NSW SOUTH COAST – 26 – 28 June 2020
A family trip away wouldn’t ordinarily be blog-worthy – as great as it was, it isn’t something that I’d publish. However, getting most of the 13 members of my family to go on a bushwalk with me, definitely is blog-worthy. And I got to take them somewhere that was pretty cool.
We were all down on the South Coast staying at a huge Air B&B, great food (great chef), board games, fire place, beautiful beach, and my whole family, doesn’t get much better than this.
Taylor had found a good walk for us all to do, easy enough and a bit of adventure at the end, Gosangs Tunnel walk.
Most of the family! (l – r) me, grandson-in-law Ben, granddaughter Taylor, son David holding granddaughter Liana, brother Greg, sister-in-law Karen, granddaughter Audrey, daughter-in-law Mel, son James, and grandson Bailey) What a good looking mob!
Sadly, my daughter-in-law Tanya stayed back at the accommodation with Teagan and her husband Joel, Teagan is in the final weeks of her pregnancy (as is Taylor with husband Ben), hard to imagine that I’m going to be a great-grandmother!
Wonderful sons Jimmy (l) and David (r) carrying Jimmy’s daughters Audrey (almost 5) and Liana (2) Mel and Taylor in the background, on the track.
Sister-in-law Karen, led the way as she’d been there before.
Mel and Audrey.
We took a side trip down to a beach. Liana is afraid of sand – go figure, she hates it, Mel and Jimmy try from time to time if she’s gotten over it but not so far!
Karen fossicking on the side trip to the beach.
Beautiful coastline, very picturesque.
By now the kids are a bit over walking!
There’d been a lot of rain lately and the track was quite muddy.
Audrey & Mel with (pregnant) Taylor at the back.
Great photo by Mel!
And another great photo, this time of my cool grandson Bailey! (photo: Mel)
Bailey – we’re finally at the tunnel.
My camera must have accidentally switched to another setting, this photo is crap of the tunnel as are all the tunnel photos.
The tunnel’s only about 20m but it’s just not high enough, you have to crouch down to walk through, I crab waled (like Greg at the back).
Better photo, thanks Mel, Jimmy and the girls.
Once you step across the void, there’s more ledge, we were very careful to make sure the girls were well back from the edge with their parents (photo: Mel)
Looking out, you can see a crack in the rock, that crack is narrow but about 30m deep, does your head in stepping across it.
Photo taken from a ledge at the end of the tunnel. Arrow points to a person sitting on a slab of undercut rock, he/she would have had to walk around a very narrow ledge to get there, this place has the potential for acquiring the same reputation as Figure 8 Pools and Wedding Cake Rock, people taking risks for Instagram Selfies.
On the way back we picked some old banksia cones to use as kindling for the fire (we were short on kindling).
Nice beach near the car park, and we put Liana down again for a bit of sand-time and amazingly she didn’t cry this time, so maybe she’s over her aversion to sand!
Lunch after our walk, only photo I have of Joel (on the left) and Tanya, beside Bailey, sorry Teagan, no photo of you, hoped your mother had one but apparently not.
In the afternoon, my sister-in-law Karen and I had a small adventure, those massive rock shelves were calling me!
Good shot of Karen scaling the rocks to get above the crashing waves. Good job climbing Karen.
From the lookout above, these are the waves we were avoiding (tide was coming in).
Waves crashing over an island of rock.
Karen and I came across these interesting rock formations, sort of like cannon balls of rock in the sandstone, some of them had the tops taken off and formed small pools of water, the balls were about 9 – 12 inches across. Can’t find any indication in Google as to what forms these balls of rock.
Thanks everyone for doing some walks with me!
OUT-TAKES … On Sunday when everyone else had gone home, Karen, Greg and I did a bit of a fitness walk in the area.
Our first walk was to Crookhaven Heads Lighthouse (Culburra Beach), we walked all the way to the end (the lookout) but couldn’t see the lighthouse. Then we ran into a local who gave us the rundown.
Disappointment Lighthouse (aka Crookhaven Heads lighthouse). We had to walk back about 50m and found what’s left of the lighthouse. Apparently, the top part has been removed and delivered (probably by helicopter) to Nowra Prison where the inmates are giving it some tender loving care to bring it back from it’s current condition, to it’s former glory, hopefully soon, The Bong Shack will disappear and be replaced by something awesome.
Next stop, the White Sands Walk, lots of white sands, and vegetation which hasn’t been burned (lol).
The bush.
White sand beaches.
And lovely crystal clear blue water. Definitely worthy of a trip to the beach.
And eagle-eyes Karen found the first of a few examples of Grevillea macleayana (Jervis Bay Grevillia), only grows from Ulladulla to Nowra and a little ways inland, but most prolific around Jervis Bay.
And on our Tunnel walk, I found these lovely little ground orchids.
Thanks Karen & Greg for doing this walk with me and great to catch up with you. All in all, GREAT FAMILY WEEKEND!
Lovely seeing the family happy snaps.
Gary retires next month, so we may join you on the next family outing!!
Wow, that’s great, yep love to see you on next family gathering!
Wow! Looked like an amazing weekend! The water looked like you were in the tropics it was so clear! So good to see a family weekend….I can’t believe how grown up the grand kids are! Thanks so much for taking the time to blog this.
Thanks Jen, yes, was good to have us all together, and I’d love to go back to these beaches.