A Day at the Bay

I generously gave hubby the day off from new lawn preparations in order to make a long overdue visit to the rellies (relatives) and shopping trip to "the coast" (the South Coast of New South Wales, a two hour drive away).

Crossing the border into NSW we drove through the neighbouring town of Queanbeyan, which predates Canberra. Not that the main street has much evidence of its earliest years.

This hotel was built in 1926. The new capital of Canberra underwent huge expansion leading up to the opening of Parliament House in 1927 and alcohol prohibition was in place during that time so I imagine a pub would have been seen as a very lucrative business venture just across the border.

We crossed the Queanbeyan River, which flooded last December.

Coming down the hill towards Bungendore. This small town, growing in recent years thanks to Canberrans searching for big blocks of land and a small town lifestyle within commuting distance to Canberra, has the most wonderful woodwork gallery, which will likely feature in a future post.

Bungendore Railway Station. Checking that the train wasn't about to move off, we crossed the railway crossing and headed out of town.

Heading east through the rolling hills.

Crossing the Shoalhaven River, which flows into the sea at Nowra.

Approaching Braidwood. If you do the drive at the right time of year this stretch is an avenue of gold.

Braidwood is the regional centre of a sheep and cattle area.

Thanks to its well preserved streetscapes it has featured in a number of movies, among them the Ned Kelly movie starring Mick Jagger.

It also hosts an annual quilt fair, when quilts are hung along the main street from the balconies.

Another avenue of almost gold on the way out of town.

Nearing the mountains the countryside becomes more wooded.

Roadworks. Repairs and improvements are a regular occurrence along this stretch.

Barriers to protect from rockfalls.

It's difficult to do Clyde Mountain justice as there are few opportunities to pull over. Towering eucalypts shade the huge ferns beneath, and it's even more magical when it's misty as it was on our return trip.

Cabbage Tree Creek, where I remember as a child we used to stop on the return journey to check that our radiator was full for the long uphill haul.

Did I mention the towering eucalypts.

They didn't forecast rain did they? Oh well, a blurry photo, taken between swipes of the windscreen wipers, of the Steampacket Hotel just before the village of Nelligen on the Clyde River. There's a bridge there now but I remember as a child queueing for the punt that used to take cars across.

As the Clyde meanders towards the sea, so do we.

And there's the roundabout, where our road from the inland meets the highway that follows the coast.

Turning right, within moments we were crossing the Clyde River again and driving into Batemans Bay. There used to be a punt here too but it was replaced by this wonderful opening bridge in the 1950's.

Over the bridge we turned off the highway into the main street of the Bay. Some of the improvements to the centre of town are appreciated, but the efforts by council to get rid of the iconic old boatshed fish shop are not. 

It still amuses me that the Bay now has traffic lights and one way streets, just like a real big town!

Leaving the centre the road runs alongside the water for a distance.

At Batehaven the road is separated from the bay by an open area of grass which hosts the carnival and circus every summer.

We drove past the Batehaven shopping centre.

After Batehaven we passed the first of a series of beaches, this one all but disappears at high tide.

The road continues south, with the sea often only a few streets away and intermittently coming back into view. Some of the settlements along the road were only accessible by dirt track from the highway when I was a child. For our summer holidays we took an esky of supplies with us, basic necessities were available at a small corner store or if we felt like enduring the dirt track we could go down to Moruya, but we often brought things all the way from Canberra. Water came from a rainwater tank and the toilet was an outside one. If some of the family stayed in Canberra then we would join the evening queue at the public phone beside the corner store to phone home. Now the settlements are suburbs of the Bay and the road has joined them all from the Bay down to Moruya.

 Before long we arrived at the rellies where lunch was waiting.

After lunch we drove back into the Bay and went for a walk along the waterfront. On a grey weekday afternoon in the off season it was very quiet.

I love the old peppercorn tree outside this cafe.

The Tollgate Islands at the entrance to the bay are a nature reserve. 

As we strolled, the Merinda returned from a luncheon cruise.

Then we took care of the shopping (how things have changed, there are now items we buy at the coast to take back home to Canberra!) and visited with the rellies a bit more, before driving home.