South West Rocks - Thursday, 11 July

Yesterday morning we left Tamworth. We had enjoyed our time there but it was time to thaw out! We took the Oxley Highway across to the coast. It is quite a windy road but a very scenic drive. The speed limit for quite a fair stretch of the road was 110 kph. How on earth you could do that along that road beats me.

We arrived in South West Rocks about 3.30 pm yesterday and set up before relaxing with a cuppa. We are staying at the Big 4 South West Rocks which recently won an award for Best Caravan Park in NSW. It has a lot of facilities for kids, and there are quite a few staying here at the moment, as it is the last few days of the NSW School Holidays. There are lots of trees around and plenty of kangaroos hopping through the caravans. You have to be careful where you put your feet. My gum boots are coming in handy for when I go to the Amenities Block.

We went into the town this morning to have a look around. There are quite a few boutiques in town and you wonder how they all keep going. There is a nice Thai restaurant according to the lady at reception here at the Park. We will have to give it a try. There are 3 different lots of shopping centres - a Bi Lo at one, an IGA at another and the main shopping centre, which is the older lot of shops and it had a Friendly Grocer, a small supermarket.

We think it is about 30 years since we were here last. The boys were only very young at the time.

After lunch we went for a walk out to Trial Bay Gaol. There is a path from the Caravan Park along the road for quite a bit of the way. Along the way I noticed an owl, a Tawny Frogmouth, sitting in a tree having a sleep.

When we got to the bottom of the hill heading up to the Gaol, we took a bridal path through the bush. It was called the Monument Hill Walk. It was just over 2 kms to the Gaol and was a lovely walk. The track went through a picnic ground at Little Bay which was full of kangaroos, Eastern Greys. As we arrived, two of the biggest kangaroos decided to have a punch up. One of them got the other one on to the ground before they split and went their separate ways.

We continued on the trail, and up the top of the hill is the Monument that the trail gets its name from. There are some graves of Germans interned at Trial Bay Gaol during the First World War. Two of them were brought from Ceylon to the Gaol and one of them from Malta.

We walked down the hill to the Gaol but will visit that on another day. We then walked back along the beach. It was great to be able to do a decent walk.

Tomorrow, friends of ours will be joining us for 6 days. Allyson and Ian were supposed to arrive today, but were held up. We are certainly looking forward to spending some time with them.