Friday was one of the hardest days of my motherhood career. We woke up in Berry to the blasting sun, and by 8 am it was pushing 40° celsius with absolutely no shade at our campsite. It was also one of those days where Yilla would just not get off my boobs and I was exhausted because we had been bombarded by mozzies all night and Yilla did not let go of my nipples once all night so I work up frazzled and grumpy from annight of being sucked dry and it looked like I was gonna be sucked on all day as well. I had really hoped that Berry would be a safe haven for us, the Showground seemed like such a good place to stop for a few days and collect ourselves after the city. It was right in town and had a kids pool, showers, toilets, everything except a speck of shade. There was just no way we could stay there. I felt like crying because I was so exhausted, I didn’t want to travel any more. I really needed to stop somewhere for a few days and collect myself, put things in the scrapbook, update the blog posts, clean out the van, get life organised again and have some “do nothing days”. Clearly that’s not what the universe had in mind, so we packed up the van again and headed into town, but not before buying some eggs from the resident chickens at the Showground!
Having packed up the kitchen it was a perfect excuse to go and get breakfast and much needed caffeine at the infamous Sourdough bakery in Berry. The place has really good food, with really conscious ingredients and great atmosphere.
In fact Berry was a gorgeous town in every respect, with beautiful craft shops boasting hand-dyed yarns and lots of art everywhere. We picked up some local cheese and local mushrooms from a sweet little delicatessen. It’s just a beautiful old country town with a new boutique-type spin on it that was obviously really popular with the grey nomads.
As luck would have it we had driven into Berry about three hours after the weekly market farmers market had shut. Of course. So we left Berry with still not very much food supplies. Lunch that day was a simple fare of local Brie cheese and a sourdough baguette.
According to Google maps there was a wholefoods store in Batemans Bay so we jumped in the car and drove the two hours down the coast in the hopes of restocking our supplies and setting up camp at the nearby Meroo Head. But after two hours of driving, the last half hour of which yilla was awake, crying and ready to get out, we pull up and it’s closed. Permanently. Their sign says they’re looking to start a co-op which would be great!
It felt like an absolute tragedy at this point. Batemans bay was horrible, it seemed to be just one big mall and I feel like giving up so we head to the beach in the hopes of a little downtime (much needed) but something in the stars was really against us this day and when we were getting our towels and togs out of the car this older man comes up to us and starts asking us about where we’re coming from and where we’re going. Eventually he asks us if we want to come home with him. Super creepy. He follows us and then he tries to put his towel down next to us, so I pick up our stuff and walk ages down the beach towards another family with kids to get away from him. We jump in the water for a swim and when I look back at our stuff he’s followed us down the beach and sat next to us again. I am not in the mood to deal with this so I end up calling my mum in tears and saying “we’ve got no food and nowhere to stay, I don’t know where were gonna camp tonight and I don’t know where to get food and now there’s this creepy guy and he’s gonna murder us and, and, and…” mum doesn’t even bat an eyelid she’s just like “Well get in the car and drive away so he doesn’t murder you?” Oh yeah. Duh. Thanks Mum! So after just 5 minutes of arriving at the beach we get back in the frigging car. Yilla is screaming in protest, she can’t understand why we have to leave the beach so soon. She’s right, It’s not fair.
I give up on any chance of rest today and do another google which proves that there is a pharmacy in town that apparently sells some organic food. By this time it’s almost 5 o’clock so we race in, still in our swimmers, to try and get some things before it closes. We walk in the door to be greeted by fruit, veg, peaches, huge mangoes and greens. It just looks like a scene out of heaven at this point and I’m ready to put my hands up and scream “HALLELUJAH!”
We do our shopping and Yilla’s being absolutely impossible running around the store putting everything in her mouth, taking one bite out of an apple and putting it back, and I’m running around after her putting the things that she’s put in her mouth in my bag because now we have to pay for them. I can tell the cashier is getting annoyed at her. I try to ignore it and is go to pay for my purchases when I hear a sharp intake of breath from the cashier. I turned around and my daughter is literally taking a dump on the floor of the pharmacy. Oh. My. God. I pick up the poo in a paper bag, dump my bag, wallet and phone on the floor in absolute horror and run out the door. I clean her and this time restrain her in the pushchair before doing the walk of shame to go back for our things. Not meeting the judgement of the cashiers eyes I finish the transaction, but not before adding a significant amount of chocolate and a hemp kombucha to the pile. I think I deserved it.
Thankfully it seems like this was the climax of insanity for the day and after that we went for a walk along the waterfront and pigged out on organic blueberries for Yilla, chocolate and kombucha for me. It was super peaceful by the water and for the first time that day I felt like I could catch my breath.
Now to find somewhere to sleep. I had previously found this amazing sounding free camp on ‘Aircamps’ but it was North, and Mr. Creep had said he was going north and staying in free camps. The chance of running into him again just wasn’t worth the risk so defeated, I had a look on ‘Aircamps’ again and as it turns out there was another quite nice looking camp, it cost $17 a night but I felt like that was a small price to pay for being safe. It was also on the beach, in a national park only 20 minutes south of Batemans Bay. Now in hindsight I have to be very grateful for the events that lead us to that creepy guy making us find a new camp because this place is so wonderful! As soon as we had turned onto the road we were greeted by black cockatoos and wallabies with joeys in their pouches. That’s more like it! The drive here was also alongside a beautiful river and we found a gorgeous roadside stall which was full of plums, tomatoes and cucumbers, all grown on a quarter acre block by this gorgeous old lady.
Then we drive past a sign saying that the monthly market is on the very next day. Not bad! Finally we had arrived somewhere. Moruya Heads. I had never heard of it before and if we’d stuck to the original plan would’ve driven straight past the turn off without a second thought. I’m glad we didn’t because this place is just stunning!! On one side of our camp is the river, on the other side is the beach, and on the other side theres bush with bike trails stretching for kilometres and kilometres. Oh yeah I think we can stay here awhile! Funnily enough by sundown on the day that I was most worried about not having any food and most worried about not having anywhere to sleep we have more food than we ever had on the whole journey and have found one of the nicest spots to camp that we been on so far!
Food Oasis 