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Jay & Nicole Visit Australia (click any picture for enlargement) |
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Our Australia trip story continues after spending a few wonderful days in Sydney ... |
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first road trip was to Jervis Bay, which was a few hours hours down the coast ... towards Canberra, the capital.
The area is full of forests, parks and nature reserves ... which should be good for hiking and viewing animals; thanks to Ursula for driving! |
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The
route took us through Berry, a very cute town at the center
of a small wine region. |
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| We found our lodge in Sussex Inlet, located at the center of the map to the right. From here, we planned to visit as many of the surrounding areas of Jervis Bay as we could in two days.. | ||
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unpacking, we drove to the coast to do some quick sight- seeing before it got dark.
We were greeted by wide open beaches with very few people! |
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Since it was too cold to go swimming, we searched for photo opportunities. Unfortunately the skies were gray and there weren't many waves ... so, there wasn't much to take pictures of ... yet! |
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In a nearby campground we saw our first kangaroo ... from China! |
We decided to hike into the "bush" to seek out animals. |
Before long, we found what we were looking for ... kangaroos! |
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These cute animals like to eat grass, which resulted in nicely trimmed walking paths. |
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I tried
to feed them, but they didn't let me get real close ... much like with
deer back home. |
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 At times they looked curious or confused, which gave us an opportunity to take pictures. |
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 You could see their unique shape and strong back legs! |
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We then drove a little south towards Ulladulla ...
these places have great
Aboriginal names! |
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We made a refreshment break at Mollymook; this beach was also very nice and had few people. |
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The next morning we toured the Jervis Bay area; first taking a walk along the beach at Vincentia. |
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We next stopped at the biggest town, Huskisson, which is a fishing and tourist area. |
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There were many paths through the nature reserves; some along the mucky shoreline. |
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Nicole made a beach camp and the sun finally came out ... the warmth was most welcome. |
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We had a big dinner at a popular burger bar; entertainment provided by some playful cockatoos. |
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The next morning we packed up early and headed inland to do some more bush-walking. |
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We drove down a dirt road to get to a nice hiking trail. We saw a big lizard scamper across the road and got out to follow it. |
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The goanna (monitor) lizard ended up climbing a tree. His camouflage was excellent and we had a hard time finding him! |
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We hiked along a forest path for a little while to get to a recommended view point. |
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Looking forward, we could see many tree tops; it's not as dry as I expected.
Looking left brought a cliff into view ... ... and looking right showed Granite Falls, which made me queasy! |
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We found another trail which took us up to the highest point in the area. |
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From this vantage point we could see a lot of forest land. I expected to see areas of burned trees since there were so many wild fires last year ... but that must have been in another part of the country. |
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There
were many hiking trails along the cliff, but we didn't have time to walk
along them. |
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| On
the drive back we visited the town of Kangaroo Valley. The place was cute ... but the only animals were tourists! |
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| A
major landmark was the medieval looking Hampden Bridge, built around
1900. It's one of the few suspension bridges still left from the British
colonial period.
Like in the USA, the structures & buildings aren't really that old. |
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brown river flowed underneath the bridge. The color comes from underground iron deposits.
It was a very hot day, which made the people using the swimming hole feel good ... as well as the lizards who were sunning themselves. |
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Hoping to avoid traffic, we returned to Sydney via small country roads; the scenery was great! |
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A geologist would need to explain why the hills were shaped they way they were. |
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