Bega to Ulladulla (Not Pronounced OOh-La-Doo-La!)
*Need to make an addition to the last post: On australia day, after we went to the beach Jeremy, Copey, Dan and I went to australia rock. It's a section of the sand stone clifs on the coast, but wind, surf, and time have eroded a hole through a section on the rock. Interestingly enough, it washed away a hole that looks a heck of alot like australia. So it's actually "Australia Hole", but that doesn't attract tourists quite the same way...
We woke relatively early, breakfasted, and packed out gear into the car. Mr. Boyle was in good form after the previous day's canoe trip from hell and so accompanied us on our adventure.
First stop was mimbulla falls, jumping rock and waterslide. Sounds like a bit of an amusement park, but it's actually a creek that cascades down a large rock. Years of running water has created a natural waterslide on one side. The recent years of drought means you need to splash a little water of the smoothed rocks to get your slide on, and a lip at the bottom gives you a good kick out into a pool at the bottom. The jumping rock is only about 2-3 meters and the shallow pool means that diving and jumping is a little risky. I touched bottom on all of my jumps, and on my final dive, i pulled up as soon as i touched water and still had my feet scuff the bottom. Not nearly as good as the clif jumping of my youth at the lake.
As we walked back to where we parked the car there was some faux aboriginal art work on the benches (just to give it a bit of australiana) in the shape of a lizard. Mr. Boyle said that they were carvings of goannas, big lizzards that were in large numbers in the area, and we would be quite lucky to see one. Not 2 minutes later did we hear rustling in the bushes just off the path, and lo and behold, a meter long goanna was walking through the underbrush.
We walked back to the car park and saw yet another, bu this one was pushing 2 meters with his tail included. We snapped some photos and made our way off to Middle beach for some surfing.
The surf was pretty good, but irregular. saddly it would be the best surf of the week. This time i had 2 flippers, so it made catching waves way easier! i got a bunch of good ones, carving across the green water and rode a couple for quite a ways! Mr. Boyle and Dan were also tearing it up, with dan hitting a couple barrel rolls.
We went back to Dan's place in the evening and had a barbeque in the back yard before heading inside to watch the tennis. Haven't the foggiest who was playing... federer maybe...?
The next day dan and i packed up our gear and headed to Ulladulla to start our south coast surf adventure with Midnight oil blaring on the radio(the surf was not to be saddly, stupid wind...) Dan and i chatted about this and that and enjoyed the tunes, weather, and beautiful scenery that the south coast had to offer as we made our way north. It's been a while, so this part all starts to blend together in my mind, but after arriving at the hostel and having a bit of a chill we went to mollymook beach to check the surf. It wasn't happening, small swell and north wind just flattened the waves, so we went in without wet suits for about half an hour and tried to catch some waves.
With little success we headed back into the beach. We had gotten taken down the coast a bit and on my last wave i realized it was breaking on the rocks. I managed to maneuver may way through them to the beach, but on Dan's last wave, the water sucked back, exposing the rocks, and slammed him onto them. Luckily only his board hit them and he managed to paddle back in.
Back to the hostel quickly before going for a kick at the shops. Early on Dan was approached by a dude, and it turned out to be one of his old mates from sydney who was now living in ulladulla. Another friend of his was working at the Supermarket just opposit us, so dan went in to say hello.
After a good long kick we went to get groceries, beers, a chat with dan's friend and back to the hostel for dinner. We spent the night talking out on the back deck, sipping beers, chatting with the german girls and the australian guy also staying in the hostel and, of course, watched the tennis.
We had planned to go up to Pigeon House Mountain bright and early at 7am the following morning to beat the heat, but alas, the previous night's beers keept us snoozing til 9. We managed to get on the road at about 10, and figured we'd drive the 26km to pigeon house in a few minutes. We didn't count on rutted, washboarded, single lane gravel roads with numerous curvers, turns and potholes. Right as we turned off the highway a sign indicated that there was a danger of falling off the road down into the valleys of the mountain. Around the second curve we saw a logging truck in the ditch. He driver go lucky that he went off in one direction, as the other meant a steep drop into a gorge as opposed to getting plunked against a cliff wall.
After about an hour of driving 20km/h up the mountain we disembarked on our hike. The first part was very steep and in the 35 degree weather we were sweating like crazy. We finally came to a plateau where we got a great view just above the tree line, but it also showed us how much farther we had to go. After traversing a long, relatively flat part, we came back to the steep mountain slope. there were these wooden slats across the path that were supposed to create steps, but they jutted up above the height of the earth, making it a perfect way to trip and fall. Dan and i joked about writing an angry letter to Copey's dad about the condition of the trails. Unfortunately, not one of his parks...
Right near the top it's damn near impossible to hike, and skills in free climbing and mountaineering would be required. Thankfuly a series of ladders takes you to the top quite easily. We met some people who were on their way down who said there was a nice breeze at the top. That gave me the strength to get to the top, but i was a little disappointed with the warm breeze that met us. The views more than made up for it. It was awesome looking out over the valleys of the range below, and we could even spy a few bush fiers sending smoke up in the distance.
The way back was much easier and we stopped only once for a water break, as opposed to the 5 or 6 we took on the way up.
After a quick stop at the hostel to get beer we headed to the beach and spent the afternoon body surfing in the shallows, sipping beers and enjoying the sunshine...
