Raindrops keep falling on my head...

It's raining in Nowra. The rain has been with us for 4 days now and it may well be with us for another 4 days. We've taken shelter in a grotty motel in Nowra but more on that later. So where have we been since our last post? When we last left you we had just set up camp back at Island Bend on the banks of the Snowy. Unfortunately due to the power stations being in operation the river itself was flooded and not really fishable. No real excuse for the several fish we managed to miss right at our camp site! The first night there we were awakened at around 3am to some terrible scraping noises and Lulu rocking from side to side. At first we thought we may have been the targets of some practical joke undertaken by a group of youths we had seen earlier. Upon inspection it actually turned out to be a huge wombat scratching its arse on the underside of the van! After two nights there we proceeded back down the mountain and onto the coast (not before we were treated to a quick visit from our newly acquired naturalist mates). Whilst discussing the logistics of nude travel such as seat belt chafing, the fabrically challenged couple in question pulled up next to us in their van to see how our fishing had been going. They were on their way home (or possibly to a campsite near you!) and we are happy to report that yes they do use those fluffy seat belt pads to minimise chaffage! On our way back down the mountain we stopped briefly at Bega to sample some cheese at the factory. We shouldn’t have bothered, although the discerning processed cheese singles connoisseur might disagree! We then made our way to Mimosa Rocks where we spent just the one night trying to keep two very inquisitive possums from climbing into the back of Lulu. Whilst we were here we realised that sitting in the van of a night reading with the lights on and the rear door open is not something that should be attempted. Apart from the nosy possums we ended up with about a kabillion insects in the van with us. The many specimens flattened into the pages of the books we were reading show why! Then it was off to Marramarang NP just a little ways north of Batemans Bay. It was a nice little spot apart from the fact that we landed in a marine reserve which meant fishing was not on the cards. We met a young couple from Canberra who were on their way home after a whirlwind tour around the country. We spent the evening chatting with them around the campfire. Next day we made our way to the northern end of the park to Pretty Beach. Another nice spot with lots of kangaroos grazing in the camp grounds but it was here that the weather turned sour. A couple of afternoon thunderstorms passed us by but the showers hit us the morning we decided to pack up. We decided to head inland to see if the weather was any better and spent a couple of fairly miserable days sitting in our annex avoiding the rain at a little roadside campsite just outside of Nerriga. The only excitement we had was watching the fuel gauge after assuming we could get fuel at Nerriga and finding out there wasn't any! But we made it back to Braidwood after our couple of soggy nights with plenty to spare and proceeded onwards to the northern end of Morton NP just outside the lovely little town of Bundanoon. In the afternoon we visited some waterfalls in the park and that evening we visited Glow worm Glen. I know what you're all thinking but no, we never did find a dude called Glen happily chowing down on a feast of glow worms. Nothing quite that exciting. Just a very picturesque little creek lined with small limestone cliffs filled with glow worms. Had Glen actually been there he may instead have tucked into a few of the leeches that we kept finding attached to our shoes and pants. Somehow we managed not to get bitten despite removing 20+ leeches from our clothing. We stayed that night at a campsite nearby and this morning after taking in the very misty views at Fitzroy falls (and an 11am bacardi!), came back down out of the hills and into Nowra. We had hoped to spend a few nights at Abercrombie NP but the weather is driving us nuts and the rivers are starting to flood a little. So now we're sitting here in our affore mentioned grotty motel room where they want to charge us $7 to do a load of laundry plus an additional $7 to use their dryer because the one provided has shit itself. I think Ruth politely told them to get knotted! Lulu is going well but had the bushes in the idler arm replaced today and is getting some new brake pads in the morning. Tonight we will have to decide where to head to next. We can't possibly spend another night here. Unfortunately we're a little low on power as we've had next to no sun but as long as we can keep the cola cold we'll be happy! Apologies for the long-winded-ness of this post but we had a bit to add and we have been out of reception alot so internet access has been very limited. We'll try to be a bit more frequent with our updates. That way we don't have to sit here racking our brains thinking of what has happened since our last post. Cheers peoples! Us. xx