Again a late-ish start, Mark very kindly providing everyone with lattes. Fortunately, the Turkish pide bread has gone off so the breakfast toast is managable. Pide bread (a bit like an Indian Naan bread used for a calzone style pizza [amongst others]) becomes remarkably brittle when toasted and is hard work.
We're packed and ready to go pick up the car for noon at noon, ie. we're late. Not a problem as everyone else wants to do the same [pick up the car at noon]. We get the guy to admit that he's seen all the existing damage. Not only is AU$2750 a high excess but shouldn't they be concerned it got this much damage in [its first] 16600km? What are we expected to do in the next 10,000km? Mark leads us on a quick tour of the city, well, we loop down to the Opera House and get blocked in by a bus. Then we're off on our own. Sort, of. Five km later we realise we haven't borrowed Mark's old Sydney map so we pull up alongside at the lights and he passes it over.
First job is to see the snake man at La Peruse. La Peruse is a headland over Botany Bay and is an easy journey to navigate. Before we get there there are people parked all over the show. This continues into La Peruse and there's a big crowd of people off to the left -- that must be the snake man -- but nowhere to park. There is a beach down and around the corner and it is a hot sunny day but this is ridiculous. Pity the poor locals if this happens every weekend. We find a spot out back near the start of the [abandon your car anywhere] parking and walk back in to see the snake man.
Born of two rival snake people who famously married in the twenties and their story was documented on newsreel [and the grassy patch we're on, named after his father], this old boy goes through a constant cycle of showing off his pets. Some lizards but mostly half a dozen snakes [including]: a copperhead he keeps in his "hat money" takings bag; a red bellied black snake; two brown snakes and a tiger snake. You get a good idea that if these ring-weary reptiles are this excitable then the real thing should be avoided. Several tips on snake bite first aid: mostly, bandage the limb from tip to body, though Mark says you should apply strong compression to the bite first to prevent blood spreading it [statistically, bites don't go into arteries or veins but muscle]. Why so important? Take the brown snake, easily identifiable by being a bit brown, unless it's black, being mostly a metre long unless it's two metres long, being a vicious bugger [always] and having black spots on its belly [like, who's going to look?]. This last point is very important as some other snake looks identical to the average punter bar the spots and has a completely different anti-venom. Anyway, an un-treated brown snake bite will kill you in twenty minutes if you don't do anything. And, btw, there are no symptoms to look for, pain, dizzyness, itch, nothing. So that cheers us up a lot.
We've been told to make for Bateman's Bay for this evening, allegedly a five hour drive. After a provisions stop a little way down the road it's half four. This doesn't look good. We turn off the main road, at Mark's suggestion, and head down the coast road through the Royal National Park. This shows a few blackened trees now with fresh leaves growing. Helen digs out that 95% of it was destroyed by fire in 1994. Well, it's come back very well, it must be said. A side effect of the trees is that you don't get to see very much of the coast. The road, unsurprisingly, feels very slow, twisty turny through the parks and stop-start through the towns. But come 8:30 we reach Bateman's Bay. We know nothing of it and can't see it anyway as it's gone dark and started heavy drizzle.
Our real problem is that we have nowhere to stay and this is high season so the motels will probably blow the whole day's budget. As it happens, they've all closed their receptions so it's not an issue. Then we spot a YHA sign and follow it up to the Shady Willows Holiday Park where they've built a hostel in amongst the caravans. Sadly, that's full, the only thing she has left is a "family" caravan plus lean-to without facilities for AU$ 120. I think she was calling our bluff but distress purchases are always like that so we pay up and get the hideous caravan I fear. She's given us the YHA [hostel] guide and a double room [in the hostel] would have cost us AU$54 which is a touch more reasonable. But now we have the book we have a fighting chance. Now we have to keep costs down which brings in McDonalds...
#82, Shady Willows, Bateman's Bay S35.71656 E150.17830 Elev. -31m
Copyright 2003 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.