Jervis Cracker

Bless Australia for providing a public holiday on the last weekend in September, nicely timed to compensate for the milestone of reaching another year of my life. It also seems to mark the start of the proper shorts wearing, BBQ sizzling, garage sale extravaganza season. Last year I celebrated my birthday at the coast and it was beautiful, so why change a winning formula.

After a Friday night BBQ (yes, the first of the season), I set off on Saturday with my friend Caroline to Jervis Bay. The drive is pretty boring for the first couple of hours, characterised by the highlight that is the Marulan Weigh Station. Turning off the highway though and it is not long until you’re amongst the carved sandstone ridges and valleys of Morton National Park. Fitzroy Falls is a handy stop here, just yards from the road and with short walks to impressive waterfalls and overlooks.



From the plateau of the escarpment, the road winds its way down into Kangaroo Valley, a wonderfully green, well kept landscape enjoying the spring growth and the public holiday tourist dollar.

Leaving the clipped and cultivated valley it takes one final climb through fern fronds and tall white eucalypts up to Cambewarra Mountain where the coast is finally in view from the hilltop gardens and slightly worryingly radioactive looking transmitter.

So after a short jaunt of some three hours or so, you finally reach the huge expanse of Jervis Bay, an almost complete circle of white sands and blue seas, punctuated through rocky headlands by the Pacific Ocean.

Whilst Geelong were pummelling Port Adelaide, it was nice to escape for a coffee followed by a poodle around one of the many beaches of the bay as the sun dipped in the sky.

In the evening we took a trip back in time to an unintentionally 1970s themed Italian restaurant, but I wasn’t complaining about the huge bowl of pasta, although my carbohydrate intake for the day was beyond excessive – a leftover BBQ hotdog for brekkie, wedges for lunch and now a pile of pasta. Mr Atkins would not be pleased.

I had been to Jervis Bay before and, whilst it was a great trip, I remember it being cold and cloudy. This time round, I couldn’t ask for a finer backdrop for my birthday, as the sun sparkled and illuminated the whitest sand in the world and the beautiful water at Hyams Beach. By now I was getting more laid back by the second, in my shorts with the sand between my toes. This sure compensates for getting older!

Taking a break from the coast, I drove aimlessly around St Georges Basin, another inlet nearby where there are plenty of understated holiday shacks lurking in the bush, boat ramps and dilapidated piers, bait shops and not very much else going on.

After leftover pasta and a read of the papers at lunchtime, we headed south, stopping at Moona Moona creek where the kids were playing, the men were fishing and the BBQs were sizzling. Apart from visiting garage sales, this seems to be the archetypal thing to do on a long weekend at the coast.

Leaving some of the humans and the development behind, we entered Booderee National Park, whizzing through the express lane thanks to my new annual membership! This presents pretty much more of the same in a more natural state, with further white sandy beaches backed by bush. Again, a nice place to read the papers on my Malaysia Airlines throw, watch the Japanese build a sand mermaid and stroll along past curious wallabies with the warming sun on my back.

Now, sundown is such a great time, not only for photo taking opportunities but everything calms down and there is a feeling of a great sense of achievement of another job well done. Staying close to the beach in Huskisson, it was easy to pick up a couple of beers and wander down the end of the street as the sky faded and the horizon gave off that red tinge it does when the sun disappears into the west.

The evening was capped with a below par Indian meal but it filled a gap and, along with a documentary about a woman who talks to cows, made me sleepy. In bed at 9:30, truly living it up on my birthday night!

The early night was a good call as it was an early start to pack up and head into downtown Huskisson for some breakfast followed by a whale watching cruise. I say whale watching but an absence of whales made that something of a misnomer. It was pleasant times though, sat in the sun and viewing the coves and cliffs from the water. We left the harbour around the northern side, passing Point Perpendicular, named by that upstanding bastion of navigation, Captain James Cook. Ah, another Captain Cook reference. He sailed on by the bay as the conditions were not right to enter. It could so easily have been Sydney.

Compensation for the lack of blubber were the dolphins who cruised along with the boat for a few minutes as we headed back to Husky where it was time to depart. Blubber was in evidence at Ulladulla fish and chip shop though, munching on their burgers and removing anything resembling a plant. The fish was pretty good though and I was a bit disappointed to be too full to finish it. With extra weight we followed the trail painfully back to Canberra behind boats and caravans up and over Clyde mountain, past a random breath test checkpoint in Braidwood, avoiding steam trains in Bungendore, dodging hicks in Queanbeyan and missing Caroline’s connecting coach back to Sydney by 5 minutes! Another 55 minutes in Canberra surely couldn’t be too much of a disappointment though for a Sydneysider?

I was pretty shattered returning home, it was great to give the car a good run out but the driving and sea air was fairly tiring. It was a pleasure though to be able to spend my birthday in a beautiful place and really signal the start of the long summer season. The BBQs are officially lit and the coast is open.