Travelog for: Greeny delMonte

While we were in the region we visited another tourist attraction... the Hampden Bridge.. it is a "convict" bridge and was built in 1895, opened in 1898 to replace a timber bridge that once crossed the Kangaroo River. It is the only surviving suspension bridge from the colonial period in New South Wales...

As it is only one lane only one lane of cars can cross at any one time, and one truck... as it wasn't built for cars initially. It's a very unique sandstone bridge that is very well known in the local area. The pictures don't really do it justice, it's very unique and really adds a lot of the Australian convict history back to life... that's about it for now, we kinda got rained out a little bit today - but I'll be back to show you some more of what I got up to soon!

Today it rained... a lot... actually not just today... it rained yesterday too. Although this doesn't seem like much - but it's a big thing, when it's barely rained in months... and it has been an especially dry Winter, and was a very dry Summer - it was much needed. However, I didn't quite expect to see this...

This is about 1 kilometre from where my host lives... although she lives up a big hill, so the whole town would have to be flooded before it touched her home fortunately... however this is a boat ramp. What you see in front of us is a parking lot, which then has a steep slop of a few feet that goes to the Shoalhaven River... the river literally broke it's banks and more... and it's still raining. They say the peak was at 3pm... but apparently that was changed to 11pm...

Across the river is a place called the Nowra Sailing Club - you can see a photo of it on this link during these floods... the water actually got up to the middle of the sign on the side of the building... and for a while the river was brown... kinda yucky but I suppose it's what happens when you have so much rain coming through... it was shocking!

I'll go back in a little bit and take more pictures from the same spot to show you what it should look like... the dock that our host stands on was actually completely under water... crazy! More updates coming soon!

Today we visited Jervis Bay - if only for a few photos... the ocean was incredibly calm and quite blue... very beautiful. This beach is in a town called Vincentia - known as the heart of Jervis Bay as it is right in the centre of the bay... this tiny town... along with Huskisson are very big tourist towns and it really helps support the tiny populations.

The wonderful part of Jervis Bay, is not only is it home to the whitest sand beach in the world... but much of the other beaches are also pure white sand that is so fine it actually squeaks when you walk through it. The water is very warm in the Summer and has a lot of beautiful marine life... if you come at the right time you can frequently see dolphins while sitting on the beach as we have at least 60 dolphins that are resident dolphins in the bay. It's a very wonderful sight to see...

Today we took another drive and visited Goulburn... it's a bit of a halfway stop for people in the country to drive to Canberra, which is the capital of Australia... and located about an hour to 90 minutes from Goulburn... and about 2-3 hours West of where I'm staying in Nowra.

We didn't stay long in Goulburn though - just got a few photos and had to continue on as we had quite the drive ahead of us... however, Goulburn has one very interesting thing. The Big Merino, which is just a big sheep... if you were to visit it, they have a gift shop on the inside of it and to the side of it... as well as some steps, where you can walk up to the head and look out the eyes. The eyes even glow a green colour at night... which is kinda weird looking - but doesn't make for good photos when visiting at night.

So here's one of Australia's big things... there's quite a few more - but this is the one that we drive past more frequently than the others! I'll update again soon!

We woke up super early this morning... as Sara had a family member, who at the moment is lucky enough to be studying in Sydney (from Boston) came down to Gerroa for a surf school... which is about 30 minutes North of Nowra... so we decided to meet up with her to go get some breakfast. No real photos for us during that event... but afterwards, we visited for the first time in so many years - Seven Mile Beach.

It's a very gorgeous beach, and all but deserted for the amount of space and sand the beach covers... we were able to sit and relax in the sun for a little bit before realising we needed to head back. Fun fact - this is actually the first beach Sara visited after coming to Australia... so it was definitely nice to be back! However, not visited as often as it is more of a surf beach, which means the water is a lot colder than it is in places like Jervis Bay, where it does tend to be much warmer...

Write again soon Mum!

Hi mum! I'm so sorry it's taken me so long but I'm finally on my way home... into a padded bag I went, along with a couple other TV's in separate bags but we're all going to Germany. Hopefully they'll be near so I can at least have some conversations on the long trip. I'll see you soon! Miss you!