New South Wales
March 2018
The Green State
Pfeeewww… how can it be… this state’s got it all, winding roads through lush green hills with beautiful farms, real forests and high tree covered mountains. Serene beaches followed by a rugged untouched coastline. An all in one state!
Although we don’t want to spend too much time in Australia anymore because our budget for this country has almost reached it’s bottom, we do hope to enjoy New South Wales as much as we can in this short time we have left.
We need the get back to Queensland to sell our car. That is where it’s registered and that’s where it will probably sell best. So in only two weeks we drive from border to border and pick the best spots to spend our time… boy oh boy, we were absolutely stunned!
Eden
Our first stop after crossing the border from Victoria to New South Wales is Eden, a small town by the coast just 40 kilometers from the border. Our camp for tonight is in the garden of Eden on the banks of Nullica Bay River.
A free campground in the forest without any facilities and no one else around. Exactly the way we like it. Just us, the birds and the fish. Fish? Jumping fish! They splish and splash above the water all night long as we sit by our campfire.
Next morning we continue our way to Sydney and sneak in at one of the expensive caravan parks in Pambula Beach for a hot shower and a toiletbreak. The park looks nice and so do the facilities, thank you Expensive caravan park!
Brou Lake
We follow the Princess Highway which started in Port Augusta, South Australia and leads all the way to Sydney.
What a difference this state is compared to other areas we’ve been. Winding roads through green hills, with beautiful farms, real forests and high tree covered mountains. We love NSW!
Just south of the cute town Narooma we camp by lake Brou. The campground is free and absolutely fantastic. Large site between the trees by the lake and the sea. From our site we can walk to the beach in 30 seconds. Too awesome!
The beach is deserted, it’s just us and a lot of cute small shells…
The waves are rough but the water is incredibly clear and not too cold to dip our feet in. When we walk back to the camp we spot an enormous monitor lizard in the bush. My goodness, that thing is about as tall as Jos is! And it runs just as fast too…
Some people go to the toilet with their car. Yep really, lazy people drive their car from their campsite towards the toilet a hundred meters away, waking up everyone around them. Idiots. Must be scared of the dark.
Now I’ve gotta go too. When I open my door there is a huge ugly spider hanging from the tree right in front of me. Yaiks! It looks creepy, but I’m not afraid of anything 😉 so I grab it’s thread and move it somewhere else.
In this state there are significantly more dangerous spiders. And snakes too… might not have been the best thing to do.
Driving to Canberra
We are going to Australia’s capital Canberra for a few days.
The route from Batemans Bay is gorgeous, winding roads lead us through thick forests between Monga and Budawang National Park.
We reach an altitude of 750 meters but there are no rest areas or view points to stop at. Too bad because the quick peeks between the trees show a magnificent valley.
For the first time since arriving in Australia we are delayed by traffic.
A traffic jam of 8 kilometers towards Braidwood.
Surrounded by green acres spread out over glowing hills we don’t mind standing still for a while. It’s like driving through the Scottish highlands…
Just before we reach Australian Capital Territory we camp in Bungendore. The campsite is simple but it’s got lots of shade and it’s only A$15. From here we drive to the border in only 5 minutes.
More information about Canberra and the Australian Capital Territory will follow soon!
When we leave Australian Capital Territory we drive back the way we came towards Batemans Bay. The route is just as stunning as the first time!
Batemans Bay
We’ve planned to camp in a free campground near Batemans Bay but when we get to the entrance of the 5 kilometer dirt road to the campsite we had in mind it’s in such bad state we don’t want to take the risk. This is definitely meant for 4WD cars.
So we drive on to the next campsite we see is reasonably affordable. It looks like an asphalt football field, there is no shade ór charme. We’ll pass. Shit the other campsites are all so ridiculously expensive here!
Bhoahh… now what?
We can just stay in a free or a really cheap campground and visit the beautiful beaches during the day. Brilliant plan. Problem is, there aren’t any. Not close to this touristic coast.
Maybe it’s time to leave this country. We’ve seen so many beautiful pristine beaches and stayed in amazing free beachfront campgrounds, we refuse to pay A$40+ (and ++) for an unpowered site on a repulsive no ambiance whatsoever football field.
We make a quick decision based on emotion and drive away from the coast again. I know, we are skipping what is supposed to be the best coast of Australia. But no, I don’t believe that. This touristic and expensive part will only ruin the great image that we now have of this country.
Kangaroo Valley
So… no more ocean, forest here we come! And then, on towards Sydney as quick as we can. We’ve found a fantastic free campground in Kangaroo Valley. We’ve driven a lot of kilometres today but it’s such a nice route through the forest again. As soon as we arrive we see three kangaroos on the beautiful and peaceful campground. Tired but happy with our choice.
