Author: Mr A
Location: Huskisson, Jervis Bay, NSW
What goes in must come out right? I’m referring to the fact that we had managed to get the Zone RV into a tight spot in our friends’ garden – surely it must be able to come out the same way? It was tight…very tight…and of course the hand held radio Catherine uses to help direct me chose this moment to play up. Finally we managed to back our way down the drive and were on our way, with great memories of a wonderful weekend.
We were soon at our first stop, the Fresh Food Market at Nowra, a pricey but good source for stocking up. Our friends Chris and Karen happened to be down at Bowral on a Porsche club run, so they diverted via Nowra and it was all into the Zone for a catch up. Who needs a coffee shop?
A short drive down the coast took us to Jervis Bay Holiday park, our home for the next three nights. It was a very tight squeeze into the site. I had given our towed length when booking, but somehow this hadn’t been taken into account. However, we had a view of the river and with some careful manoeuvring soon settled in. We decided to check out the ride into Huskisson (Husky to the locals), it was a great little bike path and we were in town within 10 minutes. What a pleasure to have some cycling infrastructure!
We also noticed that the town looked pretty much the same as it did years ago when we last visited. After our shock at how Orange had changed (and not for the better), it was a relief to see at least Husky has not been exploited by developers with a friend on the council.
This morning we launched our sleek sea kayak onto the river right by our camp, so convenient. We headed downstream and were soon in Huskisson again – the second purely person powered visit 🙂 We coasted out into Jervis Bay proper, which even on an overcast day looked simply stunning.
Brunch was calling so we headed park to our launch point and I fired up the Weber. It was our first bacon and eggs of the trip, and won’t be the last I can tell you! Catherine toasted some sweet potato slices instead of having bread…not bad.
Then we decided to head upstream and with the wind briefly behind us hoisted the sail. That’s right, a sail on a kayak. After a 20 minute paddle Catherine said “Oh look some caravans…oh…there’s ours!” We had paddled around an island and come right back! Ah well..time for Google maps assistance…and off we went again this time managing to head up the river.
It really was awesome, massive sting rays were lurking in the water, their blinking eyes the only clue they were there.
After we got past some houses we didn’t see anyone else on the river. Very tranquil, its what we love about kayaking. We saw heaps of water birds, including a kingfisher flashing his bright blue wings as he chased some lunch. Cormorants aired their wings in the sun, an eagle flashed overhead chased by a crow. We felt at peace with the world, remembering that this was a Tuesday morning and how privileged are we to be enjoying this life.
We paddled back to camp and decided to head into Nowra, we wanted to buy a Soda Stream and this would be our last chance. We drink a lot of sparkling water and wanted to be free from picking up our 6/7 bottles a week and then creating all that plastic waste, often in areas with no recycling. We tested it out and were pretty happy with the result.
Yesterday we had picked up our first dozen of south coast oysters, so a glass of Adelaide Hills Chardy just went beautifully with those, sitting in the sun watching the river flow (is that a song?). Dinner was selected from an Asian curry cookbook we had decided to bring along. It was a dish called Kukul Mus Kari, a Sri Lankan chicken curry. Pretty fancy…pretty delicious. Mrs A does it again.
We wandered outside to catch the last light of the day, the river was still flowing, I hope it always does.
We set off down their lane and turned left, along stunning gum tree lined roads, rolling green hills making up our views. As we began to go uphill, I realised I was being left behind and that my eBike was extremely quiet…I struggled along for a bit, but then had to stop, concluding that the 16.5kg bike was not turned on.
Out came Barb’s incredible food, accompanied by food prepared by her friend Julie, who was considering joining the group. Amazing dish after amazing dish came out – just delicious. We absolutely feasted, Mr A particularly munching on at least one piece of cake, but avoiding the glass of Riesling offered (because of the calories – ha ha!).
We returned for a fabulous salad of fresh produce from Barb and Omar’s garden and sheep cheese for lunch.
We managed to miss our turn off to stay on a cycleway, and ended up on main road for a bit, then found it again and cruised into our destination of Minnamurra. This turned out to be a sleepy little village, with a one platform railway station on the South NSW line. We found the only cafe and ordered some much needed sustenance. One Chicken Club and a Chicken Caesar Salad demolished. 
Time for the return match. My eagle eyed Map Girl saw a faint footpath line on Google so we headed for that and followed a fabulous path right along the cliff tops.
A few more hills and we were soon back in Kiama, with an ice creamery seeming to jump into our path. Wow that went down well. Mrs A with her mango sorbet and me with some English toffee ice cream. Just bliss. 20km ticked off and 1000 calories consumed!
Back at the Zone, Tassie seemed to greet us rather grumpily, after all she only just had a 4 hour nap, apparently not quite enough.
Dinner tonight was Cambodian fish amok. We both loved the food when we visited the country and Mrs A has added a couple of cracking dishes from their cuisine into her extensive repertoire. The fresh veggies from the farmers market yesterday just added to the flavours.
We followed the walk around for about 3km, stopping to watch the Little Blowhole perform its show – a loud ‘whomp’ preceding the gush of water as it follows the old lava dyke under the rocks and up through the gap. We got nicely refreshed by the spray!
