We said goodbye to Merimbula and our lovely view with some sadness this morning. It was another beautiful morning and the lake was like glass.

We headed north through places like Tathra and Bermagui, which you have probably never heard of as we hadn't before this last week but all lovely little seaside towns. We stopped at Narooma for coffee and picked up lunch supplies at the same time. Already it was warm and eventually I think it probably did get to the predicted high of 28C!

Fairly soon after Narooma we found an idyllic spot at Malua Bay for lunch. There were picnic tables on a grassy area just alongside the beach. The beach itself had rocky areas but was sandy and for a change wasn't squeaky! I had a paddle and Steve took photos!

Some yellow flowers at Malua Bay

Malua Bay rocks

Although we didn't know what to expect at Jervis Bay, which is where we are tonight, we pressed on in the hope that there would be somewhere for a walk. I think we both thought it would be built up and probably with lots of boats but we couldn't have been more wrong! Something obviously was missed in the planning of this place because we didn't pick up that it was next door to a National Park and it is all very low key.

When we checked in at our motel the lady told us what there was to do in the area and it suddenly became clear that there was an awful lot to do in the very short time we are here! After a quick cup of tea we set off for Booderee National Park for a walk. We just managed to get our park passes before the visitor centre closed and we went down the road to Murrays Beach. Here, before we even left the carpark, we spotted several birds, one of which we hadn't seen before and haven't been able to identify. We read that there were several interesting birds and animals to be seen and we set off hopefully.

Pied currawong by the car park

We hadn't gone more than a few hundred metres before we saw a wallaby and during the course of the walk we saw several more, heard some thumping around in the bush (almost certainly more wallabies jumping off) and a kangaroo! We also saw a couple of lizards as yet unidentified. We have had several sightings of white-bellied sea eagles over the last few days but got some really good ones today and managed to photograph one.To crown it all off we were just walking along when a bird scuttled across our path, which we knew immediately was an Eastern bristlebird! I'm sure you are well acquainted with the Eastern bristlebird, so you will know that it is endangered and therefore we were very surprised to see it! Actually we'd never heard of it till today but we were still very pleased to see it!

Engaging wallaby

White-bellied sea eagle

Towards the end of our walk we saw some gum trees with what we thought initially was graffiti on them but closer inspection showed that the graffiti went right up the trunk. Somewhere from the depths of my memory I dredged up that there was a gum called a scribbly gum and this was confirmed by the next information board we came to! Smug or what? (Scribbles are caused by the larvae of a moth.)

Scribbly gum tree

It was getting late by the time we finished our walk and we made our way back to get changed and then out to get a meal! We sat outside eating in the balmy early evening - this is the first time we have felt we could have been in the Mediterranean! We now have the aircon on in our room!

We still have some other things we would like to do before we leave tomorrow so I think we will have to have an early start! We are very pleased to have found this little gem of a National Park and also that it is owned and administered by Aborigines. In NZ the Maoris seem well integrated into society and treated as equals but in Australia the Aborigines seem often to be on the margins of society - poor and outside white society. This is probably too simplistic and just a visitor's perception but it always raises questions with us about how our own communities must look to visitors.

Anyway enough of the serious stuff. Watch this space tomorrow to see if we have finally caught up with those other travellers from Basildon - well Wickford to be precise! We are hoping to meet up with Trudy and Derek again just north of Sydney!