THE DRIVE BACK TO THE COAST
We left the Snowy Mountains on Friday 25 March and headed back to the Coast. We were amazed at all the damage we came across! Unbeknown to us, there had been major flooding (hence, damage) on the South Coast whilst we were up in the Snowy Mountains. We no doubt feel that it was God who led us away from the storms on the coast as we missed it all! The road we took back to the coast must have only just opened as they were still cleaning up all the debris from all the landslides...
EDEN
We had some packages delivered to Eden Post Office (new parts for our boat trailer so it would hopefully fit our boat!), so we had to stop there. We knew there was a killer Whale Museum there too, so it seemed like a good place to spend the night. The next morning we headed to the Museum before heading further south...
MALLACOOTA in VIC
Someone had given us a tip along the way that Mallacoota was a great fishing spot. It's just over the border in Victoria so we decided to check it out. It is a quiet little fishing and abalony diving town that has a super friendly vibe. We decided to stay and give it a try. 9 days later we are still here!! It's the longest we have stayed anywhere on our trip thus far. Here's a look at why we're still here...
Yes, there has been plenty of fish! Everyday we have had something to clean (except one day we were too spoilt and decided a trevally just wasn't good enough). We even met a great young couple, John and Sheree from SA, who we hung out with and hope to see again! Geoff found a good 4WD track just today that included the creek crossing you can see in the photo above. The last two sunday's we have been to a little church that has had no more than 9 people including us but we have been totally blessed by them. Have I mentioned the Mallacoota Bakery!? Mmmmmm.
So, I wouldn't be totally honest if I didn't mention how miserably cold it has been the last few days. My new rule is that I don't get out of bed until it's at least 10 degree's outside! So that meant the other day I didn't surface until well after 10am. The days have been reaching a top of 16 degree's, which means we have decided to ditch our plans to head to Tassie for now.
See, even the seagulls here are cold...
Geoff has just perused this blog entry and insisted that I give you some facts on the Abalony industry that he has been so fascinated with.
(I am quite concerned Geoffrey is now considering becoming an Abalony diver...
I think my saving grace will be that he gets really seasick!).
- There are 30 Abalony licenses in Mallacoota (population approx. 1000)
- To buy a license (if one of the 30 rarely becomes available) costs $4-6 million
- Each year it costs $80,000-$100,000 to renew your license
- Each License has a quota of 20 tonnes for the year (the Abalony year starts 1st April)
- It takes approx 40-60 days to acquire their quota
- Abalony sells for $50 per kilo
- Each boat (license) pulls in a million dollars each year for 40-60 days work
For some reason we don't have peace about moving on just yet so we'll just stay here a few more days until we feel God tells us to move on. No doubt he is leading and guiding us! What an adventure!
No comments:
Post a Comment