South Coast - Shoalhaven

Easter Long Weekend:

We stuffed and packed our car after school/work on Thursday and headed down the south coast towards Jervis Bay - 170 km, 2.5 hr drive from the city.  The drive out of the city was pretty smooth, the traffic was light, we didn't get lost and got on the Princes Highway with little trouble.  The drive was pretty with green rolling hills on one side and the coast line on the other side.  When we got to Nowra, we realized the rest of Sydney also decided to go down South for the weekend.  We were crawling at 5km/hr in a 100km/hr zone for more than an hour!  We finally found our unit in Vincentia by 9pm - 5 hours later!!

The weather forecast was poor for the weekend and unfortunately it held true.  There was lightening and thunder for most of Thursday night. The self-contained unit we rented was a 2 bedroom part of a duplex, just 50m from Collingwood Beach.  On a sunny weekend, we would have had a very different experience.  It was nice to get away nonetheless. 

On Friday, we went on an 1.5 hr dolphin cruise in Huskinsson.  It was freezing and wet but we loved it.  We saw countless numbers of bottlenose dolphins swimming right under the bow of our boat.  The girls loved it!!  We also met another couple Anne, Matt and their three year old Tess smartly dressed for the weather with their gore tex jackets and boots (unlike us in our flip flops!!) because they were camping for the weekend.   We got off the boat and had fish and chips with them.  They are a couple of chiropractors living about 45 minutes away from us in

 Richmond.  They have horses and have invited us to stop by another weekend. 

In the afternoon, we spent an hour or two at Hyams Beach.  It has been declared the whitest sand in the world by the Guinness book of records.  There has been much dispute as to whether it is truly the whitest silica sand but for now Hyams beach has been promoted as that.  We went there to see for ourselves but unfortunately it was a cloudy overcast day so the sand was not as 'white' as it probably would have been on a clear sunny day.  Nonetheless it was pretty darn white and fine!  Margot and Karen went for a walk while Fergus and Fiona stayed and drew on the sand.  Fergus put the girls in the naughty circle!

Saturday morning at 10:30 we had to check out of the apartment and we headed out of the Jervis Bay area, but only after a short pit stop at the local bakery for chocolate croissants and coffees.  The south coast seems a little different than the north (i.e. Nelson Bay area) in that there are more cafes, restaurants, nice shops, and a more diverse crowd.

On Saturday on our way home, we made stops at Berry and Kiama.

Berry is a quaint little inland town lined with turn of the century buildings, trees, gardens, antique shops, more shops, cafes and restaurants.  The town was bustling on S

aturday due to the rain.  We wandered for an hour or so and particularly liked the Cuckoo Corner shop and Sew and Tell (Mom  & Sharon, you would have loved it, there were lots of Amy Butler items).

Kiama is famous for its' blowhole.  Kiama is derived from an aboriginal word "where the sea makes noise".  The blowhole was first discovered by George Bass in 1797 and has been a major tourist attraction since.  The blowhole can spray water up to 25 metres in the air but these days the spray is minimum.  The coast line scenery is very beautiful with rocky cliffs, sandy beaches, and pine trees.  We stayed for a few hours and had fish and chips with the pelicans.

We got home by dinner but poor Margot got sick in the car an hour and half away from the house.  She often complains of stomach aches in the car on long drives.  We'll have to figure out a better way for road travel with her!!