Day 1:Woodberry to Batemans Bay
I was very nervous starting off on this trip. I had never taken such an adventure alone with four kids. But as I have an adventurous spirit, I blocked out my nerves and we set off for a road trip to remember.
We crammed in all of our bags and more bags. We packed a lunch box for each of the kids. We charged the GPS, the mobile phone and the camera. We filled both tanks of our 4WD. We were ready!! 5.30am came, Damon came bounding in to make sure I was moving out of bed :) Surprisingly I was!!! And I was feeling quite fresh and ready for our adventure.
Now Damon had spent the last three weeks studying the maps of east coast Australia. He loves maps and is drawn to interesting names, which then becomes an interesting place to visit :) He finds an interesting name, then he searches for it on google, and if it looks nice, then Damon makes the suggestion to add to our itinery. Whilst damon was planning and dreaming our holiday I had been trying to work out accomodation, which eventually fell into place. So we were ready!! And yes, damon had found some interesting places adnd had greatly assisted in making our trip quite and an adventure!
Now I had never owned a GPS and wasn't quite sure how to use them properly. Our first stop was planned to be Fitzroy Falls, Moreton National Park. I had worked out the timing on google, but my GPS had doubled this time, I was worried, so we pulled over at the twin service station for brekkie, where I adjusted the GPS and thankfully it wasn't 6 hours away!!
We eventually pulled into the carpark at Fitzroy Falls. The kids were relieved because there were toilets!! I was relieved we had found our first stop :) Fitzroy falls was a beautiful place to stop. It would have been lovely to have spent a day exploring the bush. But we had a couple of hours and we made the most of it!!
Our first walk was to the look out over the top of Fitzroy Falls. Now I am not one for heights!! And I felt nervous at the first look out even though I was safe (lol), as we gazed down over a cliff edge!! Josef and Adele had no fear, but Damon and I were quite nervous :) The Falls were amazing and beautiful. It was amazing seeing Gods awesome creation, so wonderful, so loud. The kids were in awe of this wonderful waterfall.
I had planned that we would gaze at these falls, have morning tea and head off, but it would have been a shame. So we headed off to another look out, which felt safer this time :), then to yet another look out and then onto the Twin Falls (which Damon believes should be called the triplets!!). It was a great bush walk and Josef surprisingly walked the whole way there and back. And he kept up!! He had heaps of energy :)
Damon enjoyed his sightings of King Parrots and Crimson Rosellas, which he tried to photograph. He was hoping to see a platypus in the river but unfortunately he didn't.
We finished off our long walk with more toilets and then a yummy icecream.
We next headed on down through Kangaroo Valley on some very windy roads, but wow! Kangaroo Valley is so beautiful. I am so thankful that Damon spent so much time researching the roads down to Melbourne, it was a beautiful trip. We stopped at Hampden Bridge for lunch. Now I had seen this on photos whilst searching google and thought it was in England. I was thrilled when we discovered this bridge. The bridge is built with what appears to be two castle towers/ arches to drive through. It was magnificent! Unfortunately they were working on the bridge at the time, but if it isn't maintained then no one will enjoy it.
We stopped and headed below the bridge onto the beach for lunch. Now my kids remember this well because we found a kangaroo skeleton on the beach. Quite gross!! But the rest of the beach was beautiful, I am just thankful that it was past the rotting stage!! The kids and I explored our surroundings and then we headed off to Pebbly Beach near Batemans Bay.
We expected, well hoped to see the resident kangaroos on Pebbly Beach, but even though it is rare to miss them, we saw none. But we weren't disappointed. The drive into Pebbly Beach is beautiful and right into the bush. If I had researched better then I would have booked accomodation on Pebbly Beach, so we would be surrounded by many wonderful wildlife and on the beach. So next time I think I will do this.
We weren't disappointed because we encountered some very friendly King parrots, Rainbow Lorikeets, Cromsons Rosellas and Wonga Pigeons. Obviously they are well acquainted with humans, so these wild birds were now tame and wanting to share our food. Damon was delighted, Adele warmed up and the two littlies cried!!! These birds landed on us, our heads, arms, legs, it was fun.
Damon was so distracted by this wonderful experience that he first lost my keys and then my parking ticket!!! I was a little worried we were going to be stuck in the middle of the bush with a parking fine!!
We next headed onto the most beautiful beach. There were large cuttle fish scattered across the sand, and some shells to collect. Now Josef had not been on the beach over winter and he hated the feel of the sand on his feet. So he sat down and cried. Damon tried to carry him across the sand, but Josef was not sure about this weird sensation and being close to it!
On the way back Damon swapped Josef for my handbag! And I should have learned my lesson from before about how excited and distracted he was because unknown to all of us, he deposited my wallet on the beach!! Thankfully before we pulled away, a very honest couple handed me my wallet!
It truly was a wonderful first day. We arrived at Batemans Bay late in the afternoon and took a walk to the local supermarket to pick up sausages for dinner. We stayed at Del Costa Accomodation which we found comfortable. The bunk bed was a bit rattly and the kids were worried it might fall, but it was comfortable. A good nights rest and we were packed and off again at 7.30am.
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