At Murramarang National Park

Another short break was fun to plan, especially so soon after the last one. However, I reminded myself that I have not had a holiday in 2 years, so 2 short breaks one after the other were a good idea. The plan was to go down the south coast of NSW and spend a few days exploring. The day started of pretty grey with drizzle. This time we had been smart and bought a nice cool box. We were staying at Murramarang Nature Resort. This place has chalets with cooking facilities. While I had no intention of starting a kitchen, it was handy to take some milk and porridge for breakfast. Also the cool box allowed us to take some cheese, fruit and drinks. By the time all this, and of course clothes, was packed it was 10 am and we were ready to roll out.

We decided to take the Hume highway and cut across towards Wollongong and then take the Princess Highway, which is aminly a coast road. As we sped off down the highway and came up to the Wollongong exit, my husband who had googled the route says not this one. He says there is one that says Mittagong and that’s where most probably we exit. However, that exit still did not show Princes Highway, so we carried on. By now I am checking the map to see where this mythical turn off is! The one we should take was exit to Moss Vale on A48 or else we would be right into Canberra and then go down to Batemans Bay. 

As we turned off the exit, we realised this was the Southern Tablelands. Also upon reaching Moss Vale we could continue on the A48 and go towards Wollongong (in the opposite direction for where we wanted to go) or take the smaller road towards Nowra. This is fairly high and lovely views all around which were not seen at the start, as we were actually among the clouds. The visibility was pretty poor but as we started going downhill the beautiful green colour spread out, as far as the eye could see. The road was hair pins bends going down into the Kangaroo Valley and then up the next hill to get to the coast. Sadly, not a single kangaroo was sighted. Very much like nil kangaroos in Kangaroo Grounds near Melbourne. The tall trees reminded me of the Dandenong ranges in Victoria. The trees were not as thick and therefore old as those in the Dandenongs, but there were more ferns here. Since we were following a lorry and only doing about 10 km per hour, it was nice to be able to look around. I was enjoying it so much that I forgot to take any pictures. I am not sure how good they would have been any way as it was raining and windows had to be shut. 

Eventually we emerged on to the Princess Highway near Bomaderry in Shoalhaven. At last we were near the coast. The air changed for clear but damp mountain air to salty sea breeze. We were looking forward to reaching Nowra as we remembered it from the past visit. We had taken some photos when we stopped for lunch there. The view from high up on the hill of the coast was beautiful. 

 

View from top of the hill Narooma (not Nowra)

Narooma  and not Nowra high street

Alas both our memories proved wrong. We did remember the Woollies we visited but the view from the lunch place certainly did not belong to this town! The lunch stop was Woollies as we also had to pick up some porridge which after all the fuss I had forgotten to pack. Veggie burger and chips were for lunch at Oporto’s. Please people! do not get them to add chilli sauce as this is just a plain burn in mayo which killed off my taste buds. I was done before the burger was! 

Back to the road and onwards to the next place, Milton after passing though the Conjola National Park. We bypassed the Jervis Bay which was reserved for the return journey. Going through Milton the coast fell away and we were higher on the cliffs. A we came into Ulladulla, we felt the area was familiar but it turns out that we were still wrong. It was actually Narooma, a lot further south.

The road is fairly quiet and mostly through the various forests till we get to Batemans Bay. The place we were going to is 8 km off the highway to the village of South Durras. The nature resort is situated within the Murramarang National Park.

The resort was new when we had first visited it in 2009. They now advertised as having wifi hotspots and phone network top. This resort is pretty isolated except for the village. There are good walking trails behind the resort going into the forest. We arrived just as many guests belonging to a wedding party were checking in. There was going to be a wedding tomorrow so the restaurant would be closed to public, we were told at the reception. But the take away hatch and the bar would be open as normal. Our chalet was among the gardens and one of 6 set in a circle. There is a lovely veranda with table and chairs shaded by a net awning to sit and relax. There is a big lounge with a kitchenette on the side and two bedrooms with en suite bathrooms. The sofa can be converted to a bed and thus the chalet sleeps 6 people. Having put away the food in the fridge, and had a cup of tea, we decided to go for a walk on the beach and reacquaint ourselves to the place. 

As we walked back towards reception (to ask for more tea bags and coffee) there they were…. the kangas were lolling about, nibbling grass in the gardens. The beach beyond the next line of chalets is still pretty with clean white sand. The sky was still grey with clouds and the water dark blue. The waves were rolling in and first time I saw my husband actually wandering in the water without having to be coaxed in. I, however, did not wish to get cold so stayed out. 

 Geologist on the beach!

 And his best freinds

 

 Rock Strata of the cliffs

 Cliffside coming down to the beach

We walked along the beach and stopped to look at the sea birds. This place has got so many birds and animals about. I took a few photos of cormorants both black and pied, seagulls, oystercatcher and kookaburra.  I was hoping for pelicans but then they are on the other side of the mouth of River Clyde. 

