We travelled to Gerrigong from Mittagong yesterday, you could say we’re very decorated as we been gonged twice in the one day (for my overseas readers, receiving a medal or honour is known in Australia as receiving a “Gong”). Whilst it was only 100 k’s its was thru rainy weather and very steep declines, especially on the M1 coming thru Wollongong (there we go, another “Gong”). Being in control of nearly 7 tonnes on a steep decline on wet and slippery roads is no fun, I can assure you.

We’re staying at the Werri Beach Caravan Park in Gerrigong, which is about 30 k’s south of Wollongong. Some beautiful houses here and its a pretty popular surf beach, about 90 minutes drive south of Sydney, its a bit like NSW’s equivalent of the Mornington Peninsula, although its an ocean beach against the bay beaches on the MP. After nearly 3 weeks travelling inland, its good to be back to the coast and hearing the waves of a night time. We’ll be following the coast all the way down to the Victorian border which we should cross in just over a week.

Today we visited Berry, Kangaroo Valley, Nowra and Shoalhaven Heads. Susan has not been down this way before whereas I have, especially Kangaroo Valley which I visited regularly back in the early 80’s. Berry is a lovely small village, similar to Berrima, very tourist orientated but the landscape is very green and lush, with historic buildings and houses. Kangaroo Valley is similar but on a much smaller scale. The drive from Berry to Kangaroo valley is spectacular in its own right although the road is very small and rough, glad we did not bring the van this way.

After stopping for lunch in Kangaroo Valley we drove into Nowra for a quick drive around. It’s a big regional centre for the Shoalhaven region and also the location for the fleet air arm of the Royal Australian Navy at HMAS Albatross. There has been a consistent number of RAN helicopters flying around since we arrived yesterday.

Nowra is on the Shoalhaven River so on our drive back we took the coast road via Shoalhaven Heads, we’re we stopped off for afternoon tea. From there it was back to Berry for the weekly farmers market at the Showground. After our purchases there, it was back to the caravan park. It was a full day, covering a fair chunk of the Shoalhaven region.