Port Kembla

We’ve headed north, we’ve headed west, can’t really head east in our car… so today we headed south in search of a new dog beach. We set our sights on Port Kembla, just south of Wollongong, and managed to sneak into town through the ‘scenic’ route – smokestacks, warehouses, a refinery – you know, all that pitcturesque industry stuff. And we forgot to take a photo! But then, 100 metres further, we were in a whole different world – gorgeous shoreline. The beach stretched on forever, and was incredibly empty. So Ani stretched her legs, and chased seagulls and waves, and used up energy… and so did we!


And then, in a split second, the wind changed and we got this strong, icy breeze blowing off the ocean, whipping up the sand to give us a full-body exfoliation. Hike and spa, all in one - the down-side is that we all had a fair amount of sand in our ears. We ducked off the beach and did some bush-whacking through the sand scrub, where it was a little less windy. (The pic below is showing the dry sand blowing across the wet sand... and into Ani's face.)


Then we detoured west to find a different way home, and passed through this beautiful rolling countryside with lots of free-range cattle (Ani tried to blame a few off her farts on the cows…). It kinda reminded us of parts western Colorado or the Nicoya peninsula, Costa Rica. From there, the road climbed to the top of this plateau – nice twisty road, lush vegetation, even a little waterfall. But we couldn’t find a lookout anywhere, so at the top, we turned on to the first (dirt) road we found, and discovered this amazing lookout point. But it would’ve made your knees weak, mom!


On our way home, we came across a cute little town with a row of shops that had homemade gelato and local cheese and all kinds of good stuff. We decided to try apricots and figs stuffed with marscapone cheese - SO rich, and so delicious!