Wollongong, Shell Harbour and Kiama

After an amazing time in Sydney we kept driving south down the highway. Estimating our littlest boy would sleep a couple of hours. We picked the Shoalhaven area on the map and started searching WikiCamps for a holiday park with good reviews. We found one at Shell Harbour and booked in for 3 nights.

We were blown away, when we arrived, by the continuing beauty of New South Wale's coastline - it was definitely getting better and better. The caravan was parked on the beach nearby an ocean bathing pool, so we spent our time around there playing on the sand collecting shells, and the boys had their first ever dip in an man-made ocean pool.

We drove around the area of Shoalhaven. We found out this country seaside farming region is where the movie Babe was filmed. The rolling hillsides were just as green and stunning as they appeared in the movie.

At Kiama we stumbled upon the Kiama markets - a very ingressive little growers market on the shelly foreshore. So nice to be taste testing local gourmet foods while the boys played on the very unusual black beach - the shells and gravel were black and Dusty kept himself busy collecting seaweed.

The boys were really excited by the Kiama blowhole, next to the lighthouse, too.

The drive up to Wollongong was spectacular, through the funky seaside towns on the cliffs overhanging the ocean and along the Sea Cliff highway - a stretch of highway going over the ocean.

Wollongong really surprised us actually. We went there to check out the industrial buildings and machinery (cranes on the wharf etc) and then discovered the historical charm and picturesque town. There were these Coke furnaces in the side of the headlands, with an original brick-walked marina at the entrance to the bay, and 2 of the oldest lighthouses in the country, plus the military canons on the top of the headland. Really magical scenery, and plenty of space for the kids to go crazy.

This area is probably on the short list of places to return to one day. We were really beginning to see how much people appreciate farm life by the sea, and the culture of inspired Australians here was really inspiring for us.

Comments

Jondaryan Woolshed

Dusty and I were feeling restless and homesick this morning. I didn't want to go home, necessarily, but I did want to make use of our time away by travelling and sightseeing instead of being at the caravan - the small space we have set ourselves up in really felt crowded for me this morning. Dusty had also said that he wanted to go home to his BIG house, with a sad sigh. So, Tim suggested our first Toowoomba-area tourist destination, Jondaryan Woolshed. The Woolshed museum features over a dozen buildings from Australia's earliest days, when Jon Daryan and surrounds were used for Merino Wool production - the first place in Australia to farm Merino Sheep. It's more than just a sheep museum though. There are all kinds of relics, which were brought here from all around The Darling Downs, including a dairy/cheese factory, school room, tractor shed, railway line, a tea, stew-and-damper hut, and a yard full of farm animals including freshly hatched geese and baby goats. Shrie...

Culburra Beach and Point Perpendicular

We continued south down the coast and booked ourselves into a park at Crookhaven Heads (Culburra Beach), expecting a similar beachy seaside town to Kiama. The closest big town was Nowra (very simple and unexciting, besides a sensational produce market that was worth the drive in for). Crookhaven Heads and Culburra Beach were both very quiet towns, but our holiday park had the bonus of long car-free driveways and large green lawns, so we had a ball learning to ride new balance bike (Maxie) and skateboard (Tim, me and Dusty) and we made new good friends too. Also, plenty of beaches to explore ... It was a good base point for exploring some very cool seaside towns nearby and Point Perpendicular lighthouse (inside the Beercroft Military Reserve, which is open to the public via security-issued tickets). This lighthouse is the 'most painted' lighthouse in Australia. The weather was really wild - crazy wind, we couldn't walk anywhere near the lighthouse as the pram was blowing a...

Ballina, Lennox, Byron and Mullum

It's amazing the way our perspective has changed since we haven't had a house, a job, a 'base', to go back to. Everything is more beautiful, and we really give ourselves to the experience. Dusty took the photos above after we arrived in Ballina, he's getting good at operating the camera! We parked our caravan in my cousin Geoff and Nadine's front yard and they were amazing hosts - to have us, welcome us, enjoy spending time with us and the kids, to encourage Dusty to get more familiar with the drums ... ... To teach Dusty how to crack a real whip... ... To let Maxie bathe in their front yard ... ... To show the boys how to catch yabbies with sand pumps... ... And to take us on a guided tour of South Ballina, where we crossed the river in the car on a ferry. We had a ball driving down the beach. Geoff taught Dusty and Maxie how to catch pippies in the sand. When we climbed a sand dune, a very excited Dusty discovered he was actually afraid of heights and it ...

Joanna Becker

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