Southern Highlands + South Coast

It feels like its been ages since I last blogged but I was surprised to discover we only left 18 days ago!
It has taken some adjusting to get used to our new home (especially in regards to power) but we are absolutely loving it now. We've not had much service in many of the places we have been on the South Coast, hence my delayed blogging... here's a look at what we've been up to the last 18 days... (You might want to grab a cup of tea and a biscuit as this turned into quite a long one).

SYDNEY

After Leaving Port Macquarie we headed straight to North Sydney to visit Geoff's sister Naomi and her beautiful family. From there we visited my cousin Leah, her husband Dave and met their new gorgeous daughter Sophia (picture below). Early Friday morning we left the comfort of their house bound for the southern highlands with our new home in tow...

BERRIMA
I don't know if I had previously mentioned on the blog that our car has been having some random starting issues. So our first stop was a specialised diesel mechanic in Berrima. While they worked on our car, I met up with my good friend Terri and her new bub (who had driven from Canberra to catch up). Geoff and I then checked out the quaint little town and discovered the most awesome antique shop in the whole world... Its definitely worth a look...

They had a huge collection of vintage fabric - too bad I couldn't fit my sewing machine in this time.

Getting up close and personal with some of the Berrima locals...

MOSSVALE

Not far from Berrima was Mossvale where we camped our first night in a caravan park (unpowered). 

They had the greenest grass ever which I think inspired Geoff to hit some golf balls around...

BOWRAL

The next day we made our way to the Don Bradman Museum in Bowral (which we dubbed 'The Town of Hedges' Dave Logue you should go there!). I was quite happy to read a book while Geoff perused the Museum and that point was unfortunately heard by the manager of the museum. Much to Geoff's delight the manager said that "I would be surprised at how much I would enjoy it" and so offered me free admission ($18 worth!). I have to admit it was pretty well done and Geoff actually caught me looking slightly interested...

UPPER KANGAROO VALLEY

On the advice of our friend Mark Berry we headed to Upper Kangaroo Valley to set up for the night after we had finished at the Museum. We found a great free spot near a bubbling creek...

We decided this night that we LOVED our camper after enjoying a hot shower, some bangers & mash and later listening to the pitta patta of rain on the roof whilst warm and cosy inside. Unfortunately by noon the next day we were both stressed and wondering how on earth to run this complicated 'spaceship' which was to be our new home! We were running desperately low on power so 'Mr Fix It' decided to hook up the gennie (generator) to charge the camper batteries but failed to read the instructions about doing this. 5 minutes later the gennie ran out of fuel and then the fridge stopped working, followed by the hot water system. We then read in the instruction manual that when a gennie runs out of fuel it can send a power surge through the camper damaging the electronics. Our stress levels were quite high at this point thinking we had damaged the camper on only day 2 of the trip. Our freezer in the car was also not freezing the bulk buy meat we had in there. And on top of all this it rained. But wait there's more! Geoff discovered what stinging nettle was and that it REALLY H URTS... It lined our campsite. This is what it looks like if you ever venture into the bush...

There was not much we could do at this point so we checked out the creek...

 We've also discovered that inside the camper is like a cave at night - it's SO DARK. Which is why we kept sleeping in till 9am! So in the pouring rain the next morning (once we finally rolled out of the cave) we packed up our home and travelled to Nowra to visit Mark & Sarah Berry. It was great to catch up with them and compare travelling notes as they have been travelling around America for the last year or so. 

GERROA

After checking out a few caravan parks on the coast we found a nice spot in Gerroa BIG4 Van Park and eagerly plugged our camper into power to see if we had damaged the electronics. Much to our relief, it all worked fine when plugged into power and so we worked out our power had got too low yesterday for the hot water and fridge to work - that was all. We relaxed once again...

The next morning as we overlooked the river, Geoff longed for a kayak to go for a paddle. I offered my surfboard for use, to this he replied "I'd look like a Dugong floating on a paddle pop stick on that thing". What a cracker! but he makes me laugh! 

We went for a drive and checked out Gerroa, Gerringong, Kiama and north up to Minnamurra. Geoffs says its "God's Country" down here. It's lush, green hills rolling down to the crystal clear ocean... 

