On Monday February 14th, right after my study abroad orientation at the University of Technology, Sydney, I was scooped up by my van and the caravan was off. In my van there where four French, two of which went with me on my previous trip to the Blue Mountains, and myself. The second van was more multicultural: Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Japan and England all had ambassadors.
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Our first visit was to Wollongong, New South Wales' third largest city. We stopped at a high spot overlooking the city before heading down:
We only stayed a short while, it was getting dark, and the weather was overcast with some bits of rain, so my opinions on Wollongong are a bit negative. We visited only the lighthouse in Wollongong:
Fake cannons - there was no hole in the front to load ammunition - flanked the lighthouse.
To the right of the above photos was a view of the real Wollongong; one of Australia's leading manufactures of steel; factories line some of its beaches:
We continued our drive south to Kiama before pulling into a roundabout at the end of a neighborhood to lay anchor for the night. It was interesting sleeping five in one van. We were able to do this by dropping two stretcher-like beds from the car ceiling, creating a double bunk bed. We then had three pads for the bottom sleepers to lay on; two laid under the stretchers and, the worst of all spots for sleeping, one diagonally at the feet of all; but first, every night, we had move all of out luggage to the drivers and passengers seats to make room in the back for sleep. It wasn't the most comfortable night, but hey, it was free.
In the morning, aching a bit from our first attempt at sleeping in the van, we continued on to Jervis Bay, stopping in the town of Huskisson.
The signs warned us not to swim so we enjoyed the beauty of the bay from the shore:
A man was in a stand-up paddle raft out in the bay. It looked fun but I wouldn't risk it with the sharks:
Near Jervis Bay, we stopped at the Booderee National Park. One of the only national parks in New South Wales to be partially owned by indigenous peoples; in 1995 the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community won a land claim and now are joint owners, with the federal government, of the park.
Because of the overcast weather the park was empty. It was worth the 2$ each, 10$ per car, entry fee to be alone with the park. After a long drive through the bush, we stopped at Bherwerre Beach for a swim.
The walk to the beach was covered with spider webs; they were everywhere:
Finally, we made it through the maze of spider webs to the beach.
Bherwerre Beach was ours! No one was there but us to enjoy the water!
After our swim we decided to check out the Botanic Gardens in Booderee.
Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a lake in the dry season:
Leaving Booderee, we continued south in search for a place to sleep for the night.
I don't like spiders and sharks, but if that's what it takes . . .
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