*Need to make an addition to the last post: On australia day, after we went to the beach Jeremy, Copey, Dan and I went to australia rock. It's a section of the sand stone clifs on the coast, but wind, surf, and time have eroded a hole through a section on the rock. Interestingly enough, it washed away a hole that looks a heck of alot like australia. So it's actually "Australia Hole", but that doesn't attract tourists quite the same way...
We woke relatively early, breakfasted, and packed out gear into the car. Mr. Boyle was in good form after the previous day's canoe trip from hell and so accompanied us on our adventure.
First stop was mimbulla falls, jumping rock and waterslide. Sounds like a bit of an amusement park, but it's actually a creek that cascades down a large rock. Years of running water has created a natural waterslide on one side. The recent years of drought means you need to splash a little water of the smoothed rocks to get your slide on, and a lip at the bottom gives you a good kick out into a pool at the bottom. The jumping rock is only about 2-3 meters and the shallow pool means that diving and jumping is a little risky. I touched bottom on all of my jumps, and on my final dive, i pulled up as soon as i touched water and still had my feet scuff the bottom. Not nearly as good as the clif jumping of my youth at the lake.
As we walked back to where we parked the car there was some faux aboriginal art work on the benches (just to give it a bit of australiana) in the shape of a lizard. Mr. Boyle said that they were carvings of goannas, big lizzards that were in large numbers in the area, and we would be quite lucky to see one. Not 2 minutes later did we hear rustling in the bushes just off the path, and lo and behold, a meter long goanna was walking through the underbrush.
We walked back to the car park and saw yet another, bu this one was pushing 2 meters with his tail included. We snapped some photos and made our way off to Middle beach for some surfing.
The surf was pretty good, but irregular. saddly it would be the best surf of the week. This time i had 2 flippers, so it made catching waves way easier! i got a bunch of good ones, carving across the green water and rode a couple for quite a ways! Mr. Boyle and Dan were also tearing it up, with dan hitting a couple barrel rolls.
We went back to Dan's place in the evening and had a barbeque in the back yard before heading inside to watch the tennis. Haven't the foggiest who was playing... federer maybe...?
The next day dan and i packed up our gear and headed to Ulladulla to start our south coast surf adventure with Midnight oil blaring on the radio(the surf was not to be saddly, stupid wind...) Dan and i chatted about this and that and enjoyed the tunes, weather, and beautiful scenery that the south coast had to offer as we made our way north. It's been a while, so this part all starts to blend together in my mind, but after arriving at the hostel and having a bit of a chill we went to mollymook beach to check the surf. It wasn't happening, small swell and north wind just flattened the waves, so we went in without wet suits for about half an hour and tried to catch some waves.
With little success we headed back into the beach. We had gotten taken down the coast a bit and on my last wave i realized it was breaking on the rocks. I managed to maneuver may way through them to the beach, but on Dan's last wave, the water sucked back, exposing the rocks, and slammed him onto them. Luckily only his board hit them and he managed to paddle back in.
Back to the hostel quickly before going for a kick at the shops. Early on Dan was approached by a dude, and it turned out to be one of his old mates from sydney who was now living in ulladulla. Another friend of his was working at the Supermarket just opposit us, so dan went in to say hello.
After a good long kick we went to get groceries, beers, a chat with dan's friend and back to the hostel for dinner. We spent the night talking out on the back deck, sipping beers, chatting with the german girls and the australian guy also staying in the hostel and, of course, watched the tennis.
We had planned to go up to Pigeon House Mountain bright and early at 7am the following morning to beat the heat, but alas, the previous night's beers keept us snoozing til 9. We managed to get on the road at about 10, and figured we'd drive the 26km to pigeon house in a few minutes. We didn't count on rutted, washboarded, single lane gravel roads with numerous curvers, turns and potholes. Right as we turned off the highway a sign indicated that there was a danger of falling off the road down into the valleys of the mountain. Around the second curve we saw a logging truck in the ditch. He driver go lucky that he went off in one direction, as the other meant a steep drop into a gorge as opposed to getting plunked against a cliff wall.
After about an hour of driving 20km/h up the mountain we disembarked on our hike. The first part was very steep and in the 35 degree weather we were sweating like crazy. We finally came to a plateau where we got a great view just above the tree line, but it also showed us how much farther we had to go. After traversing a long, relatively flat part, we came back to the steep mountain slope. there were these wooden slats across the path that were supposed to create steps, but they jutted up above the height of the earth, making it a perfect way to trip and fall. Dan and i joked about writing an angry letter to Copey's dad about the condition of the trails. Unfortunately, not one of his parks...
Right near the top it's damn near impossible to hike, and skills in free climbing and mountaineering would be required. Thankfuly a series of ladders takes you to the top quite easily. We met some people who were on their way down who said there was a nice breeze at the top. That gave me the strength to get to the top, but i was a little disappointed with the warm breeze that met us. The views more than made up for it. It was awesome looking out over the valleys of the range below, and we could even spy a few bush fiers sending smoke up in the distance.
The way back was much easier and we stopped only once for a water break, as opposed to the 5 or 6 we took on the way up.
After a quick stop at the hostel to get beer we headed to the beach and spent the afternoon body surfing in the shallows, sipping beers and enjoying the sunshine...
