Weekend away – Batemans Bay
After a week of constantly checking weather reports for various area’s we had the same conclusion..rain. Now we don’t like putting tents up & down in wet weather so we were really hoping the all knowing weatherman might change his mind at the last moment, we should have known better..nope.still rain. Friday night saw us debating once again where to go, & if we should go at all. In the end we agreed to phone Nelligen Big 4 caravan park to see if they had any cabins available, there is a large river & they have a boat ramp so we thought we could do some recon for later use with the boat.you never know!
The Gods where against us.all booked out, we tried 2 others until we found that there was 1 cabin at the Clyde River Caravan Park . We booked this & decided to go to the South Coast camping & caravan show , Visit Mogo Zoo & see the attractions down south & as we were in a cabin we didn’t have to worry about the soggy ground & the promise of wet weather.
Early Saturday morning we had a phone call…ooops the caravan park had some how double booked! So they have made arrangements with a sister park at South Durras called Lakesea Caravan Park, which is only 10km north of Batemans Bay, so we weren’t too concerned. We packed up, fed the animals & where on our way. It rained on & off the whole way!. We found the Caravan Park fairly easily , it reminded me of Merry Beach with all the trees along the road, & booked in.
We had a cabin facing the lake (Durras Lake), it had a nice deck with tables & chairs to sit on , Inside was a open area which included a kitchen, dining table ,lounge with TV & DVD player, 2 bedrooms & a separate bathroom. The cabins are each named after native wildlife and ours was called the Eagle.
After unloading all our gear we drove into town to find the show, The lady at the park said there were signs everywhere..did we see 1.no not at all..no signs at all but we did see a heap of cars parked off the road & guessed that we were in the right area. After finding a parking spot close by, we paid our entrance fee & wandered around, found a place selling BBQ sausages & steak for lunch.we were a tad bit hungry by now. We saw the Jet tent which we have been eyeing off, caravans, camper trailers & all sorts of goodies, even though it wasn’t really big or have much 4×4 stuff (mainly caravans) the afternoon passed quickly. No rain, just kept threatening to. We all agreed (after a lengthy discussion & driving around looking for some where) to get pizza & take back to the cabin & heat up rather than go back to the caravan park, get changed & go back into town again.
We ordered our Pizzas & Brendan also wanted some Prawns from the shop next door, so we ordered 1/2 a kilo for an appetiser.
We got back to the caravan park, there were lots of Kangaroos eating in the grassy area’s in the park & next to the road. Brendan went to play in the playground & David & I thought we’d have a drink on the deck & relax a bit before we reheated the pizza and ate..oops The kitchen didn’t have an oven, only hotplates & a microwave..oh well we’d do something with that later. We had a quick walk around the park (the Kiosk was closed. & David needed milk for his coffee) ok, there is a corner shop in South Durras, so we jumped in the car & drove around to find it.just as we pulled up the owner came out with a sign saying “closed “…luckily he let us in & we got some milk! David gets cranky when he doesn’t get his caffeine fix 😉
My, ingenious, husband came up with the idea of using the frying pan with a bit of water & placing the pizza boxes over top to heat up, it actually worked pretty good even if the boxes got a bit soggy. After tea & cleaning up we all had a nice hot shower & started watching Brendan’s movies.
Brendan & I were on the lounge, David was in the bedroom when we heard a bang outside..we all rushed over to the door & found a mother & baby possum had somehow removed the lid off the garbage bin & were eating our left overs.we took a few photo’s & then they ran over to a large tree out front of our cabin. David went inside & Brendan & I watched them for a bit longer, I took a piece of crust over to the tree & the mother came down carrying the baby to get it.took a few close ups & left them to it..About an hour later another bang, this time we had a kangaroo & the possums were back..a few more photos and closed the bin again..yep another bang but this time there was a guy shooing the possums away ..do not encourage the possums they make a mess !!! Finally we all went to bed, but thanks to a strange bird call ( not kangaroos or possums this time) which was really loud, right on dawn, we woke up really early, but eventually went back to sleep for a few extra hours.
After cleaning & packing up we had Macca’s for Breaky before going down to Mogo Zoo—-hmmmmm-do love the zoos.!
We walked in & right at the entrance the first keeper talk was on.Silvery Gibbons, cute & very agile, the Female is the dominate & you could tell she was really bossy & when the keeper gave the male a grape she decided that she wanted that one as well, even though there was plenty on the ground- it got pretty rough!.
