14 March, 2011 - Ourimbah Rest Area, Pacific Highway, NSW

Late afternoon and we are already settled in our road side camp for the night. Our camp is simply a parking space in a very busy and popular rest area. It is some distance from the main highway so the noise is dulled or rather over-ridden by the birdlife in the scrub about: the wonderful bell minors again and brush turkeys. No doubt there will be more later when the stream of travellers desperate for a break settles down. It has been threatening with rain for over an hour and the forecast last night on the television did not look too good, however none of this has spoiled our day.

Terrigal Beach

We left The Entrance this morning and travelled on down the Central Coast turning on to a Scenic Route  toward Terrigal where our jiving neighbours, Brian and Annette, at Belmont, hailed from. What a beautiful place: golden sands around the bay, the steep sides of which ar covered with attractive residences, and the business centre not unlike Mission Bay in Auckland, lined with cafes and restaurants and designer boutiques. There were lots of people swimming in the ocean, watched over by life guards. We enjoyed walking along the boulevard, not enticed in to the salty waves. We purchased a loaf of bread for lunch and The Australian (newspaper) which is just filled with the horror of the aftermath of the tsunami and collapsing nuclear plant in Japan. That all seemed a world     away from the bright gleaming scene in front of us at Terrigal. The town also has a massive multi storied hotel, the Crowne Plaza,  set back a block from the beach, and as we drove out of the bay and looked back, I was reminded of the beautiful beach resorts I have seen on the Mediterranean Coast. Further south we were able to look down on Avoca Beach which is just as lovely.

We continued south down the northern peninsula, crossing The Rip between Daley’s Point and Ettalong, then stopping at Woy Woy which is situated on the shores of the lagoon that empties itself through that outlet, called Brisbane Waters.

We wandered along the beach frontage for some time and then sat eating our lunch surrounded by a goose, many mallard ducks, a flock of white parrots, corellas and a few butcher birds. It was just lovely.

 

Finally we dragged ourselves away and headed north to the upper reach of the lagoon, where the city of Gosford is situated. Travelling with a caravan means that you often have to park some distance from your specific destination and so often end up walking through the worst of a place to see the best. Our walk up the main street of Gosford was one of those occasions; it struck us as somewhat shabby. Rain was threatening so we back-tracked to our rig after learning that there actually were no caravan parks in Gosford, only at those lovely seaside resorts we had already passed. Gosford seems really to be the machinery centre for the Central Coast, with the hospital, the council, the service centres, but not really geared for tourists. It is in a lovely spot on the lagoon and does look appealing as one drives into it from Woy Woy, and perhaps might have enchanted us had we had somewhere to stay. Instead we travelled north again, just 11 kilometres to the rest area mentioned in our bible. It is the last free camp available before Sydney, and the first we have been in for quite a few days. I quite like staying hitched up, being on gas and battery, and independent of a commercial enterprise.