Start: Bega
Finish: Cobargo
Distance: 26
Total: 386
Today saw me taking the rain gear off and on all day. Cool, damp weather has hit this area of the coast and I awoke to fog, drizzle, and temperatures in the high 50s.
The day got started at 7:30 with breakfast at McDonalds and a quick bakery stop for my lunch on the road. Then it was out onto the road with my pack covered and me wearing my parka. The road was very narrow with no shoulder most of the day. Also I’m in very hilly terrain here so it’s a challenge keeping an eye on oncoming traffic. The rain would come and go all day so I left my pack rain cover on and took my parka off and on numerous times.
By 12:00 I had made my way to a road construction zone where the workers were metering traffic from one direction, then the other, through an area that was down to one lane. This explained why I had been seeing packs of 15-20 cars at a time coming at me down the road, then a few minutes would go by with absolutely no traffic at all. When I got to the work zone I sat on a guardrail and had my lunch watching the drivers sitting in line waiting their turn to proceed.
When I got about seven miles from my destination of Cobargo it began to rain steady so I stayed covered with a parka for the remainder of my day.
Cobargo is a neat little village of about 400 residents that prior to 2019 was a popular tourist day trip. Unfortunately, that all changed on 31 Dec 2019 when the town was devastated by the bushfire outbreak. Most of the downtown businesses burned down and four people were killed. Some businesses have rebuilt and those that didn’t burn are still open but Cobargo is not as vibrant as it once was. Tonight I’m staying at the Cobargo Hotel (bistro, pub, etc).
Tomorrow I’ll be walking to another beach town, Narooma. That’s 23 miles of winding narrow roads from here. The weather is forecast to be nice. Let’s hope so. JB.
Cute town!