Making sure we would fit under the train line at Kiama...

Geoff's idea of some nice scenery...

Mark and Sarah came to the coast and we spent the night having fun with them before saying goodbye as they head to Western Australia to find work in the mines...

It was quite windy that night and I felt it was like sleeping on a ship! The poles creaked, the canvas flapped and on the big gusts our bed would shake. At 1.30am Geoff added some more ropes but by 2.00am the wind died down. phew! 

The next day I discretely merged with a learn to surf group down on Gerroa beach whilst Geoff rego'd our new collapsable boat trailer (which we discovered doesn't actually fit our boat properly - its a work in progress still). The Surf Coach there asked me if it was my first time out :( I obviously need to practice more! 

GREENPATCH - Jervis Bay

When we arrived at Jervis Bay the national park rangers were in a meeting so we were told by the boom gate people (yes, there is a boom gate to enter this national park which is actually part of the ACT not NSW), to enter, pick a site then come back and pay. After some discussion, we finally settled on site 51 and set up the camper. When we went to pay the ranger, they said "sorry, that site is taken. The only one left is site 10!". We were shattered as we had already set up. Seeing this, the kind ranger offered us a $60 discount to camp on site 10 over the next 4 nights. How good is God! He seems to be looking after us financially. Even when we went through the toll gate on the sydney motorway the lady there waved us through only paying $5 instead of the $15 which we were meant to pay because of our size. So we didn't mind so much packing up for the 2nd time that day and moving to site number 10... 

By the time we had done this, it was happy hour time so we headed to the beach. We were amazed at what we saw - white sand and aqua water!

Little did we know that the strangely obese possums we saw later that night would find our canvas camper roof an excellent trampoline to practice triple summersolts. Well, maybe not that dramatic but it will definitely wake you up quickly! A few nights later they also knocked over a few buckets that we had stacked during the middle of the night. The loud crash and bang woke up other campers too! We've also learnt that they like to scratch at the canvas walls too during the night. All makes for a good night sleep.

The following day we did some exploring around the Jervis Bay area and discovered ideallic Murray's Beach. This is what I imagined far north Queensland to be like but was sadly disappointed. Who knew tropical paradise was south of Sydney!? It was the most beautiful sand & water we have ever seen...

Snorkelling visability wasn't all that great even though it looked crystal clear. There was not many fish either but that didn't matter as it was just SO beautiful! 

Later that night a cold southerly change hit and it was chilly. I was wearing multiple layers of clothes (disregarding all fashion sense) whilst I cooked dinner...

The following day was Saturday and Geoff played in Vincentia's Golf Clubs Saturday Comp. Whilst he was off hitting a ball around a paddock, I decided to do some exploring and checked out a few other places like Huskisson and Hyams beach. It was still cold and windy though (such a contrast to the day before frolicking on the beach in our swimmers!). I wasn't overally amazed at these places that had been raved about which I blame solely on the bad weather that day. 

On Sunday we hiked 5kms (return) to a small remote beach called Steamer's to do some fishing. We were amazed once again when we finally got there (lugging all our fishing gear). Amazed not a the beauty (although it was nice) but at the HUGE waves! We both really enjoyed watching the powerful massive waves, it was so wildly breathtaking...

When we first arrived we dumped all our fishing gear on the rocks just next to where the bush mets the rocky headland. We were standing there catching our breaths when Geoff suddenly got this look in his eye that tells me he saw something but doesn't want to tell me about it. When I asked "What?", he simply said, "Don't move". He hit the bushy grass just metres away from us and off slivered a small red belly black snake. I moved our gear after that away from the bush! 

As you can imagine, huge waves dont make for good fishing but I did manage to catch a 2.5lb salmon. Too bad we don't like salmon so we threw it back. 

YADBORO FLAT

On the way to Yadboro flat (west of Ulladulla) we came across this town... I was most pleased until we drove into the town. Let's just say the best thing in town was the sign!

We took the camper on it's first real dirt road experience on the way to Yadboro flat. We stopped at Pigeon House Mountain along the way to have lunch and then climb the mountain.

