Gidday all,

Went beach hopping all down the coast from Bermagui to Eden. Down dusty National parks and forestry tracks out to the coast.

Out to Camel Rock, near Bermagui, brought back fond memories of our camel trek for the duck, then into town for fish and chips on the pier.

As we were leaving a boat came in and they hoisted up their catch, a large marlin by the looks.

Through Mimosa Rocks National Park and on to Merimbula, where we pulled up at the point and watched as some were fishing on the rocks. Was an overcast and rather cool day, which was a nice change. With a stroke of luck, one of them caught a good size fish.

Continuing south we went into Ben Boyd National Park and explored the coastline. Coming back to the Hwy over winding corrugated roads. Had just turned onto the bitumen and got up to about 50 kph and a loud clattering and shaking came from under the truck. Slowly pulling to the side and stopping on the narrow edge I got out to inspect, thinking a tyre had blown. I was greeted with the tie rod, which holds the front wheels together for steering purposes, had dropped off on one side due to the ball joint falling apart.

After a while wondering what to do I decided to bash it back together and tie it up with wire to get the show back on the road as we couldn’t  stay there. While under the truck I noticed, of course, the inside dual wheel at the back was flat. About one k up the road going slow with hazard lights on we came to a side road with a large clear area so pulled up for the day and changed the tyre.

Eden was just three ks down the road. With a bit of searching on the internet I found an auto parts shop which dealt in truck parts, so next day after a bit more shoring up of the ball joint we limped into town and camped up over the road from the parts shop. It took three days for the parts to arrive and only a couple of hours to fit them. Lucky it’s a relatively easy job to do. It could have been much worse.

With a complete check of the undercarriage of the truck we were off again.

Went out to Davidson whaling station, south of Eden, the last of the whaling stations that operated on the mainland.

 Crossing the Victoria border and out to Mallacoota. On the wharf there Din recognised a shelter where she had left her fishing rod some thirty years before, and would you know it, it was gone. Can’t leave anything lying about now days.

 

So we have turned the corner now and are heading west along the Vic coast. So much cooler, almost cold.