Day 4 – Sydney to Jervis Bay

Woke up around 0900, shower, breakfast, tidy up the van and on the road again.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Google maps directions are pretty shit.

I plugged in Jervis Bay and it decided to take me West and through a forest, around some steep and winding roads, then onto the M1,not what I need in the van. It could have just taken me South on the M1 straight away, across the bridge and it would have been a lot quicker and easier. From now on I’m going to select the route myself.

Stopped off in Woolangong for a walk along the beach, couldn’t leave the AC on for the cat (it needs external power) so parked in the shade and made sure we weren’t long.

Found a restaurant close by, I had a burger and chips (OK, not great) and Song had a Bacon and Tomato sandwich.

Went for a short walk along the beach, Song carried on and I went back to the van to make sure the cat hadn’t roasted. She was fine.

Song came back then there was a knock on the door – I thought it would be someone moaning that we couldn’t park there, but it was an old guy who was interested in the van.

He was looking to buy one that was for sale in Melbourne, and it looked like the same model as ours so he had lots of questions, which we answered. He told me he had an AC Cobra that some guy bought off him for $300k so he paid off his unit and wanted to buy a van.

Said goodbye and drove off towards Jervis Bay, this time I plugged in a town on the way so that it took us the right route. 

We needed to fill up with diesel, but since we have Coles / Woolworths credits looked for one of those. And kept looking, and then the low fuel warning light came on. Not wanting to run out, turned off the freeway to a small town and put in $50 to keep us going. Just as well I did, because back on the main road there was no sign of a petrol station. 

About 5k from the turn off to Wollongong we hit a traffic jam – Google said there was an accident, and soon we ground to a halt. We sat in a traffic jam for about an hour, finally got past it and on towards Jervis Bay. Song wanted to go there to see the arch.

Drove along twisty, bumpy, narrow roads then came to a gate – Jervis Bay National Park. Not what we wanted, we expected a town. Asked the woman at the gate and she said we needed to go to Huskisson – so we turned round and drove back along the twisty, bumpy narrow road.

Parked up and went to look for dinner, it was about 18:00 so cooling down so the cat would be fine, wandered around and settled for fish and chips at the World Famous fish and chip shop. That was the name of the shop.

So basically a junk food day today.

Booked a camp site just down the road, luckily they had a spot, then got a phone call from them asking what I needed – I said a powered site for a campervan. She said OK, the website didn’t ask that so she sent a mail.

Got to the camp site, and couldn’t find the place we were supposed to park – so far none of these places have decent signage – they provide a map but they are hard to follow in the dark. Found the spot – just a patch of astroturf. No power or water or anything. Called the number and of course it’s not 24×7 – really annoying.

It turned out that I had looked at the first email that came from the website, there was a second email with the correct site number. So stressful, easily avoided if they had decent signs and a 24×7 number.

Had a look at the shower block (clean), dumped the toilet (smelly) and settled down in the van with a beer and the cat, wrote this.

Might watch something I brought that I’d downloaded, or might just go to sleep.