Nomading - Ulladulla, Bulli Beach (Wollongong), Wangi Wangi - 1 - 13 April 2022

We left Eden following the Princes Highway, bypassing Merimbula and heading towards Bega. Our destination was Ulladulla but we had seen that Milton which is just five minutes from Ulladulla has camping at the showgrounds, we like showground camping and thought it is close enough to Ulladulla for us to visit. Our journey took us along the coast through Bega, Narooma, Bodalla and Batemans Bay before passing through Ulladulla and onto Milton. Our drive was quite scenic and I took lots of photos on the way. We arrived at the showgrounds and spoke to someone on the gates who was there for the Covid testing clinic that had been there and they told us just to go through and find a spot and call the manager and he would collect our fees in the morning. We drove to the camping area which was empty so we drove around looking at the various sites but unfortunately there had been quite a bit of rain and the lawn was completely soaked and we were worried about getting bogged there, we decided to try one of the many caravan parks in the area. We thanked the people on the gate for their help and told them our concerns and drove on back towards Ulladulla where we stopped at the first Caravan Park we came to which was still in Milton. The sites here also looked quite wet but the lovely person in the office marked a few sites on the map and told us to drive around and see which one we thought would suit us best, we settled on one on the high side of the park nearest the road where the grass wasn't as wet as other parts and the internet reception was better. I phoned the office and booked us in for four nights, the park is a bit old and needs a bit of maintenance but the amenities are clean, all we are really interested in is power, water and internet. We set up without putting up the awning and antennae because the wind is really strong and we have a few palm trees over us. We put our chairs and table under the van, we won't be using those until the weather settles and we were happy to finish the set up and to hide in the van for the rest of the afternoon.

We had a bit of shopping to do in the morning and then we found a Telstra shop in the shopping centre, we had an issue with our Telstra App so we called in here to sort out the problem and after that we went to the Visitors Centre to pick up tourist information, then we were free to look around town. It was a wild and woolly day today in Ulladulla, the main attraction seemed to be how rough the waters were so we joined the other groups of tourists who visited all the lookouts around the area to watch the surf rolling in. It really was quite spectacular and we were very surprised to find someone swimming around the breakwater, I looked closely to see if he was holding his hand up to say he was drowning, I don't know what we would have done but anyway he seemed ok. As the day went on the weather deteriorated and once the rain settled in we returned to the van, it was well past lunchtime so we decided to settle in for the day, again.

Yesterday we purchased a replacement coffee machine from Aldi, I loved our old Aldi machine but unfortunately it has been playing up for awhile now so we decided to bite the bullet and just purchase a new one. When we received the receipt we noticed that the warranty is for two years and we only purchased our first one last year so instead of throwing it in the rubbish we packed it up and decided to try returning it to Aldi. I did not have the receipt and knew this might make it difficult but thought it was worth a try, it is quite obvious it is an Aldi machine and you can date them from the design. Anyway I spoke to the manager and the outcome was that we walked away with a refund, very happy. From here we walked over to Woolworths to buy a couple of birthday cards and wraps for our granddaughters. We drove from here to the Historic town of Milton to walk the streets taking photos of the buildings, we also came across a lovely little shop that looked interesting so we went in to take a look and found a couple of gorgeous dresses for our granddaughters for their birthdays. We had planned to drive from here to Mollymook and the Golf Club for a quick drink before returning to the van. We parked in the Golf Club park which has beautiful views looking over the bay and walked inside to sign in. To cut a long story short I was not able to sign in because I didn't have my license with me, it didn't matter that I could prove who I was and Robb had his license and could prove our address details the young girl who was on duty obviously didn't have the skills to work with the information she had as opposed to being told if you don't have your license you can't enter the establishment, so we left. We drove back to the pub at Milton which looked appealing, however, I had been looking forward to having a drink overlooking the water but the publican was so friendly when we arrived, as were some of the patrons sitting around the bar that we were glad we had returned to this hotel, we had a lovely chat to everyone and then we returned to the van for lunch.

