NSW (& VIC) – Tasmania trip 2021: 14 – 18 March (final)

Sunday-Tuesday: NSW Southcoast: Pambula/Merimbula/Euroboddalla/Moruya and coastal surrounds
Driving from Bairnsdale towards the NSW border, we noticed on Google Maps that this spot is indicated with a (Covid) ‘Border Checkpoint’! The first time we’ve seen that!

The NSW south coast was one of the areas most seriously hit by the fires a year ago, and boy did we see it. Jen took some videos and pictures, but words and a few shots from the car cannot describe it. Many of these trees are not recovering – they are dead inside – the heat killed the inside but the outside shows new growth. These will, in due course fall over. Those bush fires left devastation that will be felt far into the future.

The area we drove through is known as the Sapphire Coast, and we camped at Pambula Beach – where there are literally dozens of kangaroos hopping around the caravan park, which is located about 30m from the beach behind a low dune. Pambula Beach is close to the town of Merimbula (click on the link for some aerial pictures to get an idea of the beauty of this location) – both are beautiful coast places, and also like so many NSW south coast towns just incredibly popular holiday destinations.

An absolute abundance of holiday units, other accommodation as well as camping grounds. Merimbula has a boardwalk and shops as well as countless cafes many with views over the water. Lovely town to walk around, and we enjoyed a few minutes of sun while having our coffee on the waterfront.

Driving up towards the farms of our friends Ben and Mary, we first stopped in Eurobodalla to meet Ben who was working on this (huge) property. They have only owned it for a short time, and just recently put 80 cows on it. We then followed him to their other farm 5 minutes outside the town of Moruya, which is also where they live with their 2 young boys. We camped 2 nights on their beautiful property here.

We did a bit of sightseeing on Tuesday by starting in Moruya and learning about its quality granite, which was used for a number of Sydney buildings, as well as the impressive pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The quarry still operates today when needed, and we visited the historic riverside where the history of how stones were sourced, cut and then shipped to Sydney.

We then explored the scenic route through the small coastal towns that all seem to be thriving with a lot of new houses being built. The weather is wet, and far more on the way… so not much by way of pictures!

Wednesday/Thursday – Mittagong/Bowral/Home
Said goodbye to Ben, Mary, Tommy, Jimmy and Speedy (their cute dog), having enjoyed all their company and hospitality, and set off in the rain towards Mittagong. Skipping the rest of the coast up, as only rain is forecast, and we’re feeling we may as well get home now. We really want to spend a bit longer on the coast, but will do that on a future trip when the weather is better. We cut away from the coast just south of Nowra and drove through the very well-known area through Kangaroo Valley – the Southern Highlands, with its stunning green hills and great lookouts (not today though!). We set up the caravan in Mittagong, and Jen drove into Bowral, a charming little town that gets very popular in September for the Tulip festival. But on a pouring autumn day, more appropriate to check out some shops, and the art gallery which had an interesting exhibition of artistic jewellery.

On the way home on Thursday we stopped in Sydney to meet up with Geri & Michael for lunch – it is now their turn to head south in their van to Tasmania.

The rain didn’t let up, and at time of writing this final blog (Tuesday 23 March) – a big part of the country has been in a state of emergency due to flooding. We were lucky; we covered 7600km over a period of 2 months, and we look back on a trip where so everything (well almost) went our way. We experienced so many delightful adventures on our own, with friends, and just with people we met along the way. We are now going to take a bit of time at home, look after the garden, and as Australia is likely to be locked for any international travel until 2022, we’ll start thinking about our next caravan trip.

Below the maps of the trip in this post.