Narooma

We're back on the coast now after our short stop in the pretty but disturbingly quiet Canberra. We decided to walk around the city, forgetting that everything in this country is at least ten times further away than you think it is. It's really not designed for walking round either so you have to navigate with the roadsigns. Anyway, we had a look round the old parliament building which is now a museum and that was quite interesting with a lot of nods to the British equivalent.

Then we walked up to the new building which is sort of built into a hill, so the roof is made of grass. We hadn't seen it before so it was interesting. We were a person short for the helicopter ride so unfortunately that will have to wait for another city, and we ran out of time to see much else. The lesson is: if you go to Canberra, hire bikes.

That evening we found the only pub in the city (well it seemed to be) and had a good night there. We were glad we visited, it had a unique atmosphere, but could see no real reason to stay so it was back in the bus to the coast.

We arrived at Bateman's Bay but couldn't see much for us there so continued our scenic drive down the coast. We saw a place called Potato Point which had such a great name, we stopped there for a look. Then we continued on to Narooma - our present location.

The hostel here is brilliant. It's run by a couple and has a very homely atmosphere. The owners are full of info and stories and have been absolutely relentless in helping us with everything.

The town itself is probably the friendliest place on Earth that we've been to and we're sorely tempted to stay a bit longer even though we planned to leave tomorrow.

This morning we took the free bikes out for a great ride round the coast and were able to see some massive stingrays coming right up to the edge of the water to eat the scraps the fisherman were chucking into the water.

After that we completd the circuit of the town and came back to the hotel to go up to a winery, a decision made last night as we drank lots of beer and wine with a few other guests here.

Time's up here so we'll have to cut this a bit short. Should be able to put photos on tomorrow if we stay here another night, otherwise it's down the coast again to find another paradise to stop at...