Merimbula 1

This past weekend was an ETL (Exchange Teachers League) weekend in Merimbula, NSW. It is a two and a half hour drive south of us, on the coast. We again had a wonderful place to stay with a teacher who spent 2005 in Fergus, Ontario. We arrived Friday evening and once we were unloaded we went to the house of another exchange couple for drinks and snacks and to meet up with all the others who were down for this weekend. We met many other former exchangees and reconnected with some of the current Canadians that we had met in Sydney in March. There was also a couple from England this time around.
On Saturday morning we went down the coast a little ways to Pambula and had a great barbequed breakfast at a park right next to the water, and after that most of us went a bit further south again to the town of Eden where we went on a cruise on the Cat Balou in magnificent Twofold Bay (http://www.catbalou.com.au). The water was so clear - here's an image of the shadow of the boat, the girls and myself (the two seagulls are floating on the water):

We cruised around for the two hour tour and were rewarded by the sighting of a group of dolphins - the first time we had seen dolphins in the wild. It was just amazing, they swam up to the boat and were swimming in the water at the bow, and just jumped and splashed all around us for at least a quater of an hour. Natalie was entranced - she has wanted to see dolphins for so long! It was just awesome.




























After the cruise we went to the local Killer Whale Museum, which chronicles the areas whaling history, with some really great stories about the killer whales aiding the whalers - check out http://www.killerwhalemuseum.com.au and the story of Old Tom.
We then went back to our billet's house for a tea break and a rest before dinner at a restaurant right down on an old wharf in Merimbula (where we saw more dolphins). The downstairs of this restaurant was an aquarium with about 20 tanks with various marine life in them, we had drinks and appetizers down here before heading upstairs for our meal. After that is was off to an old farming estate, the Kameruka Estate, near Candelo for a genuine Aussie bush dance. It was held in an old hall with beautiful wooden floors, there was a band with fiddles, an accordion, string bass, hand drum, and others, plus the caller. Before each dance, he would walk us through the steps and the we were off, stepping forward and back, bowing, do-se-do-ing, swinging our partners, and so on and so on. It was so much fun! Everyone was dancing, adults and children alike - we slept well that night!
http://www.aussieheritage.com.au/listings/nsw/Candelo/KamerukaEstate/5296