We find a great spot in the shade and as the day comes to an end we finally see a wombat! Yay, we can’t be happier. A wombat.. and not one… there are five just on this side of the campground. They look so cute, like an enormous guinea pig. Or a big mole… or a small bear? I don’t know, they just look cuddly! And there’s one with a baby as well!
They smell really bad and scratch their fur the whole time, they probably have an abundance of parasites and fleas. Still, they are incredibly cute!
The three days we are here we are surrounded by kangaroos and wombats every night. From four in the afternoon when the sun starts to loose its warmth until four in the morning they are busy finding food, sniffling our car and scratching their back under our tow bar… hahaha our car shakes back and forth in the middle of the night and when I open the door a big wombat is right in front of it looking like ‘it wasn’t me’.
Funfact: did you know wombat poo is square shaped? True, it’s like little cubes…
We have a fantastic time here in the Kangaroo Valley and could stay for another month, but well… choices.
We eventually need to get to Brisbane to try and sell our car. Our car has Queensland license plates, that would make it best to sell it in Queensland.
So, skipping some nice stuff, it’s all choices choices.
Blue Mountains National Park
Staying in Sydney can be extremely expensive so we’ve decided to drive to the Blue Mountains so we’ll still be close to Sydney and we’ll put our car on Gumtree in the meantime. If anyone is interested we can always drive into the city.
The road towards the Blue Mountains is quite annoying, there are many small villages and the speed changes every three minutes, but the views are breathtaking and very promising… when we arrive at our free campground we are exhausted from the long drive. The campground lies at an altitude of 900 meters and we can see the scenery hidden between the trees. We follow a small path and immediately get rewarded by an absolutely stunning view over the rough and high Blue Mountains…
There are many beautiful hiking trails and the views change on every corner. The weather is mild but the next few days will be extremely hot, so on a cool day like today we love to get some exercise.
Eventhough this already is our favourite state and we absolutely love this area, we have a mission and need to drive on. Our budget for Australia is finished and we have our minds set on leaving.
We drive on through another route which leads us north of the Blue Mountains. We check out Anvil Rock lookout, this must we be most stunning view in all our five months here in Oz! WHOAH! This is it, I can now leave peacefully…
Hunter Valley
This must be the craziest this we’ve ever done and you must think we’re nuts, but we are not going into Sydney. The next few days are going to be freaking hot, 40+ degrees. Sydney is not only a very crowded city, which makes it even less attractive in the heat. It is also a very expensive city. We would have to go into the city by train, because parking fees as unaffordable. Train takes a lot of time so we would want to spend a night there. On these hot days we would need an air conditioned hotel which will cost us about A$150.
So all in all, are we going to enjoy this citytrip? I’m afraid not, so we’ll keep on dreaming about that beautiful opera house…
We spend a night in a motel with air conditioning in Singleton just outside the Hunter Valley, west of Newcastle. A beautiful hilly area filled with vineyards. Jos his cousin lives here but unfortunately he is out of town so we can’t meet up.
After exploring this small slightly boring town and doing some groceries we drive around the area in our nice cool air conditioned car.
Port Macquarie
We follow the tourist route 10 that leads us along the coast to Port Macquarie, but instead of being able to actually see the ocean we see bush… all the way along the route. This is THE MOST disappointing route in five months. Not a good start here in Port Macquarie…
What seemed like a boring town turns out to be quite an interesting one. We spend the night in the nice (and of course) airconditioned Port Aloha Motel and with a nice last minute discount we stay on the top floor in a suite with balcony.
We stroll through the small town and end up at the harbour where we enjoy a breathtaking sunset.
There is a large pier from where you can enjoy the view and watch the birdlife. Pelicans, cormorants, ibises and multicoloured parrots. Even the jumping fish are entertaining. The small park next to the pier has a lot of benches to relax and they even got powerpoints!
We walk over the promenade along the painted rocks on the waterside. Every rock has it’s own theme created by the many visitors to this town. It’s very entertaining to look at them all and read the messages.
The nights are so much cooler here, nice breeze… we survive the hot days and a good sleep and a good conversation we decide to drive to Queensland in one day.
This means we will skip the rest of the enchanting New South Wales coastline and it’s beautiful forests.
The road from Port Macquarie is quite good at first but after driving for an hour we enter the ‘neverending roadwork zone’ all the way up to the border of Queensland. This 475 kilometer trip takes us over 6.5 hours and when we reach the border we are really really really ready to sell our car…
Our hope now lies in Queensland!
