Meeting Strawbs

The trip started out with a breakfast we had missed while being off exploring: wheat bix, fresh squeezed orange juice, toast and coffee with Nan and Hed. We then piled into the car and headed South for Bega. We listened to Elton John, drove by the Shoalhaven river and talked about Wombats and Cassowaries. The trees here are so different and beautiful! They've got gum trees, Coral Trees and Norfolk Pine trees. We had lunch at Burrill Lake which is around halfway and had delicious sandwiches and tea. Jeff even saw an echidna walking down the side of the road!

When we first got to Bega it reminded me a lot of Moscow, Idaho and wanted to call my dad to tell him. We met up at little Olive's school to greet her when she got out and I must say she has the most exceptional style! With her yellow beanie, star printed tights with shorts over them, red vest with a knitted scarf complete with her retro cape (she prefers to call it a cloak) she looks straight out of an adventurous children's book or something. And then Oscar just has the best most blonde hair and enjoys running around in the nude and barefoot like a tough little man. Seriously, the kid's got to have some really tough feet!

We have been following Annie and Genevieve's blog for months and months about their adventure in building their own house on their 7 acres of land. View said blog here!!! We have plans to come back to Bega several times throughout our trip and help with whatever projects they are working on but their blog is so great to read! It's a Strawbale House with a loft and a TON of character. Annie said bringing people to your hand built house for the first time is sort of like introducing your friends to your new boyfriend; you really want them to be impressed. Let me just say "TEAM STRAWBS!!!"

We went back to the caravan park and put up our tent and slept warmly that first night in Bega and then walked into town to explore the next day. We all road tripped to Scott's Bay near Wallagoot Lake and were surprised to pull up to countless Kangaroos and Wallabys just munching away on grass freely. There were tons! Some of the Roos even had little joeys in their pouches and as they'd bend over to eat the Joey would lean out of the pouch and eat grass at the same time. And when they'd hop away you could just see the baby Roo flopping all over the place in its pouch. As my friend said earlier "cuteness overload".

We had a delicious BBQ that night back at the caravan park as a storm started to roll in and it started to rain pretty damn hard. We haven't used our little 2 person tent in the rain before but I remember noticing along the seams that you could see needle holes in some places and wondering if water would leak through the small holes. We do have a tarp we use underneath us to keep us warm but after getting into our tent to find Jeff's sleeping bag soaking wet and some other little puddles it appears we need another for the top. Whoops! A second tarp should solve the problem just fine though and I'm glad we found out when we had an alternative place for shelter that night (the backseat of the Akhursts car is kind of like sleeping on a train) instead of during one of our weeklong treks where we don't have the option of buying another tarp for days. But we would have figured something out, I'm sure. The good news is that Bega needed rain and it seemed to get a bit of it that night!

So after a short trip to the land of Bega and a stop at the Cheese Factory on the way out of town (YUM) I'm in love with the place and can't wait to go back to help with the Strawbs and it's surrounding land. For now we have a week in Wollongong to explore and relax with the Akhurst family before heading off to Perth (wish us luck; it's a 3 DAY train ride each way).

Ps. Annie let me borrow her book "Tiny Homes, Simple Shelter" by Lloyd Kahn to browse through and it's SO inspiring! I'd highly recommend picking one up if you're into DIY projects around your house or plan to build soon. Check it out!