HAPPY HOLIDAYS

WOO HOO!

Thursday, 19 October 2017

Day 294 - Thursday 19 October - Checking out southern Highlands


Day 294
Thursday  -
19 October

Corrimal Beach – Mount Keira – Mittagong – Berrima – Bowral - Wollongong

I must have tired and didn’t realise it, as I slept til 8am, lucky we were in no rush. I read my book until 8.45am and then pulled myself from the covers and made my way to the shower.
After breakfast, we jumped in the car and began our day of driving around the NSW Southern Highlands. We had to traverse the pass that we used to enter Wollongong yesterday and this meant we could stop in at the Mount Keira Lookout.

The day was bright and sunny and we had a terrific view back over the city of Wollongong. There was also a band, Avalon’s Peak, using the viewing deck as a backdrop for a video clip. We chatted to some of the members to find out about their music and then we left them to it.

After we took in the panoramic vista and photos, we were back in the car and heading on to Mittagong about 45min inland. We followed the Hume Highway for the majority of the journey before finally making it down the main street and on to Eden Brewery.
The brewery wasn’t open until 12 and as it was only just 11am we returned to the main shopping area and parked. Paul stopped in at Super Cheap Auto to pick up some fuses for the toilet pump and then we walked through the main shopping mall before heading out on to the main street.
The town reminded me of many highland towns we have visited, with their old architecture and shops that line the streets. I enjoyed checking out the various facades and the doors as we completed our lap.


Once we were back at the shopping centre entrance, we found an information board that informed visitors that the shopping centre is the only one in the world built on an archaeological site and sure enough when we ventured into the below level car park a large area was roped off with more information about the iron works that once occupied the space. It was quite interesting.

We returned to the car and drove on to Eden Brewery, meeting Kelly, the assistant brewer who talked to us about the brewery and ran Paul through their beers. Jacob and his wife Deb, the owners turned up a short while later much to Paul’s enjoyment as they filled his two squealers with beer and gave him one of theirs that they also filled with beer. Happy days.


When we had finished our chat, we returned to the car and drove on a further 10km to the small town of Berrima. We parked up at the Surveyor General Inn, which was established in 1834 and is supposedly Australia’s oldest continuously licensed Inn. There was a picnic table just outside that we sat to have our lunch, only to realise we were sitting just outside the perimeter of the jail. It actually reminded us of Fremantle Jail with its ominous sandstone walls.


When we had finished our lunch we did a wander of the small country town. I was really taken with all of the old colonial, stone or wood, buildings. I took some photos of the jail, only to read a sign after “no photos”, oh well. The courthouse was reminiscent of what you would find in the big cities, all cream and columns. There must have been some money in the town back in the 1830’s.

We walked the small hill to the National Trust listed Harpers Mansion, It wasn’t open, but you could see through the gate. We then walked down the main street watching the ground parrots feed on the lawn and checking out the other buildings before returning to the car and continuing our journey on to Bowral.
This was another short journey of about 15min. We parked on the street where we found free parking and proceeded to walk along the main shopping strip mall, once again taking in the old buildings and reading the real estate boards, bit expensive in this town.

I stopped to take photos regularly of things that caught my interest. I am sure Paul was thinking why is she taking that photo and probably those that passed me on the street. Oh well.
 During Spring, Bowral has a tulip festival, the Corbett Gardens is planted up with hundreds of bulbs. I had read about it in one of the tourist mags and was eager to have a wander around. While we were probably a couple of weeks late, there were still plenty of blooms of all colours to keep me happy. We wandered around the small garden enjoying the blasts of colour but I could see that they were already removing many of the beds where the flowers had come and gone. 

We completed the loop back to the car and then I navigated to the Don Bradman Museum that is attached to the Bowral Cricket Oval. Bradman was born in the town and scored 115 not out at the oval in his firs senior game.  

I took a couple of pics, but we didn’t bother doing the museum tour. We then continued our drive ready to head towards home. We made our way through the towns of Robertson and Albion Park, before travelling the Macquarie Pass. The severe cliffs looked ominous in the distance as we entered into the thick forest where the clicking of cicadas was so loud it drowned out the radio. The pass road was yet another twisty, turny and steep descent, trucks coming up the hill, leaving us little room to move as they passed us by.

We eventually popped out on flat, pastoral land slowly being invaded by housing estates and it was back on the Princes Highway and heading back to Corrimal Beach, a slower than expected trek as we met peak hour traffic, but we made it by 4.20pm.
After unpacking and changing into shorts, we donned the thongs and made for the beach, walking along the sand and watching the many dogs bounding about enjoying the water. 
We rounded the point and were sand blasted, so we turned around and made our way back. We watched a number of kite surfers preparing their apparatus by first blowing up the rim and then wrestling with the thing like some wild animal as they attempted to attach the ropes.
We returned to the entrance, found our thongs and made our way back to the van handing around for an hour, me going through the photos while Paul wrote up about Eden Brewery.
I had read in the tourist book that Wollongong has an Eat Street Market on Thursday evening in the Crown Mall, so we decided to make our way into town at 6.30pm and check it out. We weren’t expecting much, but as it turns out, it is quite a big deal. Once we had parked and walked to the mall, we were accosted by bright lighting, noise, food smells and people.
We did a walk up the first line of trucks checking what was on offer and then we made our way down the other side. We both decided we felt like an Asian meal and returned to a van selling Thai food, we ordered, watched it being made fresh and then took our bowls of noodles and found a place to sit and eat. We watched as people wandered by with burgers, pizza, donuts, drinks everything you can imagine. It was certainly very lively and well patronised by the locals.
We made our way back to the car, when we had finished and then returned to the van. I continued going through the photos for the day and loading what I could while the internet was running, but my eyes were telling me it was time to turn it all off and give them a rest.
We both crawled into bed and read for a while before finally turning out the lights.




No comments:

Post a Comment