We are so happy to have some time to write again it's been ages!!! The first main reason is because we haven't really travelled much, so there were not many amazing updates to talk about. But also, it's crazy how you move to a more relaxed place looking for the simple life, but then you find out that it is not the place that makes your life be a certain way... but it's yourself who decides how it goes! so yes, we have realised that no matter where we are, we love doing things and meeting people and been sociable, so here we find ourselves again with the week full of dinner dates and no time to relax on the sofa at all!
Anyway, back to the point, we wanted to talk about our latest weekend away to Jervis Bay. As mentioned, we have not traveled since Thailand, and we were getting desperate to have a weekend away and switch off for a bit. We have family visiting at the moment, and more coming for Christmas, so we didn't have lots of days off left, which meant the trip was definitely going to be in Australia.
Since we arrived in Sydney everyone has been telling us about Jervis Bay. Unlike what everyone thinks, Jervis Bay is not a beach, buy a whole area, full of nice beaches and surrounded by a beautiful national park. It is only a 3 hour drive by car from Sydney, which is actually a pretty cool drive either though a lovely wine area (Kangaroo valley) or along the coast (Grand Pacific drive).
Wollongong, Kiama, Berry and Culburra beach
We left on a Saturday morning and drove down to the Royal National park, then stopped for a coffee in Wollongong (2 hours away from Sydney), which it’s main sight is the lighthouse (there are actually two of them, one next to the other!) and the bay.
We then drove to Kiama, 35 minutes away, which really surprised us as it is a really beautiful town which cute boutiques and coffee shops. The main point of interest is the Kiama blowhole, which, for those like us, who have no idea of what it is, and according to Wikipedia:
“In geology, a blowhole is formed as sea caves grow landwards and upwards into vertical shafts and expose themselves towards the surface, which can result in blasts of water from the top of the blowhole if the geometry of the cave and blowhole and state of the weather are appropriate”.
Well, Kiama’s one is supposed to be the largest in the world. See the pictures below so you get the point, they are all ours apart from the actual blowhole “working”, as when we went it wasn’t windy enough for the water to “jump”.
Our next stop was Berry, an extra 20 minutes drive from Kiama, and one of the cutest Australian villages I have ever seen. It feels like being back in time. It is full of lovely antiques, crafts and decoration shops, as well as cafes and restaurants, so we highly recommend you to stop there for lunch and walk around the town. We had a yummy quinoa salad and a donut from this vintage van and got back on the car to go to our final destination for the day, Culburra beach.
We didn’t pick that beach because of it (though it was beautiful), but because we were staying the night at Michael’s Airbnb cabin, soooooo nice! He is an artist that bought a house in that beach, which is a really peaceful area, and built it with his own hands, and then built this cabin in his back garden, which is the coziest place! See the pictures below, isn’t it so beautiful?
The town only had a supermarket and a couple of restaurants, but the beach was almost for empty and private to us! It’s a pity it was cold and we couldn’t enjoy it more. We wanted to drive to a winery for dinner (20 minutes away), but Michael recommended us not to… why? Well, to get to any other town around you had to drive through completely dark tiny roads in the middle of the forest, and the risk of running over a massive kangaroo or a wombat and ruining your car was apparently, very high!! So we bought a bottle of wine and some finger food in the supermarket and relaxed in the cabin.
Jervis Bay: Huskisson, Cave beach and Hyams beach
On Sunday morning we woke up pretty early and headed straight away to Huskisson where we had our motel for the night. Everything around that area is very expensive and accommodation is honestly, very low level, so don’t expect much… everything looks like 2 star motels built in the 50s haha but it doesn’t matter, because you are going to most like just go there to sleep! We dropped our stuff and went to get some breakfast at this vegetarian cafe which we loved! It’s in the main street but slightly hidden and you have gorgeous views of the beach from there.
Once our bellies were full we walked a bit along the beach and then jumped on the car to go see Cave beach, which is only like 20 minutes away. The hotel owner had told us there are plenty of kangaroos around there and as we are obsessed with them we had to go! Much to our disappointment we could only see 2 and they ran/jumped away after 3 minutes, but we was lucky enough to stalk them and pet them for a bit haha that beach has a big camping site and those guys know about it, so they go there to get food. Once they saw we had none they ignored us. But oh we were so happy to have seen them haha
And finally we got to Hyams beach, which is the most famous beach in the area as it has the whitest sand in Australia (and apparently in the world, google it, it’s in the Guinness Book of Records!). It took us forever to park as it is very busy (and it wasn’t even summer, can’t imagine how it must be then), but the place is beautiful! There is only one main access to the beach and that part is totally packed with tourists, but if you walk further away along the beach it is so nice! Super soft white sand, turquoise water and beautiful views. It is definitely worth seeing! If we can make a recommendation is that you bring your own food, there is only one cafe and it is so busy… so if you plan to stay at the beach all day just bring a cooler box and enjoy laying there just looking at the incredible sights.
And that was pretty much our weekend trip! We had dinner at Huskisson, and booked the most amazing Dolphin watch boat trip for Monday morning before driving back to Sydney, but unfortunately after almost 2 hours sailing we saw no dolphins :’( :’( ;’( *TRAUMA*. The area is famous for dolphin and whale sights, so even if we didn’t have a good experience you should try, apparently it’s amazing.
Once again, I hope you have enjoyed our review and that if you visit the area one day, you let us know your thoughts! It will be a while until our next trip (Bali in April, unless more volcanoes erupt!) but we will hopefully keep you posted with more news.
Lots of kisses and thank you for reading us!
Afri & Joe
xxx
