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.

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