South Coast, NSW

After traipsing around Oz for 14 weeks while the dog 🐶 boarded with her Rellies, we decided we should take her for a holiday toward the end of the year to see how we all coped in the bus. Niece’s baby shower provided the catalyst!

So we packed up the bus, the Jimny and our inflatable canoe plus PFD for the dog (on special at BCF even), found spaces in the bus for all the dog paraphernalia (nearly as complicated as a child), and headed to Sydney. Dog travelled that section well, she is used to it after all.

Problems occurred after I was dropped off at the party, Nolan managed to wrangle the bus etc into Sydney Caravan Park at Miranda (dog friendly and close to the party, but old, small and pretty tight) and then he took her to play at Kurnell.

Being a country girl born and bred she was terrified of: the big moving water; the airplanes coming in low, loud and fast overhead to land; the nasty noisy jet skis off the beach; and the very scary sail board kite thingies coming in to land on the damn dog beach, rather than the dedicated one several hundred metres further along! We failed the poor thing, not thinking that she wouldn’t love it like our Sydney dogs had. Bad us! He managed to calm her down and then transfer to Oak Park where we eventually had tea with son and family – Willow was much happier by then.

Day 2 we wandered via Cliff Drive to Sharkies Beach near Austinmere. There we introduced the dog to wavelets – more scariness, but the other dogs playing there seemed to be having fun, so she played with as many as possible and avoided as much water as possible.

Continued on through what should have been familiar territory through to Nowra, Ulladulla and Burrill Lake. It has been a while since we drove that way – vast improvements in the roads, Berry and Foxground are bypassed completely, major upgrades right through to first Jervis Bay turnoff, and in segments right through to Burrill Lake Bridge which has been replaced with a concrete number! Not to mention town expansion in so many cases!

It is actually the first time we have stayed at Burrill Lake, which always seemed weedy and shallow from the bridge, at 50kph. Holiday Haven CP on the northern side was pleasant and only $35, and right on the lake’s edge. The water was crystal clear and supporting heaps of small and medium fish that we could actually see, turban shells and hermit crabs, and sea birds – quite lovely! Willow really enjoyed rolling in a very dead shell with the most exquisite perfume while we were chatting to others in the CP – her first standing-on-the-grass emergency shampoo (how humiliating! But she eventually started to talk to us again!)

Day 3 was 199kms and just over 2 1/2hours drive to Tathra according to Google. Only took us 6 1/2hrs. First stop was a few km detour to Ulladulla to pet shop and Subway.

Then a bus-speed drive to Tomakin south of Batemans Bay where there is a 24hr dog accessible beach (fortunately another niece told us about that one). The break there for the Subway lunch and play on the beach took over an hour because there were so many dogs and bods to play with and speak to, and so many waves to avoid and beach hover flies to be chased.The roads south of Burrill Lake were more as we remembered, and the bush and countryside are looking amazing. Only downer is the huge amount of feral creeper growth in the state forests and bush – had trouble taking a photo of the spotted gum and cycad forests for which the area used to be renowned.<<<<<<<<<<<<
velled further south, the country became steadily more stunningly beautiful – the volcanic origins evident in the gorgeous soils and granite outcrops, as well as the skyline. Anyone who has been watching River Cottage Australia would have shared our wonder at how incredible the farms and waterways are around the Central Tilba area – idyllic, but very hilly so with the bus chugging along at what it thought was an appropriate pace, we got to see it for a good while!

We stopped in at Wallaga Lake for a cuppa, and to wait out a storm. Amazing sand bars and channels. What with rain and rumbles, Willow finally got the idea that with her long lead attached, she could hop out of the bus by herself for a quick piddle without us getting soaked too – well done dog!

Eventually reached Tathra – Tathra Beachside is a lovely family friendly CP, dog friendly beach at complicated times schedule but all good this week! Our spot is right beside walkway to beach, so met heaps more dogs and people – Willow’s very unusual looks appear to be magnetic to most, not to mention the rig we drive, so a quiet cuppa is not likely if we sit outside!

Upside is that we gain lots of local and Australia wide knowledge in the process.

Here Willow is learning about dried blue bottles, jellyfish, dead muttonbirds who have fallen out of the sky on their annual migration (I hope it is from exhaustion and not from starvation due to consumption of too much plastic waste floating on the ocean surface and being mistaken for dinner – an all too common problem), tasty seaweed and oh so crunchy shells!

She is also dealing with damp sea fog, and lots of passers by, and learning to sit on the beach and enjoy the view. We are “teaching ” Willow to swim (she is very fast) and to “enjoy” canoeing ( she is not too sure about that yet).We are trying very hard to stay put for several days- it is rather relaxing after a very busy past few weeks (so many people to catch up with and movies and dinners to attend!). Even baked a loaf of bread in the bus’s oven – that caused a bit of a stir in camp!

We have been down this way a couple of times previously so can highly recommend Mimosa Rocks NP a little north of here and points south of Tathra such as Merimbula, Pambula, Eden and the Pinnacles and Ben Boyd NP generally. Also noticed just north of here is the Montreal Goldfield which extends out across the beach and into the sea – they run tours of the land part and it sounds fascinating.

The Sapphire Coast is a longish haul from Sydney, with lots of points of interest down the coast before you get here, and about 250kms from Canberra via Cooma and Brown Mountain which is another stunningly beautiful and interesting route and stopover if travelling to or from Sydney). So if you can find the time, allow yourself a couple of days each way and 4 or 5 in the area, 2 weeks would be even better of course!

Tick treat your dog, and if heading into the Bush be sure to treat yourself and check all for ticks. We have not encountered any yet this trip, but we are keeping out of the bush. There are dog minding options in the area if you want to check out the National Parks.