitting quietly alone with power for the laptop.
So...what are we doing?
The boat trip was wonderful and as always Amelia-jane booked a marvellous cabin.
I like to lie on the bunk and watch the lights on the horizon disappear...
It was a little rocky, though I have known much worse, in fact one night on the Abel Tasman
it was so rocky, people were falling over.
Ugghh...



Down on the car deck below the waterline, little Kevin spent the night in the highest kennel.
He was above all the great big dogs, he seemed very interested.
He did learn to howl though and I expect that not too much sleeping went on during the night.



Sailing into Port Melbourne in the early morning light was enjoyable and had a holiday feel.
We drove along Bay Street which becomes Beaconsfield Road.
Shops, shops and even more shops...there was no real distinction where the burbs ended and the small
towns began...on and on we drove.