I've been insisting for some time that Geoff needs to buy tinnie's rather than glass bottled beer for the sake of space mainly but also price. I finally won that battle when we opened the fridge at lunchtime and discovered his glass bottled beer lid had unscrewed on the dirt road and their was beer all through the fridge.

We also found the WORST toilet in Australia at Pigeon House Mountain. This photo says it all!

 After lunch we discovered what a Grade 4 Moderate - Advanced bush walk was like - HELL! Pigeon House Mountain is 719m above sea level and we felt every metre. It was 1.5 hours of hard yakka walking/climbing (85% of that being uphill) to reach the top.

As I was climbing up a ladder towards the top of the mountain a foreign tourist yelled "Achtung! Achtung!". Next thing I know I crack my head on a tree that I didn't see. I yelled back "I didn't understand you!". It was kind of funny because when we were up north there are 'Achtung' (meaning 'Warning') signs everywhere for crocs. It seems the way we were pronouncing it is nothing like what it should be, hence why I had no idea she was trying to warn me!

 We finally made it and the view was nearly worth it...

Yadboro Flat camping area was not far from Pigeon House Mountain. 

It was a beautiful peaceful free camping area next to a stream...

We spent two nights there and didn't do too much. One of my good friends Liz suggested with all my free time now I should go in all the random competitions to win stuff. After contemplating her idea, I decided it was brilliant and the best way to do this was doing the 'That's Life' puzzles every week. That way I could keep my mind active and possibly win stuff. So we spent one afternoon working on our 'That's Life' puzzles and didn't even notice a large goanna sneak up behind us (under the camper trailer) until he was right behind our chairs! The photo below is another goanna discovering that coals of a fire are actually hot...

While we were there we also experimented with some bush cooking. The first night Geoff made damper that wrapped around a stick and when cooked you fill the centre with Maple syrup. Not bad. Geoff was proud as punch...

The next night I attempted Outback Banana's which basically is splitting a banana down the middle like a hot dog and filling it with a mars bar (or whatever goodies you have). The end result didn't look real pretty but it was not too bad also...

PRETTY BEACH

Geoff decided to take dirt roads south through the mountains, then follow the Clyde River to Batemans Bay. It took about 2 hours and I was so loving the GPS by the end as there was many dirt roads going here, there and everywhere. 

Being the McDonalds connoissoirs that we are, we give the best service award (so far) to Batemans Bay. Although after we had non-officially given the award, we noticed someone watching and taking notes on their performance. This is probably why we were served our food at lightning pace! 

After re-fuelling our fridge and pantry full of food in Batemans Bay, we headed slightly north up the coast to a little beach called Pretty Beach. Once again, we were amazed at the beach and I quickly went for a surf and Geoff a swim.

I'm glad I took this photo on the afternoon we got there as the weather turned and the next day it was raining. There was SO many kangaroo's at this place too. You really had to watch where you were walking to avoid all the roo poo. We also decided here that we hate possums! They once again decided our camper was an excellent adventure to explore during the night.

DALMENY

Pretty beach was booked out over the weekend due to the Canberra long weekend so we packed up and headed south, not real sure where we were going to camp next. Along the way we looked at Pebbly beach which was another nice area... strangely there was no pebbles.

We were low on water but happily found some at a rest stop along the highway... We have two watertanks in the camper, one we use for drinking and the other for everything else. So if we're unsure about the water quality we dont fill up the drinking water.

Being wet and miserable Geoff suggested hot chip sanga's for lunch which to me sounded like a plan. So we deviated from the highway into a little town called Dalmeny. There was a caravan park right on the grassy headland overlooking a great surf beach and Geoff also learnt from the hot chip man that 10mins away is a top 100 Golf course. We had found our new home for a few nights! This is the view from the camper that I am looking at right now as I type this... not too bad hey!

One of these little black dots out there is me attempting to have a surf... still struggling there...

So this is where we are at the moment! The wind has changed direction now so the beach is quite choppy and windy. Geoff is outside reading the sunday paper while I type this. I think we will move further south tomorrow, maybe to Mystery Bay, maybe not. Who knows, I guess thats part of the adventure - never quite knowing where you're going to next or what the weeks ahead will hold.