After my time in Sydney I was finally traveling again. My friend Silja had joined me to go up to Brisbane! We booked "Hop-on Hop-off" bus tickets and started our journey. Only when I had booked it I realized the big downside to this all: The buses were night buses! So If you wanted to get off the track/ tourist favourites, you'd have to get off in the middle of the night. I was willing to do so and so was Silja. We had a look and were trying to remember any recommendations we got. I was told that, the small village of South West Rocks is supposed to be nice and was more or less on the way. We checked it out and only found AirBNB places (not a single backpacker hostel!) and got in touch with a lovely lady Diane. Her home looked nice and we decided to give it a go.
But first we stopped in Newcastle. A city just north of Sydney and with nice beaches. There might be more things to do, but because of the night bus situation and us wanting to visit quite a few places, we just stayed there one night. We had a short stroll on the beach and want the sun set at a nice pub place, with a cheap happy hour.
This is Tyrells house! I guess this is Highgarden? #gameofthrones
Newcastles modern lighthouse
Walkway that offers beautiful views over the beaches of Newcastle
EXCEPT WHAT?!
In the evening we caught our bus further north to the roadhouse Clybucca. While in Newcastle we had a chat with our hostess in SWR. She was concerned we'd be bored to death if we have to stay the night in the roadhouse (we'd arrive at about 2:30am) and she wouldn't be able to pick us up then. We of course understood and said she needn't worry, we can manage and want to visit the nice small village. So after that she agreed and picked us up after about 4 hours in the roadhouse. We had a short nap and then got up to explore this small place. She was kind enough to give us a short tour and tell us what there is to see. We spent the afternoon on the beach and visiting a "Gaol". Or jail. During the first world war it was an internment camp for german prisoners. They had more freedom than the actual prisoners, but were still imprisoned. But because no one really knew what was wrong with them, many people from around still used their services, they bought some of their superb bread, sausages and other products, while others would be threated by an great german doctor. He was actually big in the field of child cancer, but had to stop his research because he was put their (thanks Australia!).
The weirdest thing was, that some of their kids were fighting for Australia in the war against Germany and still most of these settlers were transported away from Australia after the war was over.
Panorama of the village beach
Kangaroos!
More!
And another one :D
This german concentration camp was a bit different than the ones in Germany...
Old jail building
Sunset after leaving the "Gaol"
Before this historical visit we walked past a campingsite with some kangaroos hanging around. Once we had left the Jail we did a walk to Little Bay where we saw even more kangas :D
Here we got picked up by Diane to do some shopping and finished with some nice curry in the evening.
Diane had some seeds outside all day long for the birds to come and feed, this couple showed up quite often
This cute lil frog was sleeping on her porch :-)
The last day Diane offered to drive us around a bit and showed us the lighthouse of South West Rocks. A cute little tower on the top of a cliff and with fantastic views around! Really beautiful =)
South West Rocks lighthouse is a bit more classic
This Golden Orb Spider was hanging around the lighthouse!
Views from up at the Lighthouse, nice beaches to the left
and to the right!
Kookubarah sitting on an old gumtree
Then we headed down to the beach for some relaxing there, unfortunately we didn't see any Koalas in the woods or dolphins around.
Diane had an appointment in town and dropped us off there, so we walked around and enjoyed the small village life. It was our last day and we had to get back to the roadhouse and wiat till 2:30am again! So we just enjoyed it, had a stroll and relaxed with some ice at the beach.
A friend of our host took us to the roadhouse to wait there again till we would be picked up by the bus.
Only plus: We didn't have to pay for 2 nights accomodation!
I <3 Oma :D (found in Newcastle)