According to the comprehensive map that I bought, indicating almost every rest area in the country and highly recommended by every backpacker to travel through with a car, there was a rest area not too far out of town, so I made my way along the highway, finding the rest area just before dark. With the pizza in the passenger's seat, I soon found that this rest area wasn't the nicest one that I'd ever seen, looking as though it hadn't been maintained in more than a year or two, with grass overgrowing most of it and trash along the road. Nevertheless, I found a level parking spot, and I had my surprisingly tasty dinner before folding the seats down and creating my bed for the night. In the morning, I headed for Murramarang National Park, leading me down some picturesque, eucalyptus covered roads from the hinterlands (inland, as the Aussies say it) to the coast. The main attraction of this park are the extremely friendly and tame kangaroos that apparently always frequent the beach and parking lots...well, apparently not always. The books and pictures seemed to say that it was a sure thing to see them hopping along the beach, hanging out in the surf, catching some rays, playing a little bit of beach volleyball with the tourists, etc, but that wasn't the case for me. As I drove down to one beach outside of the park, I did see three medium sized kangaroos in the road before they jumped off into the woods to avoid my car, but that was the extent of my macropod sightings for the day. (Macropod means big foot...kangaroos have big feet...kangaroos are macropods) I found the beach, a wide stretch of golden sand surrounded by tall pine and eucalyptus forest and a few bits of grass, and I saw the possible silhouette of one kangaroo and nothing else, but the sighting turned out to be an oddly shaped tree branch off in the distance. I wandered to both ends of the beach, still hoping for one of them to wake up and join me in the sand, and I was able to at least find a few interesting footprints on the beach, proving that at least one kangaroo has been on the beach in the last few days. So, disappointed at not being able to have a kangaroo rub suntan lotion on my back, I headed back to the main highway and headed further North.
The next of Australia's over 500 national parks on my list was Jervis Bay. The descriptions of the peaceful, lovely beaches piqued my interest, though I was a bit skeptical as to what I'd actually see, as the Aussies seemed to have labeled anything and everything with more than a few acres of forest or some slightly interesting animals as a national park, so I couldn't just go on the 'national park' label that actually seems to mean something in the US or New Zealand. As I made my way to Jervis Bay, I saw that the ranger station ahead seemed to be stopping people, and a sign confirmed my suspicion - they were charging a park fee for entrance. Since I knew that I was only going to stay for an hour or two, I decided not to enter the actual national park, and I found a few nearby beaches that I justified to myself, as they would surely be similar to those just on the other side of the park border. The deserted beaches did live up to their billing of being secluded and pristine, quite good looking for being so far South. The water even had a hint of light, tropical blue, and in the right light, the sand could be white enough to pass as one of Australia's Northern coastal treasures. I walked around the beach for a bit before heading back for the road, realizing that I needed to start making up some time, as I still have a very long way to go North before I turn in the car in a few weeks.
Pleased with my dinner from the night before, based both on taste and price, I searched for the local Domino's and easily found it in the town of Nowra. Me and my tough looking Godfather pizza got on our way, and I soon found another rest area for an uneventful night on the road. Making good time in the evening and the next morning, I reached Wollongong, one of the largest cities South of Sydney, where I was thoroughly entertained by an eclectic cast of characters walking the street - an old man with extremely short shorts and a tight, sleeveless shirt, a middle aged man with a huge pot belly, two pretty-boy office workers, and the best one: a badass twenty-something guy with some baggy clothes, a backwards hat and...a toothbrush in his mouth. No, he wasn't brushing his teeth, he was just holding it in his mouth as he patrolled the streets. Apparently, no one messes with Toothbrush Man in Wollongong. I know I didn't.
(Note the kangaroos, or lack thereof, at Murramarang National Park.)
(Strange footprints proved that kangaroos had actually been on the beach.)
(A nice looking beach just outside Jervis Bay)
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