We
delayed our day’s tour until after lunch, having only ventured out in the
morning to buy fresh bread and the newspaper. It had rained heavily through the
latter part of the night and visibility from our camp here on the hill in the
morning was limited to the lower part of the far hills.
Chris
was optimistic and so with that, we headed off south on the Princes Highway and
turned off nearly thirty kilometres for St George Basin, the unimaginative name
for the settlement on the northern shore of the St George’s Basin. This shallow
lagoon is twelve kilometres long and seems from the tree lined shore even
larger, especially in the rain mist. We found the settlement of St George’s
Basin and Santuary Point, which lies a little to the east, to be charming water
side places. They are well established, unpretencious and very attractive to us
who are basically very simple people.
We drove
on eastwards, this time heading for the small settlement of Jervis Bay, situated
on the southern shore of the great bay of the same name. Strange to say, the
land mass or southern head of this bay, covering an area of 67 square
kilometres, makes up the Jervis Bay Territory, part of the Australian Capital
Territory. Each state or territory in Australia has a port, and this is it for
the ACT. The map shows that the settlement of Jervis Bay lies on the shore
apart from the Boodooree National Park, however this is not so, according to
the girl in the toll booth at the border. There is no village, only the HMAS
Creswell Naval College, and we are not welcome. However we were most welcome to
proceed past the barrier to enjoy the park, to see the Botanic Gardens, to make
our way to Cape St George Lighthouse or Governor Head or to take advantage of
any of the park facilities, providing we paid the obligatory $11 daily fee.
Had the
sun been shining and rain not threatened, we would have gladly parted with our
money, however we were unlikley to receive any value for money today. We turned
and headed back toward the other spots along the shore of Jervis Bay.
Our
first stop was Hymans Beach, a delightful intimate settlement with lots of
accomodation by way of cottages and baches for rent and one General Store. We
paused on the shore between showers, and admired the beach. In better weather I
would have definitely gone for a swim; I do carry my still almost new togs in
the car for just such moments of madness. We read in our guide that the white
sands of Hymans Beach had made their way into the Guiness Book of records as
being the whitest anywhere in the world. This we could well believe.
We
called into Vincentia and Huskisson further up the shore, the latter founded
way back in 1840. Huskisson made its mark with ship building in the 19th
century and was one of the ports of call for the ships that plied their trade
up and down the coast. Apparently migrating whales do pop into the bay to rest
from the ocean swell. Today the tourist boats advertising dolphin and whale
watching, were tied securely to the wharf and the crew were busy scouring the
decks. Here again we managed to escape the intermittant showers and wander
briefly along the waterfront. The RSL restaurant is directly above the wharf
and must be the most wonderful place to lunch on a sunny day. Today it was
neither sunny nor were we hungry.
The day
had not improved at all so we decided to head home. It had not been a total
disaster after all and we could tick off St Georges Basin and Jervis Bay from our
to-do list although we hope the forecast holds true for tomorrow so we can
explore the northern head of the Bay.
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