Eden Hotels
|
  | |  |
Stunning coastline and great wildlife
Entry 23 of 57 | show all | print this entry |
|
I left Sydney and realized why my guide does not recommend driving around this city- I was completely turned around and it took a while to get my bearings. Started to drive out to see Botany Bay, but the sight of port cranes and industrial smoke stacks turned me off, so I continued south.
The coast south of Sydney has a large limestone escarpment high above the coast that overlooks the slopes and flat land that reaches to the coast- very pretty views. I stuck to the highway for a ways, thinking I wanted to get farther south. I ended up stopping for the night just north of what the guidebook said was Australia's Museum of Flight in Nowra. As I headed there the next day I realized it had become the Fleet Air and Armament Museum, which documented Australia's brief sojourn into carrier operations from the late '40's to 1982.
They had A-4's towards the end but then decided to switch to all land-based aircraft- it was interesting to see the pride in the museum of Australia's past in carrier aviation. I don't believe they did night operations though. Continued driving south through some coastline that become rockier but still had many beaches in protected coves-
the town of Narooma was very pretty and had a natural bridge rock formation called "Australia Rock" which was cool, a well engineered boat channel, and a golf course that even I would love to play on just for the view itself- large amounts of alcohol not required.
Stopped at a bay further down, and started talking to a Canadian who was also checking out the view- turned out he was a kiteboarder too, just in from Fiji (where he said there were great kiting spots- grrrr....) who was doing the same thing I was in the opposite direction and with a rental car.
Nice guy and as we were talking saw a large group of dolphins playing along the beach, surfing the waves, and surfacing often, very cool. We lamented the fact that the wind hadn't been cooperating on our search for spots but traded info on what could be good. Stopped for the nigth at a campsite that he recommended a little further south- sure enough it was a beautiful beach with just one other car there, very peaceful. I woke up to see the dawn and just after two kangaroos came bounding down the beach! I had seen another the night before as well- I guess they really are just about everywhere since these encounters would be the first of many.
I was able to get some good shots, not sure how well they will show up in low resolution on this site.
That morning I visited a whaling museum in the town of Eden, where Australia had briefly had a whaling industry up to the 1930's. I can't understand how people could hunt such majestic animals- I know there was large economic incentive and I'm sure it was quite a challenge (they hand harpooned a 27 m (about 90 feet) right whale at one point) but they must have had some feeling of humility. And I can't believe some countries (Japan and Norway mainly) still do it today- with the technology available I'm sure it's not much of a challenge, and there is very little value other than tradition.
I can understand indigenous eskimos hunting for food to support their customary way of life and that sort of thing, but not for traditional 'medicines' or such. For any of the whale species to become extinct would be an immense tragedy. Anyway- there was an interesting story of a killer whale named Tom that lead a pod of killer whales to herd a sperm whale into shore so the whalers could kill it, who would then leave it so the killer whales could eat the tongue and lips, after which the whalers would bring in the rest of the carcass to harvest. Pretty unique. The museum was originally built to house his bones, still on display.
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries from Australia or try a new search. |
| |
| Table of Contents |
| 23. | Stunning coastline and great wildlife - Eden, Australia Dec 05, 2007 (  6 ) |
|
|
|
|
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
3 votes 
