Day 9 - The long and winding road

We were awoken by bright sunshine streaming into our van. The skies were clear and we were met with a fabulous view over Curranbene Creek which flows into Jervis Bay. It was very calm and beautiful with some kids already up and having a swim in its crystal clear waters. We got ourselves up and ready and set off for a morning at the beach! Deb was finally getting to dip her feet into the sea 9 days into the holiday! This just shows how busy we have been doing ‘the tourist thing’.

We headed towards Orion beach which was in Vincentia the next town from where we were staying. We found a pull in for our van and headed to the beach. We were met with views of a deserted beach with an endless stretch of golden sand. The sea was sparkling clear and was crying out for us to populate this sparse area. Out came the towels and we set up camp for the next few hours. Deb proceeded to soak up some rays whilst Scott wandered off to find another cache just around the corner! Unfortunately this area of beach was populated with lots of people so he returned and joined Deb enjoying the sun.

We picked up our towels and wandered back to the van where we drove around to a different area of Jervis Bay. We walked down White Sands Walk which allegedly overlooks a beach with the whitest sand in the world. Difficult to tell really but we will take their word for it! After the failure of before another cache was called for. We went wandering over rocks and met a nice local who obliged in taking a photo of us for us. Once he moved along we began our search and eventually came up with a find! Deb was shocked with the discovery of a gigantic spider which quickly encouraged us both to make a return to the van and the long journey ahead. Deb took the wheel and at one stage even clocked 100km/hour which made a change to the crawling along at 60 in the middle lane! After the first 100km or so we stopped off a Wollongong which has a beautiful botanical gardens. We prepared and ate lunch followed by a toilet stop and a brief exploration of the park to stretch the legs before continuing the journey north through Sydney.

Scott took to the wheel for the evening drive through Sydney’s notoriously busy suburbs. We ploughed through with Deb navigating us around the toll roads that surround Sydney. We had one ‘minor detour’ from the planned route which was again due to poor signage as opposed to Deb’s lack of navigational skill! We finally arrived at our campsite at about 7.30pm. The journey into Stockton was pleasant but was obscured by the night sky. We set up camp and got dinner ready. This time it was a barbie again with a huge piece of rump steak that we had to share. This was preceeded with some excellent corn on the cob.

We got to bed quickly after dinner as we had to be up early again for our wine tour into the Hunter valley!