Part two of our road trip out of Sydney continued South along the coast, and then west as we reached the corner of the mainland. We found our first wild kangaroos and tried a few iconic Australian foods before we reached Melbourne and some of the hottest weather we’ve seen since Egypt!
Jervis Bay to Bateman’s bay
We left our hotel in Noosa and headed past Jervis bay to Booderee National Park. Right in the parking lot we were gifted a first glimpse some wild kangaroos! They were finding something tasty but had moved on before we got out of the car. We walked down a path to get to Cave beach to watch the waves and explore the cave.
It was a nice walk along the beach and we spread out a blanket to enjoy the view but we were trying to be careful not to get too much sun as our light sun burns from our Bondi beach walk were still fading. I have always heard the sun is stronger in Australia and there is some science to that. As the Earth travels around the sun, it’s not a perfect circle, nor is the sun centered. The earth is actually closer to the sun when the southern hemisphere is tilted towards it in January, meaning the hottest part of the Australian summer can have as much as 10% higher UV than summertime in places like Florida or Greece. Because of this Australia has more stringent requirements when it comes to sunscreen and generally work better than what you might find in other countries – even if they’re the same brand.
So we packed up and made our way out of the park and continued south until the town of Ulladulla, where Mr. Wander had read about a really good bakery known for their savory hand pies. This is one of the iconic Australian foods, there are bakeries in every town with these single serve pies with all kinds of filling, ground beef, chunky steak, steak and cheese, chicken, vegetarian and vegan options, and they all have some sort of delicious gravy inside. They usually have a crust top on them so they’re easy to eat without utensils but some have mashed potatoes piped on top before baking that works just as well.
The place is called Hayden’s pies, and there was a line before we arrived, but by the time we ate our pies and left it had nearly doubled. Clearly this is a popular place with locals and tourists alike. Sometimes it is hard having the best example of something first because you spend the rest of the time comparing it to this first one and no other bakery made pies quite this good. Some were close but these make me want to figure out my own recipe to see if I can make them like this! I had a chunky steak with the potato top and Mr. Wander had chicken with bacon and cheese that was absolutely delicious! Highly recommend if you find yourself south of Sydney a few hours.
We drove for awhile until we arrived at Pebbly Beach which is a spot you can often spot kangaroos in the afternoon and early evening. Despite it starting to sprinkle, after finding a spot to park we walked towards the beach where on a grassy knoll there were several kangaroos enjoying a meal. There were several moms with little joeys in their pouch and none of them seemed bothered by all these people taking pictures. It was only another hour to Bateman’s bay and we just got some takeout pizza as unfortunately Mr. Wander was starting to feel whatever I had on New Years so we relaxed for the evening.
Lake Entrance
Refreshed after a good night’s sleep we headed out of town along the coast until the town of Narooma to search out “Australia Rock”. It took awhile to figure out which one it was but I think it’s this natural hole in this rock that looks a little like the shape of Australia. What do you think?
There was a little walk along the seabreak and we spotted some seals sleeping on the rocks down below. We were hoping we might see dolphins but perhaps it wasn’t the right time of day.
In another town we found another pie, and we learned the importance of choosing the chunky steak instead of just beef, as they just use mince (aka ground beef) for the filling but the gravy was not as developed of a flavor. They didn’t specialize in pies like in Hayden’s pies but as it was a bakery we got some dessert and tried our first Lamington. These are a quintessential Australian dessert made of a sponge cake dipped in chocolate and coated with coconut, sometimes will have a layer of jam instead of cream. I’m not a huge fan of flaked coconut, but I was thankful for the whipped cream.
There wasn’t as many things along the way today except this cool cliff with red and white rocks. We got into our hotel a bit early in a town called Lake Entrance. Which is a descriptive of this long lake running parallel to the ocean that opens to it at the eastern end. I am sure it might have been brackish but I didn’t check. It was our first exposure to what I always thought was rare, black swans!
We got some Thai food for dinner and then walked across a bridge and over a sandy hill to the beach! Most people were packing up their things as sunset was approaching and after walking around a bit we headed back to our hotel for the evening.
Inverloch Dinosaurs
The following morning we made our way south and found Agnes falls and walked around SR. Hazel park a bit. Then our route made the corner on that southeastern point in Australia and we started working our way West. We very nearly drove all the way down the point in Wilson bay park but as we already had 4 hours of driving that day we decided to skip it. Staying inland we ended up finding this cute little town of Fish Creek, which we both immediately loved.
The cafe was cloed but the bakery was open and had an excellent lemon and rhubarb with frangipane tarts which went so well with a local cider. The chef was really friendly and we learned that she actually had moved there from Seattle and had been in Australia for 8 years the last four in this adorable town. I can see why someone would want to live there!
We continued on our way to Inverloch to our hotel and called it an early night as we had several long driving days in a row. In the morning we made our way back to the coast in search of dinosaur steps. We think we found a few but it’s hard to find among the rocks.
It was a lovely walk along the Bunurong Coast but we soon found ourselves quite hungry and headed to a cheese shop for some cheese cake and coffee and tea. They were very proud of serving nothing in their coffee except for their own milk!
We had another night in Inverloch and it was so nice having one day we didn’t have to drive several hours.
Melbourne
As we left Inverloch the temperatures were soaring, by the time we made it to Melbourne it was at least 108F (42C)! We had originally planned to try and see a new friend we met in Africa who lives here but she ended up taking a trip to with her son, but we figured out a way to come back through Melbourne next month! Since it was so hot and we had plans to come back we didn’t explore and only ventured out to get some food and enjoyed the AC.
Next Time
As you can imagine, in the dry south of Australia, temperatures well into the 100F temperatures and windy conditions are prime for bush fires, which is exactly what happened as we started West out of Melbourne. We explore the area that is known as the Great Ocean Road. We had narrowly missed some road closures and thankfully stayed close enough to the coast to not be in danger. We make our way seeing sights such as the 12 Apostles, the steepest and longest boat ramp in the world and some interesting light houses until we arrived at the end of this first road trip: Adelaide! To hold you until next time here’s just one of many beautiful views we had along the coast.
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