Dora the explorer and friends.

I immediately regretted asking Laura to name this post.  There is an explanation of sorts however, our car was named Dora, our sat nav Izzy and the exceptionally helpful Hertz guy Len.

Last week we decided to go on a roadtrip.  There were a few options; take a car up into the blue mountains, go north to the hunter valley and the north coast or go down the south coast to Canberra and the southern highlands.  Upon recommendations we opted on going south and booked to pick up a car at the airport early Friday morning.  After standing in the Hertz car rental que for going on 30 min we were developing bad feelings towards the staff at the counter, although to be fair to them they were dealing with seemingly brainless customers.  Anyhow, this eventually semmed to work in our favour.  We were called forward and approached with smiles, a booking and a willingness to take any and all insurance.  The guy who dealt with us, a lovely camp-as-you-like little Asian guy called Len, was more than helpful and upgraded us from a compact to a brand new 4WD Rav4.  Result!

Dora the explorer

Day 1 – Half nine and we were finally on the road.  My first time driving an automatic and for road cruising it simply destroys manual, even if I did have it limited to third gear for the first hour or so (Laura – first hour my bum, he was in thrid gear for the first two days he just doesn’t want to admit it!).  Our first stop/slow drive was through the Royal National Park, just south of Sydney. We then reached Standwell Tops which gives great views of the bush, the sea and the drive we were going to do that day. Our next stop was at Wollongong where again gave stunning views, with a gorgeous lighthouse and a fisherman surrounded by pelicans. It seems that the pelican is quite a common bird down the south coast as we saw them again at Shell harbour which was our next stop. Shell harbour is as it sounds, a quite little water inlet with a mini beach with lovely little multi-coloured shells which I (Laura) proceeded to pick up and keep to send home. Our next stop was Bushrangers bay at Bass Point. This was another National park. We had to drive down a dirt track, good job we had Dora the explorer, and came out in a car park surrounded by trees. A short walk through the bush (yes I was scared of the spiders) brought us to a lovely secluded pebble beach cove with no one else on it. It would have been perfect for snorkling according to Chris.

Bushrangers Bay at Bass Point

Our next stop was Kiama which is famous for its blow hole – a hole in the lower part of a tall rock leading to the sea, so that every time the sea surges in a wave the water is pushed out through the hole. Kiama again had a lovely lighthouse and spectacular views. Our next calling point was Berry, but there wasn’t too much to see there, it was just a quiet little village and then we went on to seven mile beach. Do I really need to descirbe seven mile beach, it is how it sounds. Stunning, with beach as far as the eye can see, but I could count on one hand how many people were on it. Chris loved this place. Next we went searching for Huskisson and Jervis Bay, again beaches, but we decided not to stop for too long as we had seen the same view a number of times by now. On our searching we decided to go down a country road following a sign for cave beach. We had around a 10 minute walk through the bush to get there, but on the way down we stopped at a lookout and saw a wild wallaby (mini-kangaroo) in the bush just chilling and nibbling on some branches. The beach itself was again how it sounds, it had caves. Although some of these places are stunning, the names are not that original! It looked like a good surfing beach with a few surfer dudes in the water. It was starting to go dark so we decided to go to our place where we were staying that evening – Mollymook.

Cave Beach

Mollymook was a small little village but was right on the beach front so that is always a bonus. We went and had a meal at the local golf club and then went for a walk and some pictures on the beach where I proceeded to loose my driving glasses, typical me! But………

Day 2 – We got up bright and early to watch the sun rise and guess what I found just chilling there on the beach, my glasses! The sun rise was absolutely amazing, it actually took quite a while. All the locals started coming out as it was rising and they were going for their morning jogs along the beach and morning swim in the sea, what a life!

Sunrise on Mollymook beach

Our first stop of day 2 was at a look out onto Batemans Bay, again the same views as the first day but we just couldn’t get tired of them! Then onto the historic town of  Braidwood which is like something out of the wild wild west films. There was a really cute old sweet shop there, so Chris and I both being sugaroholics decided to buy lots to keep us going for the rest of day 2! Then we drove on to Canberra, I probably won’t be too enthusiastic about this part as all in all it was probably the worst place that we visited on the whole trip (Chris agrees). With it being a new city there isn’t too much there. We went and visited the Parliament house, the Royal Australian Mint and Questecom (a science museum). I think I will let Chris do the next bit, he understands Canberra more than me…  Yeah Canberra has someway to go to attract visitors for anything other than to check out the Parliament House.  While we were there there was an art exhibition displaying some work from various famous artists.  Not fancying the 4-hour wait in the sun we figured if we wanted to see them could just pop over to Paris.  The cultural diversity we have just hours from Britain is certainly something I’ve taken for granted until now.  For Aussies to see anything other than Aus land it requires long-haul flights.  Other than the Parliament House and what Laura mentioned above I’d only add that the lake area wasn’t bad.

Parliament House, Canberra

After Canberra we drove to Goulbourn which is where we stayed for the night as we couldn’t get a room in Canberra or surrounding areas for love nor money (the art exhibition). Stayed in Goulburn, so some reason the name gave me instant bad visions of Australias first inland city, in the end the place was nice enough, a vast collection of ageing one storey shops and houses.  Highlight being the big Merino.

The Big Merino

Day 3 – Our first stop was the historic town of Berrima.  Think quaint English villages, with 10 times the space between everything and the thatch replaced by tin roofs. I (Laura) loved it, it reminded me of home but with hot weather. They has a village fair on at the time at Harper’s Mansion, with pet shows, singing and a maze we went round. We also found yet another old school sweet shop, so stocked up for day 3! We moved on to the next village down called Bowral where we went to the Centennial vineyards (the first 5* vineyard in the southern highlands). We did some wine tasting, with neither of us having a clue how to do it properly but trying to act like we had done it a million times! Chris picked a white wine to buy and I picked a red wine (yes, since I have been over here I now drink red wine!). The fields were full with the grapes and it such a great view.

The Centennial Vineyards

Next stop was Fitzroy Falls, a massive water fall with bushwalks all around. I was a bit scared at first as Chris wound me up and I believed him that there were crocodiles.

Fitzroy Falls

The final major stop of the day was Kangaroo Valley with its historic Hampden Bridge.  No Kangaroos though…  Then to head back to Sydney we drove through Wittagong and stopped briefly in Liverpool – a scummy, past its best, loser-ville place, with, I hear, a below average football team, striking simularities to its namesake in England…(i jest)…

Dropped car off in the evening at Hertz, forgot to fill up the tank.  The guy said it would be $80 for them to fill it, noo thanks.  A quick trip to a seven-11, $42 petrol and a free small slurpy later and the car was returned.  Having only used TomTom sav navs before I was dubious about the Navigon we were going to be using, however, it performed well and in some aspects out performed the TomTom, well the version I have anyway.

This roadtrip certainly made us look forward to the next part of our travels.  Once we leave Sydney the longest we’ll be staying in the same place is for a week, lots of moving around and new places – good times!!

Byeeee for now