Australia Part II: Jervis Bay

Just returned from an invigorating Easter weekend of fell-walking in northern England (Lake District), so going to spew the rest of the Australia/Hong Kong photos here and now.  Make room, make room!  I guess it should be "chunder" the rest of the Australia photos here, in the jargon of Oz. No worries.  

 Following the last week of January in Sydney, Ed and I rented a car and drove a couple of hours south along the NSW coast and threw up (chundered?) our tent at Cave Beach campground in Booderee National Park.

We arrived in the dark, but the full moon gave us plenty of light for walking the quarter mile or so down to the camping area, and cast plenty of shadows that all looked like pythons or red-bellied black snakes.  Both of which animals were featured on "recently sighted" notices posted on the campground bulletin board and next to the women's bathroom.  

This wallaby is not a poisonous snake.

There were also wallabies, kangas, possums, and at least one echidna living around the campground.  Plus more varieties of birds than I'd ever seen in one campground before in my life.  Waking up in the morning was like waking up to a huge, chirping, tweeting, crawing orchestra.  Lots of ants, too, but these were harmless.  Plenty of people walking around barefoot.  No crazy spiders.  All in all, great.

We arrived on a Tuesday, and had the place mostly to ourselves.  Things got loud and crowded beginning on Friday,sadly.  This included a crowd of Spaniards who arrived after two in the morning, drunk and shouting, and tried to set up "Aquí, aquí!", meaning about five feet from my head.  My pleas for them to shut up, we're sleeping, were neither loud nor threatening enough.  Ed, though, was able to dissuade them through sheer power of upper torso whiteness, shaking his eye mask, and screaming profanity.  The pack departed to the far side of the campground, and for that, I was thankful.

Go over there with your warm beer and discotecas, chulos.

We had a couple of good hikes over the week, one to a gorgeous, secluded little spot called Kitty's Beach.  Lots of sand, lots of sun, little shade... but no sunburns.  Success!

Munyungawaraga Dhugan Trail.  Cape St. George Lighthouse ruins way out there.

We drove back to Sydney after five days, via Kangaroo Valley, a lush green place.  Steep climbs in and out with the car, but well worth it.  

Saw the only poisonous spider of the entire trip: a black widow, outside the window of the women's bathroom at Fitzroy Falls.  The park ranger at the gift shop desk shrugged, kind of apologetic/amused, and said "We usually don't do anything about them."

Cool.  I'll just stay over here, then.  And you stay over there.

The real danger, though, was approaching this ferocious beast in the town of Kangaroo Valley.

Once back, we spent one last night in Sydney to get proper showers and a good night of sleep, and then it was two long flights back home, with a two-day stopover in Hong Kong.