When we arrived back to the van yesterday I wrapped up our granddaughter's presents ready to be sent off Monday morning. We thought we would have our coffee out in the morning because our priority was to send off the presents I had wrapped as I wanted them to arrive as soon as possible and I wasn't sure what time of the day the mail was collected. We found a park on the road beside the Post Office which was handy and we went in and found the size tough bag we needed which I addressed and sent off wishing it a swift journey. From here we drove over the road to the Information Centre/Library where I was hoping they had a book I needed to download as an e-Book in stock. I belong to a book club and I wanted to keep my membership this year so I organised to receive the monthly books as e-Books but unfortunately the CAE which runs our book club didn't have the book I needed on offer as an e-Book. Thankfully the Ulladulla Library did so I joined the library so that I could download 'Gulliver's Wife' by Lauren Chater and I have another four books from here I can download so if the CAE doesn't have the next one I want I will search this library as a back up. While I was doing all this Robb was ordering our coffees which took as long to arrive as I did. We sat and read while enjoying our coffee, there wasn't any hurry for the day and both of us are enjoying the books we are currently reading. From here we drove to Cupitt Winery, we had heard excellent reviews of this winery and waited for the weekend to be over before we visited because apparently on the weekends it is really difficult to get in. We easily found the winery and walked into the tasting shed, I'm not fond of doing tastings unless we pay for them and otherwise we usually just buy a glass of wine to enjoy. When we walked up to enquire about a tasting the gentleman on duty explained that he was working by himself today where he usually has someone else to help and he already had two couples tasting and would we like to come back in half an hour. We decided just to go to the bar and and buy a drink and sit and enjoy the lovely views. Robb chose to try their own Pale Ale which he enjoyed and I chose a Sauvignon Blanc which I enjoyed, it was a beautiful day, the views were good and I took lots of photos so all up a good morning. We decided to swallow our pride and give the Mollymook Gold Club another try, I had my license with me because I knew I would need it for the library and of course when we arrived at the club we had no difficulty in getting in with our license identification. I had heard about the great views across the beach from the club and they certainly were good so I took a few photos, we had a quick drink and then left. The weather is better today with lots of sunshine but we still have those annoying winds, we are leaving tomorrow so we haven't bothered to put our awning out. I need to do washing so we are hoping on our next stop the weather will be a bit better.

Today we moved on further up the coast. We wanted to stop around Wollongong because we had friends in this area from our caravan group and we were keen to catch up with them because we had missed the meet in Myrtleford this year because of Covid. We chose to stay at the Bulli Beach Tourist Park and we were very happy that we did, this is my favourite park so far, we are close to the beach and the amenities and the rates were good. the sites are quite wide but not very long and our van just fit lengthwise on the site. We have contacted our friends and we will meet up with them tomorrow for lunch in Kiama.

I have wanted to revisit Kiama for a long time now, I think last time we were here was about 26 years ago and I remember visiting the blowhole and having lunch with business acquaintances who had a house on the cliffs overlooking the water. We didn't have enough of a look around at the time so I fancied doing just that now. We have organised to meet our friends at the Gerroa Boat Fishermans Club at 12.30pm for lunch so we had plenty of time to sight see. We drove directly to the Visitor Centre because we had been unable to find the one in Wollongong and I was looking for information for the whole district and we walked out of here with a fistful of brochures for later research. The blowhole is just down the road from the centre so we hopped back in the car and drove the 500mts to the lighthouse and viewing platform above the blowhole. Weather wise it is not much of a day but we were lucky enough to have a few breaks in the rain to allow us to walk down to the lower viewing platform which is just above the blowhole itself. The whole area is fenced over with well constructed walkways but we can remember last time we were here just standing on the grassed area not far from the blowhole itself without any fencing. As it turned out even with the rugged weather we were having the blowhole didn't put on much of a display but I managed to take a couple of ordinary photos. As we walked back up the steps to return to the car our friends surprised us up the top, we had a lovely quick chat before they took off home again and we continued on with our sight seeing. This is a very picturesque coastline so it wasn't a complete waste of time, and we also visited the Little Blowhole which is very much as the name suggests. We had a bit of a drive around Kiama admiring the old building before driving to Gerroa to meet Mick and Gail for lunch. We spent a good two hours catching up with news, we especially wanted gossip from the Myrtleford Olympic Caravan Meet that we had to miss because of Covid. We parted and then we both went our separate ways, we needed to go to Aldi on the way back and apparently so did Mick and Gail because we ran into them at the checkouts. Gail invited around to their place for coffee and we took them up on the offer and we didn't get home until after 5.00pm. We had an excellent day but as the night went on the rain started and came down with a vengeance nearly all night. I constantly checked the drain outside our site over night and it was doing a great job of clearing the water but at one time it was really struggling.

