Arrived at Berry

Our spot beside Paddy’s River

Our last four or five days have been a period of ‘one night stands’.  After leaving Trunkey Creek on Friday we made Paddy’s River our next overnight stop. It was a great little spot midway between Goulburn and Moss Vale, directly beside the Hume Highway and as the name indicates, on Paddy’s River. We were a bit apprehensive about being so close to the highway as we were the only travellers staying at the site. However, the night went without incident albeit we both slept with one eye open.

Saturday morning we continued east along the Hume Highway. We turned off the Highway at Moss Vale and experienced a bit of the New South Wales countryside.  We drove through Sutton Forest (stopping at the local market day of course), onto Robertson then over the Macquarrie National Park to Shellharbour. Some of the roads and tight corners through the National Park came with their challenges but we got to the bottom without any damage or breakages. We had a late lunch at Shellharbour then followed the coast road through Warilla, Port Kembla to Wollongong.

Wollongong City from the lighthouse point

The weather for the past three days has been atrocious. Reasonably high winds and ‘bucketing down’ – it is certainly not conducive to parking up and enjoying the environment. We had every intention of staying at Wollongong for two or three days but the forecast was not good so we had Saturday night at North Cliff Reserve beside Lake Illawarra a few kilometres south of Wollongong and on Sunday we headed back inland to the township of Jamberoo.

Jamberoo (population 925) is on the edge of the Budderoo National Park and about 40km inland from Shellharbour. They encourage travellers to visit the town with free parking, great services (LPG, water, diesel, dump point), a historic ‘pub’ about 50 metres from the free parking area and lots of great walks through the National Park.

The weather continued to be the enemy during our Jamberoo visit. It rained continuously so there was very little opportunity to get out and about altho’ we did manage to get a walk in early Sunday afternoon. Later in the day, we braved the conditions and walked to the hotel for a couple and ended up staying for dinner.  A nice end to an otherwise ‘house bound’ day.

The Berrys at Berry

This morning we travelled south and have ended up in the township of Berry (true). We are parked up at the Berry showground and plan to stay here until Friday.  We feel strangely at home here!! The weather forecast is showing no signs of improving so if wet tomorrow, we intend to catch the train from Berry to Kiama then maybe onto Sydney Central. It will be great to travel up the coast without having to drive. If the weather is fine, there is plenty to do around Berry.

For more evidence of our BERRY location, click HERE .