Goodbye, Australia

This is the last post about our road trip from Adelaide to Sydney (see all posts here). This post will cover our visits to Jervis Bay, Kangaroo Valley, Morton National Park and the Blue Mountains. The map shows our travel route:

After leaving Victoria, we were heading towards Jervis Bay famous for its white sands beaches. The trip to Jervis Bay was also stunning – Skippy and Rocky enjoyed there front row seats a lot.

Jervis Bay

At Jervis Bay we stayed at the Bream Beach Holiday Park which probably has the most friendly hosts ever. After we arrived, the woman gave us detailed explanations about the holiday park and what to do in the area; including insider tipps of the many beaches. We learned that the most famous beach at Jervis Bay is probably Hyams Beach – however, due to its coverage in the media, it’s quite packed. She told us that she would always prefer to go to the other beaches that actually look exactly the same but you can have the beach almost for yourself. Good to know! She also told us about the kangaroos and possums in the holiday park. As the kangaroos grew up in the park, they actually don’t mind the visitors at all. She recommended not to leave the van open, as possums might want to join us in there.

The holiday park is located at the water, but not it’s not the Jervis Bay but St Georges Basin; an inland sea which is very beautiful too.

The following day, we took a long walk at Chinamans Beach, Greenfield Beach, Hyams Beach, and many more that are located right next to each other.

Fun fact: When you walk in the sand you hear a squeaky sound.

We stayed three nights at the Bream Beach Holiday Park and really liked it here. Especially our friendly neighbors:

Kangaroo Valley

After leaving Jervis Bay, we drove into Kangaroo Valley, where Marcel had found a wonderful free campsite, the Bendeela Camping Reserve. I still can’t believe that this little piece of paradise is completely free.

Marcel had read that this camping area could finally be our chance to see wombats in the wild. And indeed, when we arrived, we saw a sign stating that wombats are at home at Bendeela.

We went for a walk and it didn’t take long for us to see the first wombat, although they are nocturnal and usually don’t show up when it’s a hot day.

We also saw a wombat that had a joey in his pouch and was so kind to turn around in a way that it was visible to my camera:

Unfortunately we also saw a wombat that we assumed was affected by mange, which we had learned about in Tasmania:

At dawn, they came quite close to our campsite:

Besides the wombats, we also saw a quite large snake while walking around. It was sunbathing on the path and if I hadn’t hold Marcel back, who was looking at the river and not paying attention, he might have walked right next to it. I often look to the ground, not only to prevent myself from stepping on a snake but also to not trip over branches, which is why I noticed it. So we decided to beat retreat and enjoy watching the wombats instead.

Morton National Park

The Morton National Park is quite close to the Bendeela Camping Reserve, where you can visit the Fitzroy Falls.

There are several short tracks that start from the visitor centre. On our first day, we went to the Fitzroy Falls and also walked the West Rim Track.

Because we liked the area and the paved track so much, we came back the next day to also walk the East Rim Wildflower Walk. This time, Skippy and Rocky also joined us.

This night we stayed at Badgerys Lookout, a wonderful free spot with a fantastic view. The sundown was really special here.

Blue Mountains

We then drove to the Blue Mountains which was hiding in the mist. When we arrived at our campsite, you could hardly see your hand in front of your face. We stayed at the StayKCC Katoomba Christian Convention, which was really a good spot. It costs $15 per person per night, has spotless facilities, hot shower and quite fast WiFi – really good to upload some pictures for our blog!

After our first night, we walked to the visitor centre in the city and then continued to see the Three Sisters, which is an unusual rock formation in the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately, they were completely hidden in the mist – but it was still funny to see all the people making selfies in front of it.

We walked the Prince Henry Cliff walk and after a while the Three Sisters were a bit more visible:

Despite the mist, this was really a nice walk with nice views:

The following day, we wanted to see the next Grand Canyon. After we already saw one in the Grampians National Park and are looking forward to visiting the Grand Canyon in the United States, we were curious about this one. And it didn’t disappoint!

Unfortunately for us, the weather forecast did not disappoint either. It had predicted heavy rain and this is what happened indeed. Initially, we had planned to stay two nights at the StayKCC Katoomba Christian Convention and then go to a free campsite and do some hiking from there. But as it was raining cats and dogs, we stayed 5 nights at the campsite given that it had good amenities like hot showers, power, and WiFi.

Welcome back to Sydney… Goodbye, Australia!

When it started to rain, we were ok with it. We felt a bit sorry for the people who stayed in a tent and enjoyed our camper van. In fact it was quite cozy being inside and listening to the rain dripping onto the roof. But after two days of staying completely in the van due to the rain, it was not that cozy any more. So we were very happy when Leanna offered, that we could come two days earlier to Sydney and stay with them before flying to Los Angeles. That was just fabulous!

As Leanna was working from home on the day we arrived, we left our stuff with her at their apartment, drove to the carwash to clean our camper van and then dropped him off. In the end we did not mind at all to leave the van earlier, because we again had such a great time with Leanna, Paul and Hugo… Walking Hugo to school and Leanna to work, having dinner together and playing Black Jack in the evening. We cannot thank you enough for your hospitality and hope to see you again soon!