The rain didn't let up all night and the winds came and went, we had closed the awning the previous night because of the wind and we have left it packed up now as the weather is getting worse. The area around our van is completely soaked so that when I went out in the morning to put the rubbish in the recycling I put my thongs on as my other shoes would have got soaked, I paddled with the water up to my ankles through the grassed area and avoided the gutters where the water was now rushing down to the drain. By the time I returned to the van I was completely soaked through, I took my jeans and ski jacket off and had to hang them in the shower cubicle until they stopped dripping. We stayed home for our coffee because there didn't seem to be any reason to rush out in the rain and then we decided to take a drive to Sea Cliff Bridge which had been recommended to us. We were so impressed with this bridge it is really something to be seen, it is a bridge that has been built out from the side of the cliff over the water and is 655mts long, we recognised it from various car ads on TV. I couldn't get a really good photo of the bridge itself but I did take some excellent photos of the cliffs all around where we could see many waterfalls pouring down because of all the rain we had and I also took a few photos of the raging ocean underneath us. We drove over and then back again and then headed off home, we stopped at a couple of lookouts on the way back but you couldn't see anything from them so we found another couple of spots on the way to take photos of the ocean. We also visited the lovely little historic town of Bulli where we are staying, it is quite picturesque as are most of the small villages around here. I had booked a hair appointment for the two of us in Shellharbour for 12.00 noon and it was getting later so we took off for here and lucky we did because we had lots of spots on the way where we were held up with water across the road and just made it in time. I don't like organising hair appointments while away because you don't know what to expect from the salons but I have to say this was one of our better appointments and we were happy with the results and all the girls were so lovely it was a good experience. We didn't get home until late and I had things to do so it was quite late before I sat down to do my photos and blog and that is why I am finishing it off today. Thankfully it has stopped raining for awhile but unfortunately the wind has picked up.

I had a pretty bad night overnight, vomiting and generally feeling very unwell, not sure what caused it but we are thinking I ate something that upset me. We decided in the morning not to do much as I still wasn't feeling 100%. We spoke about hitching up today because the weather has been so bad and we finally have a break in it so we thought if we hitch up today then it won't matter what the weather is like tomorrow we will be ready to move on. We had been told about Bald Hills Lookout which is over Sea Cliff Bridge and we thought this worth and look, our plans were to return from here, fill up with fuel, do a bit of shopping and then return to our van and get ready to move on tomorrow and this is exactly what we did. The lookout was amazing and I took a few really good photos before driving back over the bridge to the supermarket in Bulli. When we returned we packed up the Weber and the other outdoor items we had and then while I packed up inside Robb connected the van to the car and moved it back on the site behind us. We spent a quiet day inside the van and were feeling thankful we had everything packed when the rain started again around 3.00pm and hasn't stopped since. We are moving onto Newcastle tomorrow so I will spend a bit of time researching where to stay and what to do while we are there. You can see the Sea Cliff Bridge in the photos below.

We left Bulli today for our next destination Wangi Wangi and we have booked into Wangi Lakeside Caravan Park, we were unable to find anything closer to Newcastle than here so we grabbed this booking in case we missed out completely. When we left Bulli we had to struggle through the mud, so the shower I had in the morning meant nothing when I looked at my feet when we were finally in the car on our next drive. It was an interesting drive, our GPS took us around the outskirts of Sydney itself but we did find ourselves in some strange areas wondering why we were there before we were back on the highway. I loved some of the designs on the walls on the freeways they were very decorative and worth photographing. At one time we found ourselves in Northconnex which is a 9km tunnel in North Sydney taking us onto the highway to Newcastle, the tunnel is amazing and was quite an experience and while there wasn't anything to indicate we had to pay tolls I researched it tonight and found we did so I have paid them online. The weather was a bit hit and miss today, at times we had sunshine but then most of the time we had a cloudy sky and sometimes rain. As we drove into the caravan park it was raining but then thankfully stopped when we found our site, there is nothing worse than setting up in the rain. When we pulled up at our site we found there was a car with a boat attached on our grass area, it took a bit of sorting but finally we managed to pull up at our slab. We pulled over close to the slab and gave the people with the boat enough room to pull in beside us. Then there was another boat drive up and they didn't have enough room on their unit to park the boat so we suggested we didn't set up our awning and then they could park their car and boat beside us where our car should have gone. There is a fishing competition on and they are all here for this so needless to say we have fishing boats all around us, they will all be gone in the morning and we can set up our awning then. There was a food truck at the park tonight so we thought we would buy our dinner here, we ran into the fishermen beside us at the food truck and we asked about the competition, they are obviously keen fishermen and follow a few competitions around a very extensive area, the prize tomorrow is $3000 but they have to be the first to catch 5 Bream and they cannot use bait, it would be quite strenuous casting all the time, their order was ready before ours so we wished then luck tomorrow before they moved off. Robb and I ordered a burger each and a loaded fries to share, the serves were huge and we both only managed to eat half of our serves, lunch tomorrow is looking good. We will drive into Newcastle tomorrow to have a look around and find information to plan our next few days.

