Tapp's Travels

The area where we are staying is predominantly “residential with beaches”.  Reaching Callala Beach we quickly found all the available coffee shops.  Zero.  So it was another lovely, long flat walk for several miles almost back to Huskisson.  Luckily we had cool water to drink!

Jervis Bay is almost totally land-locked and so is relatively very calm.  I’m sure that in a cyclone it could get quite lively – but fortunately we didn’t have one of those.  However, we did see a pod of dolphins playing around 300 metres or so off the beach.  A tourist boat soon hitched a ride with them.

Later that day we hauled into Berry – a traditional country town with traditional country town buildings.  Like the hotel…

We had been recommended to go to the Fig Tree Cafe for afternoon tea.  As it was 2.45 pm and the cafe didn’t shut till 4.30, we decided to get out of the heat and get some light refreshment.  However, as we arrived, they were just shutting!  “Because of the heat” – “Because there’s no one here”.  “We’re here!”  “Well, it’s March – and we’ve decided to go home”.  “So, we can’t get tea?”  “No!”

The moral of that story is that if you are going to visit Southern NSW and want afternoon tea, it’s best not to come in March – or February for that matter – unless you come on a cool day, preferably before lunchtime!

We had taken a bit of a risk with the accommodation for the night.  We had taken a random punt on an AirBnB cabin on a horse stud farm just North of Berry.

It transpires that the place is run by Simon Cowell.   Not the TV “personality”, but Simon Cowell AOM.  Recognised for services to dressage training and riding work with disadvantaged youngsters.  The Medal of the Order of Australia is one of the Australian honours first instituted in 1975 when the British Honours System was replaced.  So, that’s the second dignitary of the trip so far.  Penny, the Govenor of Queensland and Australian Ambassador on the boat and Simon, a be-medalled horseman in a place called Foxground.

Just a few miles from Foxground, over the hills to the East was the most northerly beach in the 100 beach challenge.  The Seven Mile Beach.  We decided against that as we had to make sure we got to Sydney before nightfall.

So, from Berry we took the mountain road over to Kangaroo Valley.  Almost immediately we passed an enormous illuminated sign saying “MOUNTAIN ROAD CLOSED”.  What we didn’t recognise was exactly where it was closed.  We drove speculatively up and up into the foothills of the Great Dividing Range (also known as the Eastern Highlands)  This is Australia’s most substantial mountain range and, indeed, at 3500 kms from end to end, is the third longest land-based range in the world.  If you’ve been alert you would know we climbed almost to the top of Mt Kosciuscko – the highest peak in the entire range.

Kangaroo Valley is both a valley and a town.  We got there with no sniff of a road closure.  We found out later that the affected route was a side road up into a part of the hills that can only be accessed by that road.  Or NOT as the case may be.  The residents of there are appealing for Red Cross food parcels to be dropped by air!

Kangaroo Valley is not famous for anything much really.  We didn’t see a single roo anywhere.  It does, however, have a number of historic buildings.  One of which has been de-banked into a cafe (of the open sort) …

The English, Scottish and Australian Bank!  No room for the Welsh or Irish here!

The town has a rather out-of-place, under-clothed statue of a mermaid.

She had a supply of hats next door – but the significance of that will only be really understood by Amelia.  She had lost her favourite hat while on a ferry crossing the River Dart many years ago…  It had been found by the mermaids.

The town also has a golf course (with a closed restaurant) and a very fine suspension bridge.  The Hampden Bridge.

This is the last surviving suspension bridge built in colonial times in NSW.  It was opened in 1898 and named after the then governor, Lord Hampden.

Up over the Range – quite spectacularly steep and rugged in places like at Fitzroy Falls…

… and into Bowral for a brief shopping stop.  Then onwards and Northwards on the Hume Highway and then (as soon as possible) back down the Range to get back onto the Princes Highway into Sydney.

Sydney seems to start in ernest about 500 miles before the airport.  And the airport is conveniently (for us coming from the Deep South) situated well South of the CBD!  A bit of a tangle on our approach with a couple of missed turns and some recovery loops got us to the lovely and new Felix Hotel.  Walking distance from the domestic terminal.  Really good and really easy.  But why put the hotel reception on the ninth (top) floor?  A little bit trendy?

The following morning we went for our earlier-than-planned flight to Queensland.  Thank you Virgin Australia for cancelling our planned flight. Anyway we spent a happy (stressed???) 45 minutes weighing our four bits of luggage and moving the occasional pair of underpants and the odd sandal from one case to another.

This particular airline is extraordinarily focused on not allowing excess baggage to be loaded without substantial sums of money being extracted from the punters.  EACH item must be (as we were told by a helpful member of staff) no more than 900 grams over-weight.  After about 20 weighing/re-balancings, a second shirt being worn along with a jersey and coat each around our waists, our heaviest hats in place and a book in each in our pockets, we were ready to go.  What a palaver!  But all our stuff was always going to be coming with us – one way or another – and with NO SURCHARGES!  I think we had about 20 grams allowance to spare!

Just time for a breakfast in the lounge and we were off…

An excellent view of where Robin and Linda got married!  And, it seemed, no sooner than we were up we started coming down again over Brisbane…

Here we had the usual battle with hire car companies – this time Europcar – to get a car which more or less matched our booking but with the tiny modification of a raisable passenger seat so Glenda could see out the windows.   This one took about an hour but resulted in a really nice Kia Sorrento.

The Rooms Motel at Gatton was a lovely modern place to stay.  And so to Stanthorpe…. see the next episode…

The following slightly modified extract from a Kimberley newsletter (kindly forwarded by Jeff) puts the temperature thing into some sort of perspective!

I added the 888 thing!  Avoids swearing!