road trippin with my one favourite ally: bermagui and narooma

The Anzac Day long weekend saw chapflap and I heading down the coast to Narooma, approximately a further 2 hours south of Batemans Bay from Sydney.

First stop was the sleepy town of Bermagui, where one of my workmates had suggested we head to the "fab gelato and coffee place". Her directions? "It is in a street just off the main drag. Ask people - it is well known. There is a petrol station on the corner of the street it is on. There is a Mitre 10 or Bunnings or something like that hardware store almost next to it." Her directions were spot on! There is a Mitre 10 almost next door. For even easier identification, the Bermagui Visitors Centre (where you can pick up as many free maps as you want and get the assistance of lovely volunteers) is across the road.

My lilli pilli gelato. The fact it's almost exactly the same colour as my recently acquired wallet has nothing to do with the fact I chose this! I washed this down with a long black from...

Possibly the world's coolest coffee machine. We must get to Italy sometime soon!

Chapflap's triple: mango, macadmia nut and pineapple/feijoa. He initially asked for it in a cone, to which the (rather handsome, not that I said that to chapflap at the time!) shop assistant said, "usually we do triples in a container, as it melts rather quickly". Delicious (the gelato, of course, nothing else...)

After a wander around the Bermagui country markets (on every last Sunday of the month) and the lookouts around the area, we headed back to Narooma for lunch. A dozen local oysters...

And half a lobster made it really hit home that we were on holidays! (As we do often eat gelato while we aren't on holidays. Maybe me moreso than chapflap).

After the lunch, we hopped back in the car and headed to another one of my workmate's recommendations - Mystery Bay. Utterly gorgeous, with clear, clear water - a bit too cold this weekend for a swim, but I can imagine that it'd be the perfect spot in summer!

Look at that water!

After a fair bit of splashing around (from chapflap) and squealing (from me), we headed back to Narooma. "Look, a fish auction!" we said as we spotted this sign near the visitors' centre. "Would that be like the auctions at Tsukiji in Tokyo?"

I won't post the photos here of our haul, as they are a little confronting for non-fish eaters. It turned out that the fish auction was in fact a reverse auction, as in 3 men stood on the back of a truck with trays filled with salmon, blackfish, morwongs, leather jackets and various other fishies (some described by the particularly colourful fishmonger as "slippery fish" or "pointy nose fish"). We ended up with about 6 different types of fish (2 salmon for $6! And big salmon too, not little weeny ones) for less than $30 all up. This is probably what cemented our plans to return, and soon! Here, fishy fishy...

After that wonderful day, it was time to head back to our accommodation to cook dinner. 2 dozen oysters in one day... my kind of holiday!

Bermagui Gelato Clinic
Lamont Street
Bermagui NSW 2546

Another food blogger beat me to it - see here

Narooma is approximately a 5 hour drive south from Sydney along the Princes Highway. Bermagui is a further half an hour or so south, and Mystery Bay about half way in between Bermagui and Narooma.