Eden is a beautiful little town located in the southern coastal region of the New South Wales, with a population of a little over 3200. The weather is what the Aussies call a four season day: Sun, warm, rain, cold and repeat every hour on the hour.

The town of Eden is charming, the parking spaces lined with midsized 4x4s ready for off-roading. There are plenty of places to eat, drink, shop, and get your fishing or camping gear. The homes are modest, well maintained and pride taken to their gardens.

After weaving in and out of many of the shops, we headed towards the beach. This seems like the perfect place to start a hike. So we did.

Along the way we ran into Boris & Bob. Boris was definitely in charge, while Bob held onto the leash. We chatted for awhile with Bob giving us the lay of the land. He made sure that if we headed down to the beach that we don’t miss the man-made tide pool. I’m not sure how many on our ship knew this was here, but it is definitely not to be missed. bring a suit and a towel.

The beach was gorgeous with soft sand, almost orange, and the landscape setting us back millions of years. Along the way were clumps of seaweed, stranded and bleaching out, their bladders alien looking.. I couldn’t resist a few hundred shots–thank God for digital.

Reaching the man-made pool was crazy beautiful. The sun came out and it was as if the sun’s rays activated the rock formation and the color, alien. Ok.. the image was digitally enhanced… but work with me.. this posting is hard work, on a ship, trying to type while they are asking me if I wanted some champagne! We were fortunate with the weather because this might have been crowed; it was a blessing to have this place to ourselves.

The waves come in and fill the pool and along the sides are overflow drains, keeping the water fresh and clean. This was truly a magical place.

We walked back to town and took a shuttle back to the ship, in the rain, which was still delightful . While up on deck for a late lunch, I could see that there was a tide pool off the bow. The Marine Biologist in me couldn’t resist so I headed back to the room, got into a bathing suit, silky, water shoes and grabbed my GoPro and off I went while Meredith headed upstairs to the Observation Lounge to read; she managed to snap a pic of me wading around in the tide pool.

And always, the dress