Sunday Outing in Australia
[Happened on 22 March 2015, written up on 04 April 2015. Which is better, late or never?]
My colleagues and I kept ourselves pretty busy with work during our two weeks in Australia, but we did manage to eke out a Sunday outing after our first week there.
After chatting to numerous people where we were working, we decided to drive south from Nowra to Jervis Bay, visiting the touristy town of Huskisson, and the ‘whitest beach in the world’, aka Hyams Beach. We then turned inland to visit the Granite Falls, and walk the adjacent rain-forest walk after a quick stop at a lookout point. We ended the day by driving through a 4WD back-road on a 2WD car, and got to the paved asphalt just in time before dark!
On to photos! (120 images total, ahem!)
Indeed, a road and some rain.
Watching a little ferry take off from Huskinsson harbor.
There were a lot of tiny fish in the sea!
Not the most attractive architecture. Here be tourists!
We were told by a guy that the dolphins were hiding that day, so we skipped the cruise.
Walking along the coastline, looking back.
A memorial for people lost at sea.
Reason for the memorial.
A few guys paddled out on boards and played on the minor waves.
I was there!
Pretty rocks.
Deserted sea-side swimming pool. The weather was nice, cloudy but warm.
Stepping out onto the Shark Net Beach. We saw neither sharks nor nets.
We did see a bunch of kayakers though.
My colleagues, Sævar and Gulli, taking in the scenery.
Familiar stuff!
Pretty rock formations.
Birds flying by. We didn’t see many insects, but we heard and saw a lot of birds.
People carrying their kayak up a hill. We followed.
Modernish house.
Next time we’re bringing deck chairs!
Bemusing Indian in the distance. He totally owned that place.
Scenic Lookout! Yay!
Just a reminder about the past.
Take heed!
Australia is all about these smallish, flat, roundabouts. They generally work well, but are hard to spot.
We drove further south. This is in Vincentia.
This, on the other hand, is Hyams Beach!
What you can fish.
Goodbye shoes, see you in a little bit.
Really, really nice. The water wasn’t super warm though, so I wasn’t too sad that I’d forgotten my swim gear.
Walking on some rocky outcroppings.
The horizon is mostly horizontal.
This is a photosphere. Click on the image and drag it about to make it move!
The rocks turned out to be absolutely covered in little shells.
Not good for bare feet!
Gulli taking the plunge, while Sævar videos the heroics.
Private property. Stay away. Grrr.
Walking a bit further south.
Sævar dubbed this one: “The old man and the sea.”
Cool rocks.
Moar beach!
Birdies.
Wave-front speculations. Jarvis Bay is closed off from the Pacific Ocean except right in front of this beach. Hence the biggish waves compared to Huskinsson.
The gap out onto the Pacific Ocean, along with some rain.
Not a bad life.
Houses on the beach.
Regulation selfie.
It started raining, so we decided to turn back. Just not using those private steps.
A swanky house.
Big sign, cute houses.
We drove inlands, and stopped by a cafe. This car was there.
Blue Dog Country Kitchen. Yup!
The inside!
The menu, complete with dogs.
The somewhat dubious looking counter and kitchen area.
Cool lanterns.
Pretty painted saw above a fine cabinet with fine things.
Mocha and sparkling water, aka my staples.
Next up, Morton National Park.
Fun road!
About to hike to Granite Falls.
It looked like the big trees had burned some time ago, but the underbrush had recovered.
Nice view!
Going down!
View = nice!
Lots and lots of trees.
The boys looking at the waterfall.
Yup, it’s a pretty special place alright!
I was there! It’s pretty impossible to get a good image of the entire waterfall. It’s a 63 m drop along beautifully colored rocks.
The Marelers.
The bottom part of the waterfall.
Touching nature.
Next up, some fun with the 50 mm lens.
Good for washing dishes?
Looks like something broke…
Sadly, this tree seemed properly dead.
Berries!
We drove a little ways up the road to our next stop.
Dang, we didn’t bring any BBQ supplies!
We decided to visit the lookout point first.
Cool stones along the way.
Lots of colors!
A fence to guide the way up.
Really pretty way, photos don’t come close to doing it justice.
The steps to the top.
The top turned out to be flat!
The lookout point.
It’s a lookout!
Gulli decided to jump the fence, like he does. It was apparently a long way down.
The mere mortals.
Next up, finding the rain-forest hiking path.
Found it! (It’s a steep staircase behind Gulli.)
The hike basically wound beneath the lookout point, and had lots of interesting rock formations.
Looking up.
A really big slab of stone that will probably fall one day.
Among the trees.
A fern?
Red lichen?
More low hanging rocks.
See that rock jutting out high above their heads? Freaky!
The jut.
Neck exercises.
Something’s eaten the rock!
Where did that come from?
Greenery is green.
Another funny looking rock.
We made it!
Next, Gulli got the fabulous idea to keep driving along the 12 mile road, instead of turning back, mostly to drive back to Nowra via a different route. We tried to stay clear of the UXO!
We played the stupid tourists to a tee, because that section of the road was for 4WD only, and we were only sporting a 2WD in mostly dry conditions…
The road looked ok for the most part, but then we got to this section, which looked like a mud-bath. We all got out to investigate…
The road turned out to be more solid than it looked, so we forged on ahead. Slowly.
This puddle was deemed safe, so we kept going…
It was a bumpy ride!
Yet another body of water.
Driving on hard coarse rock is also, wait for it, bumpy.
Gulli doing occupational therapy, aided and abetted by the phone GPS system.
It was a close call in places, but we made it to the other end!
That’s us, leaving the wilderness. I got the honor of driving back to Nowra.
We found a Chinese place in Nowra that was open past 8 pm on a Sunday. Yay!
And that’s the fairly dirty car at the parking lot.
