Shoalhaven

May 30 – Shoalhaven Heads

Despite our misgivings about the caravan park and the highway noise I had a fairly restful sleep, although I have been dreaming about sewing. It was quite warm last night and fortunately the clouds were clearing so we enjoyed some oatmeal in the sun. While drinking our coffee we saw two guys in suits walking around who clearly didn't belong. I joked that they were someones parole officer while Beau said Hollywood producers for an Australian Trailer Park Boys. Turns out I was closer as they were actually detectives. They came over to check with us the if it was our only night here as they were investigating a shooting that occurred in the park in late February. Gulp! I said we were moving on today and they thought that was a good idea. Beau and I quickly finished packing up and got the heck out of there. We popped into the Nowra info center and found out about some wineries along the way to Kiama. Our first winery we stopped into was called Two Figs. We tried some lovely wines and were served by the owner and wine maker. He bought the property about 10 years ago and planted all his own vines. He learned to make wine by reading and trial and error and actually had really nice wine. We bought a nice Cab-Sauv and enjoyed chatting with the owner. Beau and I want to try our hand at some wine making when we get home. The next stop was Coolangatta Estate. This was a cool little spot. It was a convict estate back when Australia was only 30 years old. The family that now owns the property has restored it and turned it into a winery with accommodation and banquet facilities as well as a golf course. The guy that served us, while he wasn't the owner or wine maker, was awesome. We had a nice talk with him about the property, the wines, wine making techniques and the area. They also had some very nice wines. All the grapes are grown on the property but the wine is actually made else where by the same guy for the past 23 years. We enjoyed our tasting and had a nice walk around the property before continuing our journey. We pulled into Seven Mile Beach for a little walk and to make some lunch. We had bought burger patties this morning and were stoked to grill them up and put egg, tomato and avocado on them. While we were trying to cook though there were some ballsy kookaburras around. One landed on our picnic table and wouldn't be shooed away until I threw something at him. While Beau was trying to grill the burgers a couple others were diving and trying to perch on the bbq. Beau had to take swings at them with the bbq flipper. Once our yummy burgers were ready we ate them while keeping a watchful eye on the birds and a stick nearby. Our next stop was in Gerroa for a scenic lookout. We sort of missed the look out and drove through a bit of a residential area till we reached the Black Head Reserve. We had a little walk through the reserve and looked out over the Black Heads. As we headed back to the highway we were able to stop off at the proper lookout point too. Next we came to Kiama and again we went to the info center to get an idea of caravan parks and things to see. Right by the information center is a blow hole. Essentially a cave under the rocks was created by different rock types being eroded by the ocean. A part of the rocks above gave way into the cave below and now when the ocean comes crashing in the water comes splashing up through the hole. It looked pretty cool though! We hopped over to the library for some more internet. Beau hadn't gotten a chance to update his website yesterday and we needed to do some more research on where to stay in Sydney. After some tricksy navigation of the convoluted public transit site we decided on a park that was a little more expensive but with cheaper transit. We finished off at the Lib and headed to our caravan park for the night. It's a nice little spot right on the beach with a pretty awesome camp kitchen. I think we'll rest a little easier tonight than we did last night!

Shoalhaven River

Coolangatta Estate, the old homestead ruins on the right

7 Mile Beach

Mmmm Lunch

Black Heads

The Blow Hole