Jervis Bay

---

Jervis Bay
Wow. It’s the only way to describe Jervis Bay!
Being so close to Sydney and along the New South Wales coast line, most people would assume that this tiny (102squared km) piece of land is part of New South Wales, but it isn’t. It is part of the ACT - Australian Capital Territory. When Canberra became the capitol in its own territory, the Australian Government thought that every capital should have its own port and naval defence base, that is why Jervis Bay is part of the ACT.
Today it’s still used for Navy training, but it is also a popular spot for tourists and locals alike and its easy to see why. White Sandy beaches one side, surfing beaches the other and bush land with wild animals in between.
When we first arrived at Jervis bay and got a map from the Tourist Office we were a little disappointed to see that some of the beaches required 4x4 vehicles and were not on accessible roads. We do not trust our van on anything other than accessible roads. However, we needn’t have worried. We spent two full days in the Bay and went to many beaches.
There were two main beaches that we went to. On the first day we spent all day at Cave Beach. This beach is named after two caves in the rock face. There was a little walk to the beach, which was lovely, through the bush where we got close enough to kangaroo’s to touch them! When we got to the beach we noticed straight away it was one of the surfer beaches. Lots of surfboards and sea kayaks. After finding a nice sandy spot we went straight in the sea. After swimming and catching waves we went and read for a while and ended up spending nearly all day at this beach. Before leaving we went and checked out the two caves, unfortunately we didn’t find anything interesting in them!

We could have paid to spend the night in one of the campsites in Jervis Bay, but we had found a free site, with a toilet not far away, where we had spent the night before and decided to stay there again. Before heading back, we went to Green Patch. A tiny carpark that leads on to a beach. We walked the entire beach then went through the trees and along the road back to the car, we ended up doing a very big circle. We decided to get our chairs out of the van and go and sit on the beach. As soon as we sat down it started drizzling so we thought it best to go back to the campsite to sort dinner out before it rained too heavily!
Luckily, we were able to cook before the rain. However during the night I needed the bathroom and got soaking wet!



The next day we headed back to Jervis Bay and went straight to Murrays Beach. This beach was amazing, no waves, crystal clear water and very white sand. I used my snorkel and went swimming. There weren’t a lot of fish but I did see some. We spent most of the day at this beach swimming and reading. At one point we noticed a lot of people gathering at the edge of the water. A Sting Ray had appeared in the bay and was swimming along where we had been not that long ago.
We wanted to see the other points of interest before leaving Jervis Bay so after leaving Murrays Beach we drove to a lay-by and walked to A Hole in the Wall. This is a small beach where there is a rock with a hole in it. The beach was a short walk through the trees, which was lovely. 

After this beach we drove again for a bit until another lay-by where we saw the Scottish Rocks. We don’t really understand the name of this place. It was another beach, through another lovely walk, and yes there were Rocks but I’m not sure what makes them Scottish.

Our last stop in Jervis Bay was Bristol Point. This is one of the camping stops, but we didn’t camp. We visited the beach there but with the tide in there wasn’t much to see. We then snuck in to the campsite and used their showering facilities. The water was a lovely temperature and we were both very glad we had the opportunity to shower - albeit cheekily!
There really is no way to describe the beauty of Jervis Bay but if you ever get the chance – GO

---