On the road again...
Trip Start
Jun 01, 2010
1
47
58
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Green Patch, Booderee National Park
Jervis Bay, New South Wales, Australia
Thursday, February 17, 2011
We spent our first "homeless" night on in the car park in Maroubra beach down the south side of Sydney. This was basically to have a nice easy start to driving. We had been busy during the day so it was better to get an early start on the 17th.
17.02.11
After a broken nights sleep in the Tarago (there were rowdy's who smashed bottles at one of the picnic tables, prompting us to move and park on a side street) and then a shower at Maroubra beach facilities and breakfast, we set off south along the Princes Highway. It was a journey in itself to finally be free of the Sydney sprawl towards Cronulla/Sutherland. At last, the open road rolled before us.
We got off the highway for the scenic drive through the Royal National Park. This is the second eldest national park in the world after Yellowstone in the USA. We didn't do any hikes unfortunately but did stop at the beautifully windswept Garlie Beach. It was funny because we drove for ages along this windy road expecting a bleak ocean beach, but at the end was a huge car park and building housing facilities/ first aid / etc. I suppose it is only a short drive from Sydney.
After the hilly scenery of the Royal National Park we came along the rest of the scenic road towards Wollongong. We were interested in seeing the Cliff Bridge which follows the line of an old road which was prone to landslides. We took several photo's of it from way in the distance. It was difficult to get any while driving on the bridge, but trust me, it was a fun view!!
As soon as we could we rejoined the Princes Highway since it would speed things up considerably. We still had spent the best of 4 hours driving end to end.
Booderee National Park is part of Jervis Bay(pronounced Jarvis by the locals for some reason) and is an outstanding area of natural beauty. Among it's boast are the whitest sands in the world. The word Booderee means "plenty of fish" in the local aboriginal language. The park is owned by the Aboriginal people who live in Wreck Bay, also it is not part of New South Wales but the Australian Capital Territory so it could have sea access apparently. The village of Jervis bay has it's own little shop and police station and little more. It's a really lovely area, with forests and coastal scrub.
We were staying at Green Patch campsite, which cost us 58dollars for 2 nights. The facilities were really good, BBQ, picnic tables, hot showers & toilet blocks. The best "facility" was the gorgeous beach less than 500m from our camp. We did spend a lot of time swimming and floating around in the sea & lying on the sand I'll admit...
18.2.11
We did swim some more... but we did do a couple of short hikes too!!
We went to Murrays beach at the end of the penninsula and walked to Governor Head and then completed the 5km of Murray's loop which brought us out along the cliffs and through lovely "squiggly gum" forests. The name comes from the caterpillar which burrows through the bark in a zigzag pattern. Eucalyptus trees need to shed their bark to grow so this little caterpillar helps the tree. Aw...
Later on we also visited Cave Beach which is oceanside rather than bayside. It wasn't anything spectacular when compared with the white sands on the sheltered side of the penninsula. There was a walk near our campsite called "Telegraph Creek Nature Trail" which offered a more marsh like layer of ground cover in contrast to the gum forests around. It was a nice walk near dusk and we did scare some kangaroos too who bounded away from us.
Earlier in the day we returned to our tent to find two lazy kangaroos camped out behind it. They didn't really bother moving even when I got close to snap a photo. Some people feed them to bring them closer but I don't really agree with giving these, basically wild, animals crisps and bread. I will cuddle one someday though... ;-)
Comments
brilliant ! didn't expect update so soon !! xoxo