Aussie Vacation Part I: the white beaches of Jervis Bay

As I am unable to go to the States this year due to the Covid situation, I put an ad in the bulletin asking if any parishioners might have a vacation home I might hire for a week near the beach. One lady's adult children had a place near Jervis Bay (the town is called Vincentia). It's about a 3 hour's drive from the friary. However, I think I took the long way through the mountains! (Lots of hairpin turns!)

Here are some photos of the vacation house. I wish I could have invited some of you over because the house was huge! Four bedrooms, two and a half baths. The whole back of the house is windows with an open porch that looks out over the ocean. Every night I could hear the roar of the ocean waves lullaby me to sleep. The accomodations would've been perfect for several families to use at once.

On the first night I took the five minute walk to the beach (the last photo). As you can see (and will see) the beaches around here remind me of my childhood in Sarasota, Fl. Here, like there, the shore is powdery white sand with few rocks and shells. Heaven on the feet!

Every other day I've been running on the "White Sands Walk" that stretches from one beach to another for miles. On one run, I ran into a kookaburra. It seemed to welcome my camera and even smiled for the photograph!

Jervis Bay sits on the inside of a peninsula. If you look above at the photos from the porch, you can see a cliff in the distance. That's part of Beecroft Penninsula. The following day, I decided to investigate and so set my Garmin to the town of Currarong, about a 25 minute drive. The first panorama is of the rock beach there. The next few are a wide assortment of birds that were soaking up the sun.

Then I was told there's a beach close by called "Bosom Beach." The full name is "Bosom of Abraham Beach!" I followed the path that started with a strange reddish colored stream. Not sure what created the "dye" but it had no smell to it, so I assume it's natural run off perhaps? The rest in this set are of the beach and the area around it.

Below are shots of yet another beach here called "Hyams Beach." I almost got arrested when I accidentally wandered onto a naval base at the end! I just climbed some rocks trying to get to the town again after walking the whole length of this beach. (It took about an hour to walk it all!) When I got to the top of the rocks I noticed all these men and women in fatigues! I asked how to get to town and this one helpful fellow suggested I return the way I came as I was trespassing! Oops. Thankfully, I didn't cause an international incident.

Below are shots taken around sunset of Greenfields Beach. It's one of the beaches on the White Sands Walk. The last image is of tall eucalyptus trees in the sunset at the Jervis Bay Park.

Finally I offere some shots of the lorikeets and a white parrot sharing the food we put out in our back yard. Click the arrow on the right to see all four images.