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| At the bird hide |
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| Purple Swamphen |
Bob, Hil, and I walked down to a neighborhood pastry shop in search of breakfast and ordered almond cream-filled croissants, a fruit salad tart and a cherry Danish and Flat Whites all around and then walked back to the Crowne Plaza in the drizzle. We checked out and Hil drove us south through various suburbs to a sewage treatment plant (always a good place to find birds!), across from which was a nature reserve with several bird hides. We saw Purple Swamphens, Black Swans, and Australian Pelicans among others, but had to leave as we had a ways to drive today. The highway took us north and then south through several tidy towns with nice old buildings.
We started descending through forests full of cycads and finally got to the ocean at Bateman’s Bay and headed north up the coast. In Australia it is very rare that the highway actually passes within sight of the ocean so we didn’t see it very often, which didn’t matter very much as the rain was intensifying. We stopped in the little town of Milton on the coastal highway and found an 1870 bakery, with a surprising eight toilets out back (?). We ordered small pizzas and sandwiches which were quite good.
We finally reached the town of Kiama which is famous for its blowhole in the lava coastal shelf. We found the blowhole but the wave action wasn’t conducive to producing a large jet of water; maybe we’ll see it tomorrow.
We checked all our paperwork for our next B&B, but none of it stated where the place was located! Luckily next to the blowhole was the local information center and we found that we had passed it some miles south of town.
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| toilets galore! |
We drove back south on the speedy Highway 1 and just managed to pull into the parking lot of Bush Bank B&B, a lovely old farmhouse with a sweeping view of the ocean. Sonya greeted us and showed us our bedrooms on the ground floor along with a guest lounge with TV, coffee, etc.
We took a walk down past a large permanent tent for weddings, through a gate with an electric fence, into the cow pasture. The cows bellowed at us but did not come closer. We passed the remains of an old mill ( 1856), on a stream, of course, and returned to the house as it was getting wetter.
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| The old mill |
We drove back into town, which meant we had to drive several miles south to be able to drive north as the road is being “improved” with a center barrier, We found a good Thai restaurant where we had prawns with noodles, mussaman beef curry with potato and chicken with chilies. It was pouring when we left with lightning blazing all around. We’re hoping the storm will rain itself out and be decent tomorrow, although the Info Center we visited did hand us a pamphlet on “Rainy Day Activities” which is a bit of a hint! Fortunately, we passed several wineries on our way here so that is a possibility!
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| Bush Bank B&B |
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