Not long after here we both had to stop and rest in the shade. Mark’s plantar fasciitis in his heel was causing him pain while walking, and my Morton’s Neuroma was giving me an agonising burning pain in the ball of my right foot too. I guess the cortisone injection I had last week hasn’t made a difference. We are a pair of old crocs! We looked longingly at the gorgeous looking pathway stretching into the distance over the cliff and hobbled back to camp.
As the afternoon progressed we decided to hop on the bikes and ride into Kiama for the farmer’s market. It was busy and bustling, primarily fresh produce from surrounding areas but also some food stalls, a winery and brewery. We tried the wine but it was not to our taste, and neither was the beer. We did find a sheep cheese producer from Robinson – we have tried their cheese before, being one of the few in Australia – and purchased some delicious nectarines from Orange.
We took our goodies and rode back to camp for a healthy salad and a glass of rosé.
Casting doubts aside we drew away and headed through reasonable (for Sydney) morning traffic. Tassie was a little restless (for new readers she’s our other family member – the Burmese camping cat), but some serious brushing from Mrs A sorted her out.
So here’s the plan in summary.
It is truly a beautiful coastline and we look forward to exploring some more over the coming weeks.
Reason: This was our first stop after having crossed the Nullabor, and our first taste of oysters since leaving Sydney back in May. It was spring when we reached Streaky Bay, and the weather was not quite settled. We had some fabulously warm mornings, but the afternoons often whipped up with quite a blustery wind. Nevertheless it was a great location to introduce us back into semi-civilisation, with a 10km coastal cycleway to explore, and some interesting road trips to natural landmarks. Quite a unique location.
Reason: We visited this location purely so I could go cage diving with Great White Sharks (a bucket list item and well worth the trip – I chose the ethical option with Adventure Bay Cruises). We originally booked in at the caravan park there for two nights, but loved it so much we stopped longer. Port Lincoln as a town has some great little restaurants, fabulous seafood and plenty of services. A short drive away is Lincoln National Park, home sea eagles, osprey and fur seals you can snorkel with, and numerous picturesque beaches. A flat cycleway follows the coast around into town and along to the marina (and possibly beyond), great exploring with plenty of birdlife. We really enjoyed our time here.
Reason: Anyone who knows us well (and our love of fine wine) will probably question why this fits as a surprising visit. Well the fact is we almost left on the first night due to the cold damp weather, but we were pleased we stuck around. The rail trail is a great drawcard here, relatively flat and guiding you to some fabulous tastings. The visitor information centre is award winning, and if you are there on a Friday night they do a wine tasting with $5 glasses of wine and $25 bottles and a cheese and nibbles plate – a brilliant way to meet your fellow campers and taste some local fare.
Reason: Of course the wine was fabulous – we had some great fun cycling around the area which is pretty flat with some off road cycleways, and great tastings. Highlights were Artisans of Barossa, Izway and the Taste of Eden. It was also our first opportunity to taste Vietnamese food in a long while at FermentAsian – a restaurant with a veritable bible of wine on offer – more than 1000 bottles. We settled for one!
Reason: Cowra is just an hour from Orange which we have visited on many occasions, but remained a blip on the map for more than 18 years. This time we picked up some literature about it while visiting Forbes, and thought it sounded lovely. As usual we laughed about what the differences were likely to be from the marketing material (often towns read like quaint French villages but disappoint horribly!). Cowra actually exceeds expectations! Surrounded by rolling hills (making the cycling a bit more of an effort than we’d been used to!), lots of interesting history surrounding the Japanese POW camp and some stunning gardens, Cowra also boasts a wine bar with fabulous selection of local beers and wine, and some great places to eat out. We loved the Indian restaurant – we’d put it up there among the best we’ve been to in Australia! The campsite was delightful too, grassy and shady, hosted by a lovely couple who became friends. Definitely worth a visit.
And so we farewelled the Cummings family and headed down the Blue Mountains to our next stop, Katoomba. We were off to visit Jennie and David, another couple of English folk happily living in Australia who had also the good fortune to purchase a Zone RV caravan – number 57. Jennie was there to wave us into the parking spot and provide us with visitor passes, and quickly ushered us into their home near the three sisters for a cup of tea and a chat.
We stopped off for a quick drink and a chat, before heading on through the narrow car lined streets to Curl Curl. We have to say that the streets of Forestville were the most challenging roads we had driven on in the whole of Australia – a combination of cars on both sides of the street, narrow roads, hills and bends!
We calculated our total mileage for this trip – 22,478km – that’s about 14,000 miles for you counting in old money. Fantastic. We’re pretty chuffed with all we have learned along the way and what an incredible adventure we have had. So far. After tonight we head back into our house for about 7 weeks, and then the cat will be away again to explore more of this beautiful country…we hope you will join us too!
All this wine tasting had worked up an appetite and a very timely text from friend Karen gave us a list of recommendations. We decided to call into Agrestic Grocer. It turned out to be right next door to the Badlands Brewery, the beer Mr A had enjoyed at The Oxley Wine Bar in Cowra, and they offered a tasting paddle from the bar.
After lunch we picked up some vegetables for tonight (Woolworths ‘the fresh food people’ this time) – again disappointed by the poor quality of fresh produce available – bendy carrots, soft runner beans, under ripe strawberries and nectarines – not what we expected at all.
Thankfully once you are in the Canobolas Caravan Park the aspect brightens up…a little. We decide to only pay for one night and see what we think.