March 20 – Light Houses and Beaches

We’ve arrived in St. Georges Basin at the home of John & Ellen Kelly.  We’ll be staying with them until Monday, when we will return to Sydney to start our long trip home.

This area of Australia, on the east coast, has many beaches and parks.  It is a modern community made up of several small villages.  John & Ellen’s home is a beautiful bungalow with lush gardens and a spacious interior.  They are on a small hill, so that they have a partial view of the water.  The wildfires that run amuck in Australia this past December and January, came within 5 Km of their home.  This is way too close for comfort.

We started the morning by going to Huskisson, a village known for its boat building industry. Here we saw John’s old fishing boat.  It is located in a museum area that contains many boats that have been built here in the past.  John’s boat is in the queue to be refurbished.  We took a walk along the promenade through a mangrove orchard.  The tide was out so we got entertained by multiple small crabs that scurried about the marsh looking for hiding places.

We then stopped for a cuppa’ at a park which had a great view of the north and south heads to Jervis Bay. Jervis Bay is a deep water bay that is bigger than Sydney Harbour and home to the Australian naval base of HMAS Creswell.  John served there during his military career.

Next, we went to Cape St. George.  Here we saw the ruins of an old lighthouse.  Its history is very interesting.  It seemed that this location was a poor decision on behalf of the authorities.  In the late 19^th century, ships using this lighthouse as guide to the coast would run aground against the south head of Jervis Bay, because the cape did not extend far enough out into the Pacific Ocean.  So, they built a new lighthouse on the south head of the bay.  Unfortunately, during a full moon, the sandstone of the old lighthouse would be illuminated enough to fool ships into thinking that lighthouse was active with predicable results.  Finally, the authorities demolished the old lighthouse.

We then went to Green Patch Beach for a picnic lunch.  The birds at this park were amazing.  There were colourful Rainbow Lorikeet, Crimson Rosella and Kookaburra.  When Ellen attempted to feed these birds, she was swarmed by dozens of these birds.  

We went for a walk on the beach and the sand has so much silica that it actually squeaks when you walk across it.  Out on the bay there was a submarine doing a navel training exercise.

Later in afternoon we went to Greenfield Beach for a swim.  The water was cool as the warm northerly currents seem to have disappeared.  This is the furthest south I have ever been in water.  All in all another wonderful day with great hosts.