Wednesday 7th Dec – Thursday 15h Dec – “Where shall we go?????”

After Canberra we started researching NSW and realised we just did not have enough time to see and do all we wanted so we decided to head to the south east coast as we had heard many times it was a beautiful spot.  Picking anywhere, we ended up at a council park right on the beach at a small town called Dalmeny.  Prime spot, however, the weather was a little windy and cold.  The beach right at our door steps and too cold to boogie board, even for the boys in their wetsuits.  Great place to just relax and enjoy the view which is exactly what we did.  We only stayed 2 nights and then moved on up north.

Did we find another gem?  With the “Camp 6” book on my lap, we drove off while I started researching.  Not knowing where we should head I spotted this campsite on a river in the book located in Kangaroo Valley in the Southern Highlands – and once again we were told by someone that the Southern Highlands is a beautiful area.  Once we left the coast road, I think both Mark and I were so unsure what we were doing.  The road to Kangaroo Valley was steep, windy and narrow with 15km or hairpin corners.  At one corner we almost had to do a 3 point turn with the camper in tow.  Mark could not take the grin off his face.  We ended up at the Bendeela Camp Reserve on the Kangaroo river just a few k’s out of Kangaroo Valley.  It was a free camp and a prime spot.  We loved it there so much we stayed 6 nights, complete with resident wombats coming out every night – The buggers would get under the camper and scratch their backs on the axle and door step and shake the whole show…. 

We used Bendeela as a base camp and spent our days ticky touring around to all the cute little towns and markets in the local area.  And each day Mark was so excited because it did not matter which direction or road we took we had to travel over a narrow, winding range.  I think one of the best drives (without camper on tow) was the Macquarie Pass.  Boys just thought all the 15km hairpin turns were great and the “Brown Fudge Fridge” we found at a drive way in the middle of the range selling homemade fudge you just die for.  It literally was a self-service fridge parked at the end of a driveway in the rainforest.  What a brilliant idea!!!

The weather did not hold out for us on 2 days rainwise, however, it did not ruin our stay.  on one of the wet days, we decided to take the 2 and a half our train trip from Kiama to Sydney – along the coast - and go ‘shopping’ in the big smoke.  First time the boys have ever been into Sydney city centre and what a great time to go just before Christmas – with all the Xmas decs out and window displays.  We didn’t really shop – we just went for the train ride.

As usual, we were chatting away to other campers, and were quizzing one bloke about some canoes he just bought. Turns out he was put onto them by someone else camping, so we ended up making a trip in to Unanderra to get a canoe at a great price  Well, the boys could both go in it and manage it really well, so we debated about getting another so that I could go out with them…Another trip later, and we now have 2 canoes and with a bit of shuffling around, carry one on the camper and one on the ute.

(photos coming....)