Australia 2015: New South Wales (South Coast)

Monday 27th April 2015

We left Canberra and headed south and were soon in New South Wales. We stopped at the village of Bungendore where we visited the wood work gallery. This gallery exhibits and promotes Australian wood art, sculpture,giftware and contemporary furniture by the country's foremost designer/makers. The gallery was designed to create the ideal environment exhibiting wood and other media. It was built in 1994 entirely from Australian materials including jarrah for the post, beams and staircase. Tasmanian oak for the floors, ebonised Victorian ash for the window and door frames and NSW flooded gum wall paneling. (www.bungendorewoodworks.com.au refers). We continued our journey and had a short stop in the historical town of Braidwood.

Braidwood is a really typical Australian town with lovely architecture. It's church was started in 1865 which is old by Australian standards. We continued our journey through the Clyde mountain range and over the Clyde river to an area called the Eurobodalla region. We stopped for lunch of fish and chips which we ate whilst sitting on a deck. At the same time watching the pelicans eat the scraps being discarded by the fishermen. After lunch we headed for Tuross where we had rented a holiday apartment known in Australia as a unit. This unit was on a headland overlooking the ocean. We sat on the lawn imbibing the wonderful view when we were joined by a couple of kookaburras, the first we have seen since our arrival in Australia.

Tuesday 28th April 2015

Sometimes you can wake up and wonder where you are. Today there was no mistaking we were in Australia for we were woken by a chorus of kookaburras. Furthermore it was a clear blue sky and a warm day. This enabled to wear our shorts, tee shirt and sandals for the first time since we'd left Sydney.

Suitably attired we drove out to witness the beautiful coastline we were visiting. First stop was Potato Point then to Duesbury Head with a magnificent view across to Montague Island. Then we drove to Narooma where we stopped for tea and ANZAC biscuits. We then drove off crossing the lift bridge that goes over Wagonga Inlet and arrived at Tilba a historic village managed by the National Trust. This whole village has shops and pubs with 19th century architecture. It also has a traditional cheese factory. Interestingly the cemetery for this area is right out of the village on the top of a headland. A strange place but an uninterrupted view out to see. Might seem macabre but worth a visit. Having left this village we headed for Bermagui. Again a lovely place worth the visit. The whole day was outstanding. (www.eurobodalla.com.au refers)

Wednesday 29th April 2015

No kookaburra dawn chorus this morning but a lovely morning for exploring the points of the Batemans Bay. Our first stop was Bingie Bingie which you can see by the photo below is awesome. Bingi Bingi means full stomach and gets its Aboriginal name from the abundance of food and medicine available from the flora in the area. We moved onto Mullimburra and saw the coastline from a different perspective. It was now time for elevenses so we drove off road into the bush to where it met the beach and had a beverage. We had been recommended to view a place called Congo. We found a lovely caravan park which would have been right up our street had it been in the UK but apart from that Congo had nothing to offer. So we moved onto Moruya beach where the waves hitting the rocks provided brilliant sound effects.malso at this point was another small cemetery overlooking the sea. This cemetery was old with the graves dating from the 19th century. The residents of this region obviously like their departed to look out to sea. We then moved to the golf club for lunch, like all the clubs we've visited provided excellent value. After lunch we went to downtown Moruya where there are some fascinating buildings and scattered along the the main street are some magnificently carved wooden statues. We then drove to off to Narooma to get some provisions the go to the inlet and watch the massive stingrays swimming about. With the day drawing to a close we returned to the billet. As we drove past the Tuross golf course we saw the largest mob of kangaroos in the wild since we've arrived in Australia. Just aside from the main group was a massive great roo, obviously the alpha male. He was certainly a big un.

Thursday 30th April 2015

No kookaburra today either but we did witness a seal frolicking in the lagoon opposite. He was there to be seen but very camera shy so alas no pictures. We were off to the bush today but on the way we stopped at the beautiful All Saints church in Bodalla which was built in 1881. After this visit we left the main highway taking the Kianga road into the bush. We drove along the track to the Harold Buckeridge lookout. We stopped and admired the view then drove deeper into the bush stopping for some tucker at a clearing. We continued our journey through the bush and rejoined the highway near Narooma where we went to the golf club for lunch. We'll miss these clubs when we get home to the U.K. After lunch around the Wagonga Inlet where there is rock formation amongst which is the Australian Rock. This rock has a hole in it,which with a bit of imagination resembles the outline of Australia. See below and draw you own conclusion. We then drove back to Tuross Head and as it was such a lovely warm day we called at the cafe where we sat on its jetty drinking our afternoon tea. Back at the billet our seal was still visible. We sat on our patio where we were joined by a kookaburra who was so tame allowed Val to feed it. Made her day.

Friday 1st May 2015

Our last day at Tuross Head. After doing the chores in the billet we returned the key and had one final look at the sea at an aptly named place called One Tree point part of the McWilliam park. Having taken some pictures we moved on stopping at Bermagui for elevenses. We continued our journey and stopped at Tathra to see and photograph its famous wharf. Once done we headed for Bega where we found another country club where we were able to get a superb lunch very cheaply. We left Bega and climbed Brown mountain, part of the Great Divide range stopping at the Fred Piper lookout for a view across the bush and the mountains. We drove along the winding road to Nimmitabel where we stopped for afternoon tea. We reached the summit and drove through Cooma and what was interesting this town is near the winter sports centre so there were shops offering snow boards and skis for hire. Of course the snow isn't here yet but it still felt strange as we were in shorts. We then continued along the road with sweeping bends admiring the countryside around us there was so much of it, it could only be Australia. After day's drive we arrive back in the ACT and the Souter home. It was a brilliant week with fantastic weather and a great experience seeing places off the conventional Pomm itinerary.