Eden really is a lovely little spot. Apparently it’s very popular with fishermen, although we have no idea why.Sitting on the beach shortly after we arrived, just out of earshot of where Dad was setting up our camp. Our set up took three camping sites. Thankfully the good people at Eden Beachfront didn’t charge us extra. Some quality a-grade prime cut homeschooling in action. I always loved when the teacher pulled the telly out. My kids, less so. Wonder if you can documentary overload. We’ll see about that.Highlight was a fire each night where we made smores and baked potatoes.Miss14 ‘enjoying’ the fire like the typical teenager she isBabies are exhausting. Nothing like a cuppa tea to reenergise yourself for a hard morning of playtime.Miss11 has started writing a book. It started as bedtime stories for her younger siblings and has exploded from there.Squint and it almost looks like a fish. This was the biggest catch of the day.Not to be outdone.You can tell the fish aren’t biting when you feel comfortable not only setting your hand line down……but there’s more fun in burying it. Next we tried a peer across at Quarantine Bay.The park we stayed at and almost nearly kind of fished from, Eden Beachfront, is across the water on the left.My time was spent coming to the realisation we should always buy sashimi quality bait because I was the only one both baiting hooks and fitting hooks after snags removed them and there was no tap to wash my hands with.Horror of horrors, Miss14 caught a fish. You’d think this would be a time for celebration, but sadly no.Miss14, or ‘Fishmurderer’ as she was affectionately dubbed by her siblings, managed to jag a fish by the eye.“Fish are horrible!” Master13 declared a short time later. The kids had just watched the other fish ate Miss14’s unfortunate catch as it slowly sank to the ocean floor. “They’re not very nice friends,” added Miss8.
Scratching around town for a friend doing some family tree research we stumbled across this little nugget. Despite the stacks of chairs there was a lot of interesting information and history on the walls. And, of course, a heap of merchandise at the entrance. We bought our friend a Mary Mackillop charm.
We’d been told this was the thing to not miss while we were in Eden. Turned out, that was sound advice.The whole museum is set up from humble beginnings with the skeleton of Old Tom, who used to assist whalers in Eden – and indigenous Australians before that. The story as told by the staff here is the BEST BIT OF THE WHOLE TOUR. Don’t miss it if you get the chance. They tell it with so much more flair and humour than the signage below.
Proof my documentary approach to homeschooling is paying dividends – my kids wanted to know why the sign said it was a complete skeleton when the vestigial hind legs weren’t there. Win. The lady in the shop said she’d ask when the other staff were back the next day.Not sure Miss6 followed much of what the lady telling the story was saying because she was very upset the whale in this diorama had a stick in it. “Why are they hurting the whale?” she wanted to know. Haven’t things changed from 100 years ago.The melting vat. Assuming the glass box is to keep the lingering smell in. Maybe in another 100 years it’ll be bearable. This makes me wonder how they think they know what a dinosaur looks like because I would not flesh this out as a killer whale so much as a droopy eyed croc.Helloooo sailer.So much more to see here than Old Tom’s skeleton. Interestingly, the story of Old Tom was so renowned that people came from Sydney to see him and people viewing his skeleton over the years has actually paid for the museum and given so much more to Eden than he did even as a helpful whale hunter.View from the museum is worth taking in as much as the museum itself.
Watching a killer whale swim up onto a beach to catch and eat a seal. This did nothing to endear killer whales to my children.
Harpoon gun. You’re doing it wrong.You too.You’re not the boss of me.There were rooms with other exhibits, like this one with the typewriter which seemed to be an attempt to answer the question of what job did Malfoy get after he left Hogwarts.I don’t know what this was. I’m just glad those pants went out of fashion.A rock with grooves in it showing local indigenous Australians used it to sharpen weapons. The whalers employed aboriginals to work on the boats because of their relationship with Old Tom. They were even paid the same wages as the European men, which was nice to hear. On our drive back to our campsite we were behind this motorhome. It had us giggling the whole way as we repeated over and over Zugvogel *snickers Say it a few times. It’s hilarious.
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