Jervis Bay

After my friend Dani arrived in Sydney on April 24th, we set off for Jervis Bay, which is 3 hours away to the south. First, we took a train from Sydney to Woolongong, which took 1.5 hours. I definitely didn't want to pick up a rental car in Sydney. The traffic there would have driven me crazy. So we rented a car in Woolongong and drove to a campground in Huskinsson (a place in Jervis Bay). We rented a cabin there. There are no typical hostels in that area, so it's pretty free of backpackers. The cabin was very nice, but we almost froze to death at night. Even during the day, the temperatures were only around 18 degrees. Oh, and we could have done without the little creatures in our accommodations that looked like small cockroaches ;-). The region around Jervis Bay is definitely worth seeing. All the beaches have powder white sand. The most famous bay is Hyams Beach, which has the whitest sand in the world. However, I think other bays like Greenfields Beach or Chinamans Beach are even more beautiful. They are surrounded by the forest and there are no houses on the beach. We even saw some kangaroos at Greensfield Beach. Then we drove further into the national park, for which we had to pay $11 "admission" for the car.

So on April 21st, Nico flew back to Switzerland. On April 24th, my friend Dani arrived in Sydney. I spent two more nights there with her. Then we took a train to Wollongong from Sydney and drove about 2 hours south. There we rented a car (I definitely didn't want to rent a car in Sydney and drive through the city) and drove another good hour to Jervis Bay. It was my first real car ride in Australia. Nico had let me practice a bit in the Outback's national park, where the roads were wide and there was little traffic ;-). But driving on the left side of the road was easier than I thought. Thank God it was an automatic car, which made it much easier for me. However, there was still a small incident. When we were on our way to a beach in Jervis Bay, I hit the side mirror of a parked car in a residential area where the streets were really wide. I always have the urge to drive further to the left in left-side traffic (which I noticed when driving with other right-side drivers). Well, Dani and I admired the fancy houses and mansions during the aforementioned car ride, so I probably just forgot to watch out for parked cars on the side of the road. Until Dani screamed and there was a crash. But there was only a scratch on our rental car. The parked car only had some white paint on the plastic under the side mirror. Still, I took photos and went to the police. The police officers first wondered how I managed to hit a side mirror on such a wide street ;-). But since the damage was so small, she couldn't imagine that the owner would contact me. So far, he hasn't. I had taken out full insurance with a $0 deductible for the rental car, so I was covered there.

In Jervis Bay, we rented a cabin at a campground in the town of Huskinsson. There are no typical hostels there, so this area is pretty free of backpackers. The cabin was very nice, but we almost froze to death at night. Even during the day, the temperatures were only around 18 degrees. Oh, and we could have done without the little creatures in our accommodations that looked like mini cockroaches ;-). The region around Jervis Bay is definitely worth seeing. All the beaches have powder white sand. The most famous bay is Hyams Beach, which has the whitest sand in the world. However, I think other bays like Greenfields Beach or Chinamans Beach are even more beautiful. They are surrounded by the forest and there are no houses on the beach. We even saw some kangaroos at Greensfield Beach. Then we drove further into the national park, for which we had to pay $11 "admission" for the car. The biggest challenge was the way to a lighthouse ruin. With the car, we had to drive for kilometers through an unpaved terrain in a forest. So I drove up to the lighthouse in slow motion, hoping the way would be worth it. But it wasn't really spectacular. Instead, I found myself in the most disgusting toilet of my entire trip at the parking lot ;-).

After 2 nights in Jervis Bay, we returned to Wollongong and took the train back to Sydney. In the evening, we got on the Premier Bus (an Australian long-distance bus) with a hop-on-hop-off ticket all the way to Cairns. After a 14-hour night ride, we arrived in Byron Bay the next morning.