 Sea Gull Convention

Pied Cormorant watching for its mate out at sea

 Oystercatcher

We walked over the side of the rocks and on to the public beach of South Durras. This side of the beach we found shells. Not the usual bivalves and broken bits of various shells but actually whole small ones. Now have a look at the link I have made with the word shells and you can see the pictures of all the ones available in NSW. I started a new shell collection. I was most upset when I had to leave my old collection behind when I moved to Australia. In fact my niece gratefully inherited it.

Walking on the sand seemed to set off my sciatica. So it was time for dinner and rest. It was nice watching the birds flit about and kookaburra laugh while we had a drink and waited for the pizza from the take away. 

 Kookuburra does not always sit on old gum trees!

We carried that pizza back, to sit on our veranda and enjoy it in the quiet, with a bunny and a kangaroo nibbling at the grass in front. The idyllic was broken when the kanga decided to visit the opposite veranda and drive the lady reading peacefully, on to the lawn. She was shushing it to move on and looking towards us for help. HAHA, I thought, you are looking in the wrong direction. My husband would be the first to run in if the kanga was to turn this way. My leg aches and so I am not happy to even stand up right now. By the time we finished the pizza the kangaroo came to explore our side of the grass and we bade a quick retreat to watch TV. A nice end to a coolish but lovely day.

Yellowstone - part 1 animals

-->I have been to so many places over the years that it is very difficult to actually know from where start. Then I realized that doing a travel monologue of each trip would be extremely boring and similar to what others put up on their websites or blogs. So I thought it might be better to do snippets of my travels - things I remember most along with some of the photos that I have collected.

In the last two weeks there has been a documentary series on BBC1 core of the Yellowstone. I have been watching it and reminiscing on my own experience of Yellowstone a few years ago. The visit to Yellowstone was part of a package trip that included the Tetons, Canyon lands and Moab. In fact this was my one and only camping trip. We stayed at a huge campsite when he got to Yellowstone. We were travelling in a minivan, with some other British travelers. A strange bunch we were, they will as a science schoolteacher, an art dealer in his wife, mother and daughter, the daughter was a PE teacher, there was another young man who was into taking in the walking, and couple of other people who I have forgotten. On the way to the camping site we came across these big herds of bison.

The first sighting of these huge animals was quite amazing even though it was at a distance. I had never seen animals of this size in real life. The van was stopped by the roadside and everyone jumped out eager for a good look at these magnificent animals. The countryside was green with rolling hills and a meandering river. The bison were gathered by the water with their young ones.

While we were exclaiming over the bison by the water suddenly a couple of them came up towards the road where we all were busy clicking the cameras. It was difficult to imagine that they could move at such speed.

One of them moved in even closer. Right next to our bus was a camper van with the Japanese couple and their baby in a stroller busy taking photographs. The bison seemed interested in the stroller but it came up to the road and walked across the board in front of our bus. Everyone assumed that it would carry on to the other side of the road. However it walked back and went past the camper van. The Japanese couple had just managed to grab the child out of the stroller and rush into the camper van, just as the bison came around the back of the camper van and stood right next to the stroller. From the photograph you can see the awesome size of the bison, the huge powerful shoulders with a couple of tons of weight that can do a good deal of damage to a baby in a stroller. It gave us an opportunity to see the animal at such close quarters.

After the first few herds the novelty wore off and we were on the lookout for other animals. We did see some herds of deer grazing peacefully in the afternoon heat.

The next animal we saw was a mother moose and her calf grazing in the long grass alongside the road. I had seen a large moose on an earlier visit to New Hampshire but had never seen a calf that young. As usual the bus stopped and everyone jumped out to take pictures. So many people talking and walking towards them made the mother nervous and she moved in front of her calf to protect it. Because the tourists kept surging forward she turned around and took her baby further into the undergrowth.

As we moved along we saw in the drying grass some antlers of deer sitting in the grass. Again it was nice seeing these animals so close and it seemed that the number of tourists passing through have made them comfortable with so many people wandering about.

The other scenery we passed on the way to the campsite was beautiful with hills covered with trees and a few waterfalls. Here are a couple of pictures showing the beautiful landscape.

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After a very busy day of seeing animals and the awesome scenery we made our way to the first night at a campsite. This was the first time I learnt to put up tent. It was demonstrated to us by our driver and we only had to follow the instructions. The first point was to choose the site where we would like to put a tent and spread out the ground sheet. In trying to be away from others we felt proud of picking the patch we did. In fact we had no trouble getting the tent up right. Then a stroll around the campsite was necessary to find out where the toilets were and what was being sold in the local shop. It was only when we lay down on our inch thick air mattress that we realised our folly. We had set up our tent on a slope. As we lay down it kept sliding to the lower end of the tent. As you can imagine it was not the most comfortable of sleep we had. The tiny pebbles under the mattress was another reason to have our sleep. We chose the next tent site it much more care.