Tigers were next, they were Sumatran, 2 x females & 1 male named Larry, all in individual cages, they had huge paws, were quite vocal & liked to rub up against the fence at the keeper (like household cats do) they weighed around 90kg & are actually the smallest of the tigers, Siberian tigers weigh around 330kg!
Opposite the tiger enclosure was a tawny lion pack, the male & 1 female were right down the back sleeping ( usually sleep for 20 out of 24 hours) another female came up really close to the fence while we were there, & just sat & watched.
Otters were the next keeper talk & Brendan really wanted to see this.but we just missed it.spent too much time looking at the tigers. The otters we still very playful and were out in the enclosure swimming & running around so Brendan got to see them at least.
On our way around to the next keeper talk we saw, Golden Tamarin, Cotton top Tamarin, Pygmy Marmoset ( smallest monkey of all) Red Panda, Gibbons ,Giraffe, Ostrich, Zebra, Fenec Fox, Brazilian Tapir, Meerkats & Deer which you could feed through the fence- and they all seem really hungry & didn’t hesitate to eat from your hands.
My very favourite animal of all..the Snow leopard was next.what.he has a Swedish girlfriend visiting.and he is not available for viewing..it’s not fair! all I can see is grass rocks..woe is me
The Timbavati White Lions were the next keeper talk, There was 1 male & 4 females in a large savannah looking enclosure. The keeper fed them small amounts of meats to get them to stand up against the fence. They get fed every 3-4 days large amounts of meat like horse legs etc still intact with the bones. The male has to be fed separately because like in the wild the female will hunt the food but the male gets fed first.he doesn’t share well.They are not albino but a really light shade of blonde (not the usual tawny colour)- needs 2 recessive genes to make this happen- very unique.
We made our way around to the Siamang which is a type of Gibon not a monkey- they were so cute, they walked on their feet like we do, had the long arms like the Orang-utans, They are the largest of the Gibon family and are black in colour. The babies were chasing the ducks away, picking up left over food, running & playing on the ropes. While mum & dad were having a lie down in the sun, one of the babies decided to then jump & play on mum & dad, then they wrestled for a while..reminded me of Brendan.so human like. While we sat and watched them Brendan had a little picnic stop, sitting on the rocks overlooking the water fencing off the Siamang,- we saw eels swimming around.
We saw Spider Monkeys, Ring tailed Lemurs & Black & White Ruffed Lemurs- they each had their own separate islands & very pretty quiet until a keeper came out into the water in a little dingy.they all started running around after that !
Next, was the reptile enclosure.Iguanas & large snakes were the theme.the Iguana’s were cute in a dragon sort of way- there was a Green one & a Rhinoceros one, but the snakes..yuk..Brendan enjoyed them though.must be a boy thing!
We were on our way back to see the tigers again, & found the juvenile Red Panda’s running around their enclosure chasing each other, there were 2 enclosures next to each other & there were 2 Red Panda’s in each ..we spent a lot of time here watching them & taking photo’s ( I wish I had seen them earlier- I seemed to spend hours trying to get a photo of the adult ones which I think deliberately were lying down in the back of the trees, so you couldn’t see them properly)
We had a late lunch, then waited for the last Keeper talk of the day.the Serval…Medium sized African wild cat.we were the only ones there ! The keepers actually went into the enclosure with the 2 cats on display as they had been hand raised, The mother & brother & sister in the next enclosure were not.They meow not roar, they also purr & can jump 3m in height , they have eye camouflage on their ears & have the longest legs of the cat family – compared to body size, the usual weight is around 16kg.
A quick stop for Brendan to again see & take another photo of the Otters, we then left Mogo Zoo
We decided to go out to Nelligen to have a look at the Big4 caravan park anyhow. There was still no vacancies unless you wanted a powered tent site, but the lady at the front desk buzzed us in so we could have a look around for next time.The reception was very fancy and the grassy areas were really green & well manicured – muddy in a lot of areas but with so much rain that’s to be expected. There was a cool kids water play area, heated pool & 2x pillow jumping areas, (Brendan was really disappointed we couldn’t stay) General cabins & cabins which overlooked the water, all in all it looked pretty nice.
As we couldn’t stay the night we decided to made our way back home today rather than Monday- Brendan can now go to school Monday instead!
