Now we all know that Australia has a numerous and diverse variety of animals, some of which we have already mentioned in previous blog posts. What you don’t expect is someone’s vehicle to be such a good reflection of that. However, Lottie’s van is a veritable zoo on wheels. For example this week whilst driving home she spotted a Blue Tongue Lizard on the side of the road and duly stopped, ran after it, caught it and put in the foot-well of her van (no we don’t know why either). Wherein it duly disappeared into the engine compartment and she couldn’t get it out. Stuart came to the rescue and found it whilst looking under some hay bales. The problem was that firstly, no one told him how big this lizard was and secondly, he simultaneously found a Huntsman spider. Huntsman spiders are venomous but not particularly harmful. However, they can grow up to 15cm wide. The Blue Tongue lizard was the length of a ruler. Stuart didn’t know which way to turn, so just fell out of the van and screamed for Lottie. He insists it wasn’t a scream but a triumphant shout to mark him finding the lizard. His “triumphant shout” must have scared off the Huntsman because he was never seen again. This is possibly why Fran has noticed that Stuart checks around his seat every time he now gets in Lottie’s van. 

This week saw us taking a trip to Tilba Tilba. A village so nice they named it twice. It is a preserved colonial heritage site and it was settled by Europeans during the Australian gold rush. The village is famous for cheese, where the ABC Cheese Factory in Central has been in operation since 1891…but Cheddar it isn’t. As we took pictures of the quaint PO Boxes, the Postmaster ran over and explained they were the oldest in Australia. He was very proud of this fact but unfortunately, we haven’t been able to verify this. The local pub landlord was also very keen to tell us how historic and old his pub was but then became deflated when we told him it wasn’t even as old as our house. We could have sworn he muttered “bloody poms”, as he walked away. 

We spent more time walking with Lottie and watching her sublime skill at controlling a pack of 12 dogs. The beaches are perfect for her job as a dog walker and trainer because there are miles and miles of sandy beaches, which for the most part are devoid of other dogs or humans. We also finally got to do some cycling after managing to secure ourselves mountain bikes and went on a short but attractive cycle ride near Bermagui, finishing up at the Bermagui Blue Pool. We both have differing views on what to call this, a sea bath or a lido, so have a look and you can decide what to call it.  Regardless, it was an amazing place to bob about. The weekend saw us spending a day in Mossy Point, an estuary where, if you can get the tide right, you can treat like a lazy river. Of course if you get this wrong you get washed out to sea.