Well we are on our way to wintery Melbourne but not before a few coastal stops. There were so many nice little towns and the coast was something we had never seen before. Flat grassy landscapes and then huge cliff drops to the ocean blue.
We arrived at Murramarang National Park - Pretty Beach, it has the best of both worlds here. The campground is nestled amongst landscapes of rainforests and rugged bush to marine wonderlands . Our campsite setting was quiet with wilderness clearings, and walking tracks to suit every level of experience.
There were many varieties of coastal walks from this campground, which is well known for its kangaroos. There was plenty to do for us from this spot, including fishing, bush walking, swimming, rock platform walks, and kayaking in Slades yellow boat. Even better was that the beach was only 50 metres away.
The beach was crawling with hermit crabs at different times of the day and Slade, Shelby and Isla found that many that they made a hermit crab farm. The water was only ankle deep for about 10 metres so it was a good spot for the kids. The rocky platforms would pool water and when the tides changed little fishes would get stuck in the pools of rocks and that made very interesting fishing for Slade and Shelby. When the tide is out you can see the abalone under the rocks, a man we met on the beach showed us one and asked if we knew when the season was. We were unsure so he decided he best put it back.
We only booked for 4 nights but the weather was just perfect and it was very peaceful and relaxing. We decided that we would stay for the Easter Break so we weren't on the road with all the crazy school holidays makers. We did need to change our spot because the campsite was booked out. We found that hard to believe as there was only ever 3 other campers whilst we were there, so we were eager to see the how it was going to fill up.
There was no phone service so that meant no work could be done but we somehow managed to amuse ourselves. We had powered sites but no water, they had water tanks that you could use so that meant Clint had to do carts of water everyday just to keep it topped up. There were toilets and showers that were ok, the showers cost you a dollar for a minute for hot water but we just used our own showers. The days were nice and the nights were sometimes a bit cooler so we were able to light fires which is always nice to sit around at night. There were heaps of kangaroos, possums and rabbits moving around in the night which the kids thought was great.
Slade befriended some people with Kayaks on the beach and they let him use theirs, he was was very good out on it so we made a trip to Kmart to buy a Kayak for him to use.
We moved our van towards the back of the campground and waited and watched the Easter Mayhem. We met a lovely couple Heather and Chris from Sydney and they were two doors down in their camper. Chris and Clint spent a bit time chit chatting and enjoyed having a laugh at the antics of the holidaymakers-parking, erecting, shouting, banging in pegs in the middle of the night. What was better was after we had all the beautiful weather the week before when it was the easter break it poured with rain for a week. Makes funny moments watching tenters try and keep dry, light fires in the rain and keep kids out of mud!!! A bit selfish of us seeing us we were nice and dry in our caravan.
The School holidays meant that the kids were able to meet lots of new friends. They met some Canadians who live in the Phillipines who were on a five day break in Australia, the spoke French, his name was James. They were a lovely family and James taught Slade a few moves in fencing. Slade also met another nice boy Kyle he was an interesting character who would rarely take a breath when speaking. He also met two shitheads called Rory and Cory they had two mums...say no more.
Clint got friendly with the Ranger Dennis and they had a few beers together and they even barracked for the same footy team . During the Easter break Dennis's wife and two kids Liam and Emma camped at the campground so that could spend some time over easter as Dennis was working here everyday. They were excellent people and we were lucky to have met them.
Not far North of us was a nice town called Ulladulla, its a coastal town in New South Wales, in the City of Shoalhaven area. The name Ulladulla is an aboriginal word meaning "safe harbour".
Ulladulla is surrounded by the adjoining towns of Milton and Burrill Lake as well as Mollymook and Narrawallee. The extended area from Burrill Lake to Milton is referred to as the Milton–Ulladulla area.
Close landmarks include Pigeon House Mountain and "The Castle", both named due to the unique shapes of the mountain. Pigeon House was sighted by Captain James Cook upon his journey along the eastern shores of Australia. Pigeon House has recently been renamed "Didhol" out of respect to the elders of the Huin nation, the aboriginal elders past and present who originated from the area Ulladulla was built upon. The traditional name of the peak, Didhol, means Woman's Breast, owing to the mountain's clear resemblance of, um, a woman's breast
The Blessing of the Fleet festival is held annually at Easter since 1956. This is centuries old tradition which originated in Sicily, Italy, and now continued by the area's descendants of the original Italian fishing community. The most significant element of the festival is the actual Blessing of the Fleet ceremony held at Ulladulla harbour on Easter Sunday. The festivities conclude with fireworks display, over Ulladulla harbour on Easter Sunday and the Harbour Markets on Easter Monday. We were going to go but were warned that is would be chaos. We did have great pizza there and we did alot of our topping up of supplies here.
We had a day trip to Canberra to decide if there was much to do and there was so after here we were off to Canberra.
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