As previously mentioned one of the reasons for my delayed departure, and melancholy mood on leaving Sydney was due to the fact that both the kids had decided to head overseas while I would be travelling meaning Marianne would be home alone for the first time in a long time.

Over the past eight or nine years we’ve enjoyed many family holidays staying in a little granny flat in Milton. The owners, Kevin and Kellie have become good friends, and our kids regards their two boys George and Harry as younger cousins. This place holds many special memories and we decided it would be fitting to have a few days there together before we each head off in different directions. It turned out the week before Easter worked for everyone and we agreed to rendezvous there on the 10th April.

Having booked the Spirit of Tasmania for the 7th May and looking at the number of lighthouses I needed to visit before then I decided I couldn’t wait around for the family to arrive. Luckily the weather was improving and the seas abating and I was able to book a boat to take me to Montague Island on Saturday 5th. So I headed south visiting the distinctly unimpressive Burrewarra Light at Guerilla Bay on the way and camping in Narooma overnight on Friday so as to be ready to cast off at 7.45am the next morning.

In many ways Narooma is a classic south coast town, relatively unspoilt by over development and far enough away from Sydney not to be a chic weekenderville, (in fact not chic at all despite the best efforts of Justin Hemmes). The trip out to Montague was exhilarating, to be out on the open ocean with the remnants of a solid southern swell, not just the lighthouse (see separate Lighthouse Story), but swimming with seals which seemed a bit like a dress rehearsal for our upcoming trip to the Galapagos at the end of June, just much closer and way less expensive!

Arriving back in Narooma in the early afternoon and with a couple of days before I needed to be back in Milton I couldn’t resist the pull of one of my most favourite places in Australia, Bermagui.

There are a number of reasons why I have such a soft spot for Bermagui including the fact that my Grandfather, Keith “Snow” Taylor, use to go game fishing there with his best mate Dr Geoff Faithfull a non-practicing doctor and owner of the famous Gold Creek station which is now a suburb of Canberra. Geoff was legendary for the fact that he use to drive around town (a much smaller version of Canberra) in his Rolls Royce with his Shetland pony standing where the passenger seat should have been. Another couple of notable things about these fishing expeditions is that on several occasions they were joined by Zane Grey, a big time American movie star of the day, and a pioneering game fisherman. The other being that “Snow” caught the first swordfish ever recorded in Australia at Bermagui, the bill of which took pride of place in his garage for many years but which, sadly, seems to have been lost in the passage of time (but which I remember well from my visits as a youngster – there’s nothing in the World as interesting to a 5 year old as Grandpa’s garage).

The other really strange thing about Bermagui is that about 25 years ago, before we were married, Marianne and I were returning from Melbourne via the Princes Highway, and after staying overnight in Merimbula we visited Tathra and took a back road along the coast to Bermagui. I know with absolute certainty I’d never been on this road before but about 5km south of Bermagui I had a premonition, I said I know what happens next, we’ll round the next bend, there’ll be a long stretch of beach and at the end will be a beautiful grassy headland with a small island slightly offshore. You can guess the rest – it was exactly as I’d imagined it! We’ve been back there a few times since and I visited it again just now. I wish we’d been able to buy it then as it’s still just as spectacular as it was then but with the addition of an incredible multi-million $ home, so I guess someone much richer that I was equally impressed by the location!

In addition to revisiting that field of dreams, which I just discovered is called Baragoot Point, I drove around some of the other familiar sights, the blue pool, camel rock and the game fishing mariner and then had dinner at the Bermagui pub before camping on the headland overlooking the harbour and main beach. Beautiful!

While in Bermagui I followed up on the suggestion of Mr. Ellicott of Mission Beach fame and contacted his friend Roland who lives between Bermagui and Tathra. It turned out that Roland and a few of his friends were having lunch at the Bermagui pub the next day (Sunday) so I invited myself and am glad I did. Roland and Co were great company and invited me to stay with them for a few days over Easter, an invitation I intend to take up.

After a great couple of days in Bermagui I headed back up to Milton to eagerly await the arrival of my family. In the meantime I took the opportunity to spend a couple of days in the Ulladulla library trying (and failing) to get up to date with my blogs. I also managed to catch up with another friend Matt. Matt is definitely one of the more unorthodox people I know, raised on a farm in the middle of a National Park, studied oriental languages at ANU, went to live in China in the early 2000’s and made his first fortune registering and selling Chinese character gambling related URL’s, returned to Australia, bought a property outside Milton, met Craig Wright (aka Satoshi of Bitcoin fame) got in on the ground floor and made his second fortune in crypto and despite his wealth lives a simple life as a man of the land. He’s also someone who’s studied and applies traditional aboriginal land management practices including “cold burning” to manage bushfire risk, and not coincidentally his properties were relatively unscathed during the horrendous south coast bushfires of 2019/20.