Aussie beach bums

Without a doubt one of my favourite places in all of Australia is Pebbly Beach.  It’s famous for its mob of friendly beach-loving kangaroos.  Here you can wander among its native residents as they go about their business among the sand dunes and grassy knolls of a popular surfing beach in Murramarang National Park.  The sight of kangaroos on the beach is truly iconic.

I first visited Pebbly Beach in 1990 and was blown away by the experience.  This is one location that genuinely lives up to its Instagram hype.  The kangaroos here really do bound along the beach and they’re not the least bit afraid of their human spectators.  Garry and I visited the beach again while returning from what’s fast becoming our annual pilgrimage to the Narooma Oyster Festival.

Our latest return visit was just as memorable.  Garry was simply blown away by the number of kangaroos we saw and their fearless nature.  We were also delighted to spot several carrying joeys in their pouches.  Even better, for almost half an hour we had the entire beach largely to ourselves.  What can I say?  Pebbly Beach is truly a unique Australian experience.  We’ll definitely be back to enjoy it all again.

Back to Tilba

Regular readers will recall that Garry and I ventured south this time last year to experience the Narooma Oyster Festival.  Elizabeth and Eric, last year’s hosts, invited us to return again this year.  Garry and I happily accepted and this time we scheduled a four-day weekend to get the most from our time away.  Narooma is located more than five hours drive south of Sydney so a half day is lost with travel in each direction.

We left home shortly after 7:30am. We stopped for a hearty breakfast in Berry.  While there we took some time out to visit one of our long-standing and loyal customers. We stopped again at Burrill Lake for Garry to reminisce about the childhood Summers he spent here annually for almost twenty years.  We finally made it to Tilba shortly before 2:00pm.

The Oyster Festival was as much fun again as it had been last year.  We also took a drive out the Narooma heads where we were delighted to witness a pod of dolphins making their way out to sea.  The New Zealand Fur Seals were also out in full force and we witnessed the passage of more than one enormous stingray.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen such large rays in my entire life.

Our second full day was spent enjoying a leisurely lunch at Mimosa Winery near Bermagui.  The winery is set in a sun-drenched valley filled with grazing mobs of kangaroos.  Afterwards, we stopped in Bermagui for one of its famous gelatos and walk along the fishing wharf.  Once again we were delighted by the antics of two enormous stingrays gliding and weaving their way around the wharf piers.