MONDAY
Another early start for the 4-hour trip to Depot Beach. We broke it up with a stop at the Blowhole at Kiama. A good coffee stop, too.
The Kiama Blowhole is apparently the world's largest, capable of shooting plumes of seawater 30 metres into the air. Nothing like that today, but pretty impressive all the same. A little bit of Trivia: The name "Kiama" is derived from the Dharawal language, meaning "where the sea makes noise".
On to Depot Beach, which is just north of Bateman's Bay. A basic setup followed by a late lunch and then a bit more canvas out. We are expecting some rain while we are here.
Depot Beach is in Murramarang National Park, and the first thing you notice is the wildlife. Eastern Grey Kangaroos everywhere. No sooner had we set up than we were visited by a lace monitor, followed by very friendly rainbow lorikeets.
After settling in, we took a short walk to the beach. Almost deserted! And a pretty amazing outlook with a rockshelf to the south, which just demanded - Explore me!
Just up the road from the camping area is Depot Beach Rainforest Walk. Walking this track, you can’t help but imagine what the region was like 50 million years ago, when the whole area was covered by this lush rainforest. Few stands of littoral rainforest remain in Australia, which is why this precious area is listed as an endangered ecological community. It's only about a kilometre, with well-established paths and walkways. Lots of spotted gum and burrawang palms. A lovely spot.
A little drive today to visit the beach at North Durras, where Durras Lake enters the sea. Apparently, it's not always open to the sea, sometimes closed for a couple of years. It is categorised as an estuarine lake, which is a partially enclosed body of water that is intermittently connected to the ocean. Obviously, the water would be quite brackish when it's closed but today it's a lovely spot and the kids had a great time exploring the creek.
Did I mention that the wildlife at Depot Beach is amazing!
In addition to the lorrikeets, we had King Parrots, Masked Lapwings, Bower Birds and Wattle Birds. Amazingly, we even had a Lyrebird visit our camp. We've never had that happen before.
THURSDAY
Rain overnight, so it was a bit of a slow pack up this morning before heading to Batemans Bay for a bit of shopping and lunch, before heading to our next camp at Barlings Beach.