We were going to drive to Newcastle today but then we remembered some of the shops we wanted to visit wouldn't be open on a Sunday so we will leave that until tomorrow. Our next choice is Swansea which looks to be a fair sized town, on the other side of Lake Macquarie from where we are at the moment. It was a 49 minute drive going back the way we had driven into Wangi originally and then turning around the end of the Lake, there were a few places I mentally made a note of to call into on our way home because they looked interesting. We arrived at Swansea and instead of driving into town we took the first turn off to the Lake. I must say I don't think I have ever seen a busier water way than this, there were people out on the water on Jet Skis, in boats and fishing. There were others walking with friends, or pets, some on bikes, others on scooters and lots of families pushing strollers, everywhere you looked there was activity, maybe everyone is taking advantage of the beautiful sunshine we are having today after all the rain we have had. We left the lake to take a look around the town centre but it wasn't very big so we were soon on our way home. The only problem is that when I put the address into the GPS it took us in the opposite direction of where we thought we should be going. The outcome was we took a different very pleasant drive home beside the edge of the lake, giving us some lovely views on the way back that we didn't get on the way there, the only issue I had was that we didn't pass any of the places I had noted to visit, doesn't matter we will catch them next time. When we arrived back to camp we set up the awning and outside furniture, we hadn't been able to do it yesterday because we wanted to leave room for the boat owners to store their boats for the night, they left at some ridiculous time in the morning and won't be returning so we can now take advantage of the whole site. After lunch we spent a very pleasant afternoon outside, it is the first time we have been able to sit outside for the trip so far, we weren't supposed to have a break in the rain until tomorrow so I hope this is a good sign ongoing. The park is full of birds of all types, so far we have seen wattle birds, rosellas, kookaburras, ducks, sea gulls, cockatoos and pelicans, we wake up each morning to birdsong and that continues until night, not only are they in the trees but they are also on the roads and on the lawns. Every time we take off in the car we have to make sure the road is clear and walking along you need to sort your way through them at times, they seem to be quite used to people being around and are not afraid.

Destination Newcastle today, we thought we would have a quick look around and then take care of the couple of shopping errands we had. We drove into Newcastle passing Bar Beach which I thought we should return to later on and through the main city streets out to Nobby's Beach. Well what can I say, I wasn't expecting Newcastle to be so amazing, we parked at Nobby's Beach and then walked out along the walk to the Light House area, everywhere we turned we had these amazing views, hopefully I captured them all. We also had a couple of ships sailing in and out to the port and I managed to photograph these too. We drove from Nobby's up and around the coast passing the sea baths and found ourselves at Fort Scratchley where we parked and walked around the inside of the fort. The fort was very interesting but I think to take full advantage you would need to join a guided tour which would give you access to the inside of the buildings. Views from here were even more amazing than the earlier shots I took, and I found myself wildly clicking away. From here we drove to the couple of shops we needed to visit before driving back home. We have loved our stop in the Lake Macquarie region and particularly our visit to Newcastle, who knew Newcastle was so beautiful, why don't we hear more about it?

Our last full day in Wangi Wangi we decided to visit Caves Beach and then onto Catherine Hill Bay. We planned to have an early day and then return to hitch up our van to save time the next morning when we had to move on. Our GPS took us to the township of Caves Beach so then we had to find our way around to the beach itself which we managed to do. We parked and then walked down to the beach, I was expecting to find one or two caves here so was pleasantly surprised to find a series of caves of all shapes and sizes. It was a fascinating area and we walked around and explored many of the caves and the beautiful rock formations around the edge of the beach. We sat here for awhile watching the activity on the beach and around the caves, the tide seemed to be coming in so we moved off the beach back to our car. From here we drove to Catherine Hill Bay where we wanted to visit the Jetty which I think is one of the last wooden Jettys along this Eastern Coast. We could not get entry to the Jetty so satisfied ourselves with views from the surf life saving club before we drove back to the Catho Pub for a quick drink before returning to camp. Our idea was to call into the office to see if we could hitch up and push our van back onto the site behind us but when we returned, we found there was someone else set up on the site behind us so we didn’t bother calling into the office. We packed up what we could and then spent a pleasant afternoon back at camp. We were moving onto Kempsy tomorrow, we have booked and are hoping just to settle in here for the Easter weekend.