NSW and Canberra 2017, December 28 (Eden Of The East)

The big trip started about 9:00am. I was almost out of fuel already so that wasn't a good start. Had to deal with two roadworks bringing all lanes to a standstill on the Monash before getting out of the suburbs and not having to deal with traffic for a while.

Made good time otherwise and stopped in Sale about 11:30am for an hour lunch break. Left again and drove past Bairnsdale and Oborst, just a quick stop for fuel again. The roads after Orbost were a bit annoying since it was one lane and sometimes took a while for overtaking spots, those stupid camper vans slowing everyone down like usual. It was a pretty warm day so had to keep alternating between the air-conditioning and windows down - but the mystery of which works better is still unsolved.

Finally made it to Eden after a long day in the driver's seat about 4:00pm. Had only started the search for hotels a couple of weeks before, so almost everything was booked in Eden and Merimbula and even Bega - or maybe Bega had none to begin with. Dropped off stuff at the hotel and stayed long enough to find that many TV channels had poor reception and the wifi wasn't connecting on the computer or phone.

Drove around Eden for a while before it got dark, the building for the killer whale museum looked interesting but it was already shut. There was a lookout in Rotary Park for actual whales, but it said something like they usually appear early in the day and only until November, sounds like my kind of job. Drove to the other end of the town, so basically five minutes, which had Curalo Lagoon and Aslings Beach. Probably a bit cold and late for the beach too, and I still don't own a pair of sandals.

Beach.

Lagoon. Didn't take many photos.

Got some dinner and back to the hotel, it was closer to the main road than you'd like, so a bit noisy but didn't cause too much problem.

Then I got an sms at 4:30am, which is never good news. Apparently some fraud activity had been detected on my credit card the evening before, it was blocked immediately, so no idea why the text message comes hours later - in the middle of the night! So I sent back a confirmation, then an automated response saying to expect a call in the next half hour! The sms came from a random number and the call from a private number, so I was a bit sceptical and did not volunteer any information in case this was some clever scam, but turns out it was the bank as they provided all of my details and did not ask for any information. The bad news was my credit card was now cancelled and I had to wait 2-3 business days (over new year) for another one to arrive in the mail. Now have to remember how to use eftpos...

Steps: 6000