SATURDAY 14 JUNE     TATHRA TO DURRAS   180kms

We hadn’t managed any preliminary packing up, so had it all to do this morning.

John put Truck into low range for the very steep, but short pull up the hill to the Tathra village at the top. We stopped there so I could get the Saturday papers.

Then it was a fairly slow trip north, from Bega, as the highway was hilly and winding for much of the way. We passed through south coast towns that we would, hopefully, come back to visit on the way home, or on later trips – Narooma, Moruya, Batemans Bay.

It was early afternoon when we found the Durras house. After some discussion with family, the van was backed into the neighbour’s driveway – this had been previously checked out by the family as ok, because said neighbour was not going to be there. It got us off the road, and onto a relatively flat area. We were also able to use the outdoor toilet at that place.

The location was very interesting – north of Batemans Bay, and then through National Park between the highway and the coast. The little enclave of Durras had frontage to both the ocean and Durras Lake and was surrounded on the other sides by National Park. This made it a small, tightly held area that had no room for further expansion.

However, scenic as it was, John and I thought that, at the height of summer, it would feel quite a vulnerable place, to us, with only the one narrow and winding road out, though forest.

The family’s house was on a short street that ran downhill to the ocean, and only about five houses back from the beach. Across the road was a large caravan park. The place had no front fences, but a large mob of kangaroos roamed freely and kept all the local grass mown!

Unfortunately, the kangaroos harboured plenty of ticks, and the place was infested with the ticks. John’s daughter told us that she had to closely inspect the two boys every night and regularly removed ticks from them, that they just picked up in the normal course of their play.

After the van was backed in, we got to inspect the property. It would be able to be made quite functional as a beach house, we thought, with quite a bit of work and money spent. It had just been painted, in order to stablilize the asbestos sheeting that was its main construction material.

It was really all about location, being just under three hours’ drive from home in Canberra, with the beach offering fishing, swimming and surfing for the males of the family. The surfing was especially important, apparently, as son in law used to be a surfer dude, and had plans for his sons to follow the tradition.

We went for a long walk on the beach with John’s daughter and the boys, after John had given the lads the fishing gear he had bought for them, in Melbourne. There was no opportunity through the day to try out the gear with them, though. It did not seem that they had ever done any fishing, so – hopefully – having the kid-suitable rods might motivate some attempts.

We ate tea with the family – spag bol.

After witnessing the nightly tick inspection, I gave step-daughter the special tweezers from my first aid kit, that had a magnifying glass attached. I thought she had a great need of these, here!

Later, back in the van, I found that I had picked up a tick that was on my hair – just from brushing against a tree near the van! Unbelievable! Luckily, I felt it moving and was able to brush it off before it had a chance to lodge properly and dig in.

I definitely would not like to live here – or even stay for any length of time.