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Published: January 13th 2006
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Now the trek down to Melbourne has begun! Since my last entry, I talked to a few other travellers, and decided that at this time of year, it would be better to head down and see Melbourne than to jump into the excruciating heat of upper Queensland in the summer! AND Melbourne has the Australian Open starting on the 16th, and how fantastic would it be to go to my first tennis grandslam?!?
So that's how my plans went upside down, and I decided to take a train from Sydney down to a coastal town called Kiama. The ride took a few hours, and when I arrived, I was dumped into the first major rainfall I had experienced in Australia! Luckily, however, the hostel was just around the block from the train station. The hostel was average, with small kitchen/living rooms. The staff wasn't very friendly, although they were helpful when you caught them at the right time 😉 . Since there was a storm outside, I spent the evening watching 'Kindergarten Cop' with some fellow backpackers.
I decided not to stay in the hostel for longer, and so the next morning I woke up early to walk to
Kiama
Blowhole the major Kiama attraction - The Blowhole. This site has a opening to the water, so each strong wave pushes fountains of water through the blowhole. The tide wasn't so high, so the fountain effect wasn't as impressive as I'm sure it can be, but I still enjoyed my little tour of Kiama - and my first dose of the coastal beauty south of Sydney!
I decided to attempt to get to Jervis Bay - another coastal town which a traveller in Canberra had described as 'the most beautiful town in Australia'. However, getting there was a bit of a mission. I took a train to Nowra, a bus to Nowra central, and then waited a few hours for the ONLY bus to Jervis Bay. But I made it! I got to a town called Huskisson on Jervis Bay - and made my way to a caravan park...thinking pitching my tent would be cheaper than getting a room in a motel, but it turned out to cost $30 just to pitch my tent!! Ridiculous!
Although the price dampened my mood a bit, I took a walk along the beach - and I was ultimately glad I had come.
The beach was beautiful. That evening I ran to the neighboring town along the coast. The next morning I woke up early, and decided to take a walk along the coast - all together I probably walked around 4 hours, just making my way along the coast and looking through the small towns. I walked to a beach called Hyams Beach, which boasts 'The Whitest Sand in the World' - and yes - the sand was damn white.
When I finally got back to my tent, the day was so hot I couldn't even get into my tent, so I went to sit in the shade on the beach (which was very hard to find). After all that time in the sun, I ended up getting a heat rash on my chest :o .
The next day I decided to leave Jervis Bay and made my way back to Nowra to see what buses I could jump on. I ended up catching the Premier Bus to a town called Narooma. This was probably the best choice so far, with a very friendly hostel, and beautiful landscape. Since I had been sitting on the bus all day, I decided
Narooma
Sting Ray in the bay! to go for a run to see a bit of the town (much to the amazement of my roommate who I accidentally overheard talking about how 'ridiculous it is for people to be running on their HOLIDAY...'. ). The run was fantastic - I wished I could have run with my camera around my neck.
So the next day I decided to do the same loop, but walking. Although it looked quite different in the middle of the day than at night-fall, the coastline was still amazing. AND I saw some enormous sting-rays - they were amazing, swimming just by the raised walkway I was on. I got extremely excited, and might have scared the kids who were also admiring the beauty of these sea creatures! They must have been a few feet in diameter!
Narooma also has a beautiful golfcourse, right on the coast, with a dramatic cliffside backdrop - if I played golf, I would definitely want a round there! Once I was back at the hostel, I decided to borrow one of their bikes and take a ride to the other side of town I hadn't seen yet. Narooma was definitely one of the most
scenic places I had seen, and all the other backpackers seemed to agree!
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