6 November Sunday



We leave Port Stephens and could not
get back onto the highway straight away as it had both lanes ,north
and south ,closed because of a bush fire not far from away. There
was also a bush fire in Shoal bay . We saw the smoke the day before.
Apparently a couple of young campers started the fire by accident in
the National Park.

Anyhow we drive another road closer to
the coast and at Newcastle we drive around the outskirts to Hunter
wetland where we stop and walk around. 
 
 



 This place would be good to
spend a lot longer time but we have to leave after an hour or so
because we were not sure where we were going to stay for the night.
No camp grounds along the road beside Lake Macquarie. We have the
Lake one side and the ocean the other . We thought about staying at
the Entrance and pull over next to a beach track to have lunch and to
 
ring and try and get into a caravan park. Then we thought if we are
going to do that we might as well ring to see if we can change are
booking at Lane Cove National Park to a couple of days earlier. Yes
we could extend our booking all we had to do is travel the another
145 km of busy Sydney traffic. Well another 2 hours latter we
finally arrive very tired after leaving Port Stephens just before 8am
and having lots of traffic all the way.



We were in Sydney to take our cameras
to Nikon's Australia office as both are having little troubles and
both are only 10 months old.

We spend the rest of Sunday relaxing
doing nothing.
Not too early Monday morning , Larry
trying to miss the early morning traffic rush takes the cameras to
Nikon. It still takes him an hour to travel a short 10 min trip.
Cameras fixed Larry heads back . Both cameras needed cleaning then
eye sensor inside not just outside bit.

In the afternoon I find a skink around
van area then i go swimming in pool. This is part of National Park and
it used to be leased to a man running a caravan park here , thats why
some things like swimming pool in NP. When the lease was up the
Government NP department would not renew to this man and took over
running it themselves. This meant the permanent residents in cabins
here had to leave. Well all but 5 did and they partitioned to stay.
As it was an election year and a marginal seat,no one needed these
people stirring bad feelings so the government made it so the people
could stay , but if they leave they can not come back and no more
permanents can come in. The 5 people pay park fees plus rates and
their own power bills.



Larry decided to walk while I swam , he
walked the river walk . It started out flat but then got to a steep
track and by this time he was on the other side of river to the
caravan, so it was double back or press on to the bridge to get back.
11Klm all up and 4 hours on a very hot humid day , he got straight
into a cold shower when he returned.



With the cameras fixed we could get out
of Sydney and relax some where for a few days. The trip through
Sydney was not quiet as bad as expected even though it was heavy
traffic. We stopped on the A3 until it became the A1 and then we
headed for the coast road.


 
 



  We stopped to watch the para gliders at
Stanmore park then drove around the sea-cliff bridge . This bridge is
665 m long and goes out above the ocean and as the name suggests it
has a cliff on one side the sea the other.
We pulled in for lunch at Coledale ,
where there is a beach camp so we stay the night.
 
We were heading for 6km south of
Shellhabour to Killalea State park for a few days .
We had to change our booking but it was
fine, even though it would take in the usually busy weekend .
Wed to Sunday
Spent in Killalea state park , 265
hectares native landscape with 8 km coastline. Stretching from the
headland of Bass point to the mouth of the Minnnamurra river in the
south all just 90 km south of Sydney. Between Shellharbour and Kiama

Camp is on top of a hill and the first
afternoon its a walk along the top to Minnamurra point and down to
the beach . Along the beach south you get views of Rangoon island
which is a resting place for Little Penguins and the vulnerable Sooty
Oystercatchers. We tried our zoom lenses on the cameras to try and
get pictures of them but all we see is empty rocks no wildlife. We
walked to the other end of Minnamurra beach , also known as Mystics
beach, and back up to the camp ground which took 3 hours.

We did find a bird Larry had not seen
before and a skink I had not photographed.

Next day , as it had rained in the
evening and night , we decided to go and look at some of the things
in the next couple of towns south, we would not be able to pull up
with the van on so it was a good time to see them.

Killalea lagoon then on to killalea
beach , its steep up to the carpark with not much parking. There is a
kiosk at the top of the beach and on the beach is where they practise
surfing.

Kiama to Cathedral rock . This is said
to look like the landscape of the moon but this has water the moon
does not have surface water. We also walked a couple of beaches in
Kiama and and went to the light house and blowhole.

We also walked to Minnamurra head which
is opposite the point and and island we were at the day before. We
found heaps of Yellow bellied water skinks and Larry's little bird.

We also walked the Springcreek
wetlands.



Leaving the state park we once again
head on our southward journey.



Wollangang population 290,000 is 80klm
south of Sydney and taken up by big steel works, we did not stop.


Nowra is next and I did not like. We
stopped at the showgrounds for 3 nights as we had to get a wheel
fixed. We started to make a lot of noise coming into town. We were to
stay out at the Shellharbour zoo and wildlife park in their camping
area for visitors. As you approach the zoo its a very steep descent.
The road splits in two with miss -leading signs, the left to the
caravan park, as we find out has nothing to do with the zoo &
wildlife park. Of course its a road that only leads to van park with
a boom gate so we had to get them to raise it so we could turn
around, they made us wait for them to raise the gate again to get out
– real friendly -not if your not staying there. So after turning we
had part of the steep track to get up to turn right. This was not
going to happen on this tight narrow track so we had to go all the
way up find some were to turn and come back down the track tacking
the right turn that leads to the zoo. After all this we get there
to find what they had said on the phone was not quite correct . We
had been told we would be fine for the day we arrived for 2 nights,
it turns out they use their overflow carpark for people who need to
stay overnight and they had a big school group coming in for 2 nights
camping so no room for us.

