Jervis Bay and Booderee National Park

It’s been a funny ol’ week. While we had a really relaxing four days in Berry, it was punctuated by not so smart weather (rained two days out of four) and there was a weeklong cattle sale at the showground so we were ‘lulled’ to sleep each night by the gentle ‘mooing’ of livestock. In saying all that, we had a great time there.

We arrived in Berry late Monday afternoon, settled in then had a quiet wander around the town. We were walking distance from anywhere so it made looking at the local sights very easy.

On Tuesday morning we caught the train north to Kiama. We had called into the town on our way south but we found parking extremely difficult so had a quick look around and carried on.  It is a beautiful little place so we both wanted to return. Kiama is about 15 minutes north of Berry by train and the town is centrally located so it is an easy walk to the town and harbour.

During our time in North Sydney with Dearne’s cousin Rob, we never really had the time to go into Sydney itself so on Wednesday morning we jumped the train again and travelled into Central Sydney. It was a two and a half hour train ride and with not having to drive, we were able to take in all the sights on the way. It was a great way to see the country. Thursday was our last day in Berry and we spend most of the day stocking up on bits and pieces for the next leg of our journey.

Rod, Dearne, Lyn and Bruce at their ‘late and long’ lunch at Huskinsson

Earlier in the week we got word from our friends in Bundaberg (Bruce and Lyn) that they were back on the road, heading south and wanted to catch us up. On the Friday when we departed Berry, we decided to continue south but not to go too far that it would make us difficult to find. We ended up stopping on the ‘roadside’ at the entrance to Sussex Inlet. After a flurry of text messages later in the day, Bruce and Lyn rolled in at about 8pm that night.

After a few ‘catch up’ wines we called a management team meeting to plan the next few days. It was all agreed that we would head back north a few kilometres into Jervis Bay and have a look around some of the stunning bays in the area. The plan was to overnight on Saturday in the Booderee National Park and explore the area from there.

However like all plans, they do not always work out. We were unable to get into the National Park on Saturday so ended up driving to the nearby town of Huskinsson and spending the night there. When we arrived we parked in a side road close to the ‘action’ and then walked a few metres into town for a late lunch at the local hotel. Four hours later, and after a very enjoyable afternoon, we ‘walked’ back to the motorhome and spent the night where we had parked. Brilliant!!

Booderee National Park – Rod looking for the fish

It was a crack of dawn start this morning as we wanted to be away from our ‘street’ parking before the township awoke. With the lesson learned from Saturday, we had booked a couple of sites in the Booderee National Park for Sunday so we headed back to the Park very confident we would get in. We drove through the entrance this morning with no problem and are now parked up ‘amongst the gum trees’ for the next couple of days.  We saw a few fishers on the beach late this afternoon casting for whiting with reasonably good success. We may have to give it a try tomorrow.

When we leave the National Park on Tuesday we intend heading further south along the coast to Ulladulla. The Australian Navy apparently have a very nice Park there and New Zealand Service and Ex Service people are very welcome to park over. We will let you our success.

There are some stunning bays and scenery between here and Ulladulla so we are not quite sure how long it is going to take us to get to Ulludulla. When you do not wear a watch, time does not really matter.

Take care everyone – four weeks until Xmas!