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Published: December 21st 2012
On the coast now at Bateman’s Bay and we are enjoying once again the feel of sand between our toes. We took a coastal walk track around a small island today and what with the weather being just right we couldn’t help but enjoy ourselves. At the end of a jetty we walked along Pete pointed out an absolutely huge manta ray. Just glad I wasn’t in the water snorkelling as I really would have freaked out! The photo makes it look small for some strange reason but it really was huge!
We are now parked in another small but interesting national park right on the beach. This afternoon we even had an echidna walk behind our van whilst we were relaxing on our chairs reading our books! Another very very friendly bird that we did not recognise even sat on our stool just watching us and obviously very used to campers here. It is very tempting to feed them but I try and resist as much as possible so that they do not become pests and also lazy in finding their own food. After dinner we strolled down to the beach and we were met with the sight of
Pelican
One of manyat least 30 kangaroos eating the short grass just before the sand starts and they were not bothered at all when we walked along the path amongst them.
Today we walked to the next beach and probably should have waited a bit longer as the tide was not really far enough out so we ended up scrambling around rocks and running like hell to avoid the waves getting us wet! The nature walk on the next beach saw us swinging our jandals around our heads to avoid the spur winged plovers attacking us. How did we know that we had walked right in the middle of their nesting area and that they had a cute little chick near our big feet!
Next stop was Ulladulla (just rolls off the tongue that one!) and surrounding pristine beaches where plenty of people were swimming but not really hot enough to tempt Pete and me just yet. Only free camp site around here is once again on the Pacific Highway but it is not a problem as we seem to be able to sleep through anything these days. The East coast is about to get very busy from Boxing Day onwards
Manta Ray
Was a lot bigger than the photo projects! but for now it is very quiet with only one other vehicle sharing the rest area with us. We have been very fortunate to have landed a house/pet sit position west of Sydney for 2 weeks from the 23
rd December so it will be nice to stay put particularly when everywhere will be full around that time on the coast. We are also looking forward to seeing more of Tessa and hopefully Kylie if she can get a flight to suit plus possibly Richard.
Today we hiked some trails in the only national park run by Aboriginals, named Booderee, and enjoyed the boardwalk through the rainforest, sighting 2 echidnas, 2 wallabies, many birds and a large green diamond python on the road (glad I was in the RV at the time). Next we moved to the very pretty seaside town of Huskisson and enjoyed cold drinks on the deck of the local pub watching the boats in the harbour come and go. Such a hard life! We are now camped in some bush not far from town and hidden from the road and hoping we will not get a knock on the door requesting that we move on! It
Cute Wombats
Kangaroo Valley - inland town has started raining so we think all will be okay.
No knock on the door and we slept well. Moved on to Nowra and checked the town out before driving to Kangaroo Valley 30k inland from the coast and are at a beautiful free campsite and wait for it: at dusk each night WOMBATS come out from their burrows by the river bank and walk right out between all the campers to eat the grass around the place! They are amazing to watch and not fazed by people just as long as they are not approached too closely or they just move away and can certainly run fast if necessary and hiss if need be. They even come under the caravans and motorhomes during the night to scratch their backs and being very strong they can really be felt. Pete and I heard some under our RV last night. Met a lovely Swiss couple who we introduced Vegemite on crackers to! They had heard so much about it and we very keen to try it. We warned them to only spread it thinly and they quite enjoyed it having never seen it in Switzerland.
Today is an incredibly
hot day so we are just chilling out reading and chatting. We are quite a way from the toilets so go up on our bikes and usually stop and say hi to couples who are sat by themselves and talk for a while. In NZ I would never even consider it but over here it is so easy to do as everyone is so friendly and we have met people from all over Aus and the world.
Headed back to the coast and have spent the last two nights in Kiama sleeping in the rest area on the highway once more. This site is up behind a bank so relatively quiet with many other campers sharing the spot too. One single guy has been here a week in his caravan and intends to spend next week, being Christmas, here too, spending his days on the foreshore of Kiama talking to the fisherman. We hiked the coastal walk from Kiama south today for 18km going up, down and over headlands and along beautiful beaches, taking 3&1/2 hours under blazing sun but thank goodness for the most of the time we had a good breeze. We then were just in time
Rock Pool
Kiama - No maintensnce council swimming pools to catch the train back to Kiama where we gulped down a very late lunch followed by a very welcome long Nana nap! We were parked right next to the beach and one cannot beat the sound of waves crashing on the shore to assist in quickly nodding off!
Looking out of the window now I can see that Pete is talking to some tall young blond girl (with tiny shorts on) and having a laugh about something. He really enjoys the social side of this trip so much and only 5 minutes ago he was talking to some Aussie driver who had stopped just for a break. This certainly makes for interesting conversation when we finally get around to having dinner!
We had intended to camp at the Royal National Park just south of Sydney but on discovering the fee would be $29.00 each plus $11.00 per vehicle we decided instead to head for Cronulla North by the sea, the closest suburb of Sydney and parked up on a side street there amongst many hundreds of other cars belonging to local residents. We enjoyed a delicious Italian pizza and wine for half the cost of what would have been the camp site fee and slept very well too.
Today we headed back to the park but just for the day to spend the day canoeing up the Port Hacking River which was wonderful with so many ducks and shags on the river. We were told to watch out for deadly brown snakes if we parked up the boat and wondered off for a hike in the bush so we took their advice and kept in the canoe apart from mooring next to some campsite to have lunch. They also said that there would be several large pythons swimming in the river but we certainly never saw them and I think Pete was slightly disappointed!
Back at Cronulla North for a second night. This really is a vibrant suburb of Sydney with it’s long promenade packed with walkers and joggers in the early hours of the morning along with many many surfers too. At night the local main shopping precinct comes alive with it’s restaurants spilling out on to the pedestrian mall.
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