Two of the 21 million people celebrating Australia Day in the country: Ah yes January 26th. A day everyone gets prepared for by buying in picnic grub and barbie tucker while picking a good spot to spend the day whether it’s on the beach or joining in the celebrations in the city. We began our day with some family celebrations up at Harbord Diggers bowling club. After a short flutter on the slots we headed for the city to check out the live music on stage in Hyde Park. Once that finished up we joined the masses down at Darling Harbour to claim our spot in the pub where we could watch the fireworks later on in the night. Not a bad way to spend Australia Day ey mate!
Jervis Bay – an off the beaten track gem!: After the Australia Day celebrations we thought a well-deserved break down south was in order so we caught the train Friday morning for three nights in Jervis Bay. What a gem. Three days of relaxation with 10s of beaches to choose from we couldn’t go wrong. When we arrived at Nowra Aiden picked us up from the train station (Aiden was the guy running the cabin we had booked to stay in for the few days). A quick whiz to the shops; steaks, sausages and a 6 pack of Coopers; fire up the Barbie!
Day 1: Our map in hand, Saturday we borrowed a couple of bikes from Aiden and headed off to explore Jervis Bay and get in some snorkelling. We were staying in Huskinsson so we cycled down to Greenfields beach where we hopped onto the White Sands walking track down to Chinaman’s beach. From there we walked along the beach and across the rocks down to Hyam’s beach which according to the Guinness book of records boasts the whitest sand in the world. Who are we to disagree (check out the pics). The snorkelling around the rocks here was fab.
Day 2: Sunday Aiden dropped us down to Murray’s beach at the corner point of Booderee National Park for some more snorkelling. We saw more cool fish here but luckily no rays which normally hang out under the pier where the boats come in right next to where we were snorkelling. Later that night we headed to the Stone Grill for dinner where we cooked our own steaks on a hot stone to our liking. As the restaurant didn’t sell alcohol they had a policy of BYO (bring your own) so we nipped to the nearby drive through offie and picked up some vino beforehand. We couldn’t believe it, a massive drive through off licence in a town the size of Castledermot!
Day 3: Before we headed back up to Sydney on Monday we caught a dolphin watching boat cruise out into Jervis Bay along the Booderee National Park coast line, passing a succession of quiet beaches, cliffs and forests. We sailed by the ACT Navy base, point perpendicular and renowned sandstone formed ‘Hole in the Wall’ onto Murray’s beach where we found the dolphins, all 15+ of them. From there we watched them swim with the boat as we headed back to shore. A perfect way to end our stay at Jervis Bay.