So its back up the steep hill and by
then a wheel was really making a noise, we could not find the course
, so we have to pull up at show grounds in Nowra to get something
done about it.
After pulling up we find 2 of the wheel
nuts loose and not attached. Its not until Monday morning we find
someone at a trailer repair place who could cut off the studs and
repaired the hub. We had to get a tyre place to take the tyre off of
the ruined wheel, and to put it onto our spare wheel ,which had a
not so good tyre on it.
All to be replaced soon.
As for Nowra its not a likeable town ,
the showgrounds has homeless camping and not paying and making a
mess and we had to pay and walk a long way to toilets if we needed as
council locked most because of the campers destroying and making
mess. Its not a place we would have stopped if it we did not need
to. This sounds like i'm terrible , I am not complaining about
homeless just that some make a mess and had broken into the shower
block a few times leaving a mess behind them giving all a bad name
and making the council be harsh on all other travellers.

 


Jervis bay and Booderee Natinal park is
next.
We stay at Green Patch and we arrive
to find people in our pre booked and paid place. It was tight getting
in and we could not turn so backed up to site that was empty.
Unhook and go to main gate to tell rangers whats happened and could
we stay were we ended up , after a few phone calls to the people who
were due in to this site the next day, we got to stay put. The
rangers move on the non paying in our place and re-located the people
arriving next day into there, all good.
 
 
We walk around the Booderee botanic
gardens and around its lake. Then to Bristol point and Larry spots a
pod of Dolphins early the next morning. In the afternoon Larry goes
off looking for birds while I go down to the beach for a swim.
Next day we drove to Murray's beach and
walked to Governor Head and along the cliffs on the Sea eagle trail.
We spot one that chases away a falcon,
but did not see any penguins, dolphins or whales, getting bit laye in
the year for whales though.
This park is Commonwealth and
Traditional Aboriginal owned and run.

Our next walk was Cave beach, Ryan's
swamp then cape St. Gorge lighthouse, Moe,s rock Stoney creek.
It was time to move again and head
south again , we stay the night at Milton showgrounds to boost our
power. There was a group staying there for dog agility training. I
meet and get taking to a couple of ladies and their dogs. Its a new
class and training form Sweden, it sounds good so I learn all I can
and watch the next training session.




Our next stay is in Murramarang NP at
Pretty Beach.

Our booked site is not big enough but
the site opposite is and its vacant. There is an office on site so we
are able to change sites and we pay more for this one as it has
power.
Pretty beach is a surf beach you can
swim but there is a big undertow
Our first walk is to Snapper point with
its views of the coastline. We find an Echidna.
Depot beach has a rainforest walk in
the temperate and endangered rainforest which grows down to the
beach. On the beach is a Rock Platform walk which dates back 500
million years. This is ony seen at low tide, we find little tiny
colourful crabs hiding under the ledges.
 



Pebbly beach is next to Pretty beach
and while Larry goes to Snake Bay and Clear Point I went
swimming. I did start the walk but there was far too many flies and
it was all up and down again.

The water was a bit choppy and had a
bit of an undertow , probably due to the weather changing and the
wind getting stronger as the forecast storms approached.
We find another Lace monitor on the
road linking the beaches , and Larry found one on his afternoon
wanderings to Snapper point along with a dragon, a skink and some
glossy black yellow tailed black cockatoos.
The Ranger tells me of a Diamond Python
that keeps getting in the cleaners room and curling up to sleep. He
moved it a couple of weeks before into the surrounding bush but it
came back and he had moved it that morning as the cleaner did not
want it there. I was hoping it would come back while we were there,
along with the very large one that some times appears around the
buildings and stretches out along the walls and just lays there.
Most people walk past without seeing it . We go looking a few times
aday but do not see.




The next stop is Batemans Bay for
shopping then Waldrons swamp again to walk round. Then out to Congo
point at Eurobodalla National Park.
On the way to Tilba Tilba and family to
say a few days we stop and walk the forest walk at the Bodalla park
rest stop, this we have done before. The area has been improved since
our last visit.
We were hoping to stay longer at Tilba
Tilba with Michaela and Lance and was hoping some of our
grandchildren would be there. Well things sometimes don't go as
planned and we find a couple of my yearly checks had been moved
forward and if I could not be there the next available would not be
for a couple of months, so we had to say yes. We would not see the 3
grandchildren anyway until we got back to Benalla. We stayed a nice
few days helping with the planting of the vegetable garden and a
stone pathway in the herb garden. Lots of talking , and we met their
friends from Canberra who came for a couple of days so good time
catching up. Larry walked most of the walking track up the mountain
behind the house and we drove to Narooma and walked the beach and and
point with its seal colony. Michaela and I visited the Tilba market
which is a quite nice little market. All to soon we had to leave
fully intending to come back via lakes Entrance and up this way on
our way to -I do not know .






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