Nowra and onto Cessnock

Monday saw us on the road again to travel back up the coast to Nowra, less than 100km away.  We were to park in the front yard of fellow vanners we met last Easter at Preston in Victoria.  We had stayed in touch during the intervening 12mths so not too much catching up to do.

one of the many bays we walked around at Huskisson

wouldn't you know he would find one!!

some locals we met up with

who said I always obey!

Robbie and Laurie (yes another one) were wonderful hosts and took us off each day to explore the local countryside.  Tuesday we toured coastal areas visiting Culburra Beach, Huskisson and Vincentia on Jervis Bay.  The weather was great (but still needed our jackets) and photo opportunities were everywhere.

just one of the crossings we enjoyed

looking down into Kangaroo Valley

Wednesday we did the waterfall drive up through Kangaroo Valley.  We visited the Fitzroy, Belmore and Carrington Falls all falling from the same sandstone escarpment but each beautiful in their own way.  With the recent rainfall this area had experienced the falls were running well.  The vegetation was thick and lush and the scenery as we drove around the valley was just magic.  Another fantastic day and a big thanks to Laurie and Robbie for their generosity and hospitality.  Hopefully they will make it up to Brisbane some time and we can return the gift.

Belmore Falls

Carrington Falls

Fitzroy Falls

Hampden Bridge in Kangaroo Valley

sunset on a great day

Thursday saw us saying goodbye to our friends and setting off back to Cessnock and family.  We had a leisurely drive back up through Kangaroo Valley to Bowral, site of the Don Bradman Oval.  The drive up the mountain towing Destiny was no big drama as Lawrie was able to find spots to pull over and allow trailing traffic to pass without much difficulty.  That way we hoped to keep the image of caravanners as ‘considerate’ drivers.  We enjoyed a cuppa in Bowral parked at the oval where we have stopped many times previously.  There is a wonderful cricket themed museum in the old clubhouse and for those interested in the game it is a ‘must’ visit place.

trees in Bowral

With it being Autumn I loved the trees with their vibrant colours and tried to snap photos as we left the town to drive on to Mittagong (more trees) before going onto the highway to head towards Sydney.  With the M7 and M2 we now only have 8km to travel on Pennant Hills Road before getting to the Newcastle Freeway and away from the suburban roads of the city.  From there it was an easy drive to the Cessnock turnoff.  We will be staying there for 10 days and spending the time with the family and enjoying time with our 5yr old granddaughter Lily.  

now grandma not like that

Blessing of the Fleet Easter Sunday

After our weather friendly Friday, Saturday was not so nice and heavy clouds and a cold breeze stayed around all day so we enjoyed our home comforts inside the van.  Sunday fortunately found most of the clouds blown away although the breeze stayed with us.  The festival parade contained over 40 floats, some of which had been a lot of work by willing volunteers to decorate to a very high standard.  The floats carried the entrants in the Princess competition with the winning Princess being on the leading float.  Many of the floats depicted book or film titles and the winning float was the ‘Wizard of Oz’.  Many folk turned out for the parade and some had travelled from Sydney for the day. 

We bought a cuppa and sat on a seat on the footpath to wait and had a local elderly couple come to join us.  Well we chatted the whole time to Ron and Dawn and learnt much about their 30yrs in Ulladulla. 

Lawrie and Ron 'fixing the world'

Never mind the parade

Ulladulla Wanderings

Rock fishing at Ulladulla

Arriving at Ulladulla on Monday we found that this caravan park only had 3 other vans currently on site and chatting to those folk it turned out they were leaving on Wed so it turned out to be just us and a tent set up down below that is leading up to the Easter break.  Where are all those crowds we kept hearing about.  There were plenty of vans on the road as we travelled up here from Bega but so far they have not stopped off here.  We don’t mind a quiet Easter and as the Blessing of the Fleet is happening here on Sunday we will certainly have an interesting festival to attend.

Today (Friday) we went for a drive up into the mountain areas behind the highway.  The Forestry trails were well maintained and gave Lawrie some adventurous driving up hill and down.  We visited a camp ground at Shallow Crossing (of the Clyde River) and parked and enjoyed a picnic lunch amongst the many campers set up along the river banks.  This was certainly a popular place for those that knew about it. 

Shallow Crossing across the Clyde River

 There were caravans and tents of all shapes and sizes scattered both sides of the road in the designated camping areas.  The surrounding countryside was dense forest and everywhere was up or down a mountain.  Our journey took us to a lookout set high along the Clyde Ridge and the 360 degree view was just amazing.  The 120 km we did took us more than 4 hours so it was slow going but very enjoyable.  On returning to the caravan park we found that many more campers have arrived since we left this morning so we are no longer on our lonesome.

view from Moogood Lookout

Candelo and Bemboka

Before moving on to Ulladulla we ventured up into the hills to Candelo to visit the monthly markets.  There were many stalls there and certainly plenty of people.  The one thing I did notice though was although there was knitted items for sale on some of the stalls, none of it was handspun and there was no fibre for sale.  Thought that was strange for down here.  However, we did pick up some honey, passionfruit butter and some homemade melting moments so all was not lost. 

Bemboka Creek

Leaving the markets we headed further up into the valley along the Snowy Mountains Highway to Bemboka (another ‘village in the valley’) and just a short way past there the ‘road closed’ sign is erected.  This is due to a landslide that happened some months ago further up on Brown Mountain.  This highway connects Cooma and Canberra to the coast and the closure means a slight detour as we found out on our way down here.  At Bemboka we found a mob of kangaroos just resting in the side yard to a house.  There may have been a ‘back’ entrance into the yard that allowed the kangaroos access to bush beyond, it just seemed strange seeing so many in that one yard.

the kanga residents in Bemboka

The countryside up through the mountains was beautiful to drive through.  Again green rolling hills were just everywhere we looked and dairies supplying the Bega factory were to be found as we drove along the hillside roads.  There was plenty of water running in the various creeks and all the dams scattered around the hills were full.