Sydney 2019 Day 5: Australia Rock, Wallaga Lake, Tilba Tilba & Batemans Bay

DAY 5: 21 JUN 2019

Sunrise at Australia Rock

When you are in Narooma, you have to visit the Australia rock!

Its name came about as the hole resembles the shape of Australia.

The best time to visit the Australia rock is at sunrise.

We drove for a couple of minutes to Australia rock and parked just in front of it.

There were only two people when we arrived.

 

The morning sun slowly rose from the calm sea, lighting up the sky.
It was so picturesque and definitely worth the early rise. 

After sunrise, we were the only ones left and we took the chance to climb onto
the rock for a photo opportunity.
The rocks are sharp but we were able to climb up successfully with our gloves!

When reading about Narooma, many articles wrote about the seals in the vicinity

of the Australia rock.

We only wandered at the area in front of the rock and did not spot any seals.

Thankfully, a local spotted the seals during his morning jog and 

told us to head towards the breakwaters on the left of the parking area.

True enough, they were there!

Seals resting on the breakwaters

How nice it was to see them in the wild and at such close proximity.

After hanging around for a short while,

we decided to head back to our apartment for breakfast.

Our original plan was to drive to Mount Kosciuszko and stay for a night.

However, due to the car rental policy, we were not allowed to drive in areas

above the snow line.

We decided not to take the risk and switched up our plans and stayed along the coastal area.

We took a 25 minutes drive to Wallaga Lake, home to the famous Camel rock and Horse head rock.

We parked at the Camel rock carpark for free and we could see the Camel rock

immediately from the carpark.

We walked to the beach to get a closer view of it.

Camel Rock

There were two ways to get to the Horse Head rock:

along the beach, or

hike up the trail

The former was not an option for us as it was high tide when we arrived.

So, it was impossible for us to walk along the beach.

We hiked up the trail instead and the view was really pretty!

Horse Head Rock

The hike up took us about 20 to 30 minutes as compared to the short walk along the beach.

The view of the rock alongside with the beautiful colours of the water was breathtaking.

However, I feel that this place is not a must-see and 

I would only recommend you to visit if you have time to spare (:

Due to the change in plans, we have to slowly travel back up to Sydney.

Our next stop was to visit Tilba Tilba, a small village.

We drove for 15 minutes and parked for free at the carpark next to ABC Cheese Factory.

ABC Cheese Factory was what drew us to Tilba Tilba.

The three of us love cheese and I recalled our time in a cheese shop in Amsterdam where 

we happily sampled the different types of cheeses sold.

That was 6 years ago...time flies!

There were many other retail shops along the main shopping street,

from wood craft to leather to handmade soaps.

There were just enough shops to keep us occupied that afternoon.

We bought some pies from Tilba bakery as it was lunchtime.

Thereafter, we headed to Tilba teapot cafe right opposite the bakery to get some tea!

After exploring the area, we decided to head to Batemans Bay, our base tonight.

We drove for around 1 hour and 15 minutes before arriving at our accomodation:

Mariners on the Waterfront Hotel.

A mini casino and a bar or restaurant were located on the first floor.

We booked a standard room which came with 1 queen and 1 single bed.

The room was clean and shower was good.

After checking in and resting for a little bit, we decided to leave for our final

attraction of the day: Maloney's beach

You must be wondering why another beach.

Kangaroos were in fact the main reason for the visit to the beach!

I was browsing through a magazine at our accomodation in Narooma and

I chanced upon a page which wrote about wild kangaroos near Maloney's beach.

Since we were staying at Batemans Bay, we decided to try our luck!

We drove along Maloney's Drive and we spotted the kangaroos 

once we turned into Hibiscus Close!

I have never seen this many kangaroos in the wild and there were tons of them right in front of me!

We were initially wary about the proximity with the wild kangaroos
so we stayed behind the fences.
However, we decided to step into the field as we saw locals calmly entering the field
and walking close to the kangaroos.
It was a really cool experience to be up close with these wild kangaroos.
Although the image of a kangaroo boxing or kicking a person constantly ran through
my mind, I just kept a short distance away from them.
I think the kangaroos were also used to the presence of humans as they tend to hop
away when we moved towards them rather quickly or were too close for comfort.

Sunset at Maloney's Beach

Some claimed that there are more kangaroos here than Pebbly Beach.

So if you are in the vicinity of Batemans Bay, you could make a trip here instead!

It will definitely be worth it!

After the sunset, we headed back to Batemans Bay for dinner.

We found a lot along the road and parked for free!

Since we were by the coast, we decided to have fish and chips at Innes Boatshed.

The fish was fresh and the batter was surprisingly light!

I had half a dozen of oysters on my own but the ones I had in Melbourne were better (:

After dinner, we drove to K-Mart for some shopping!
The prices there were really affordable and they carry a wide variety of items:
clothes, home items, furniture etc.
I bought a black sports tank top for only A$6 if I am not mistaken.
I have been wearing it for my yoga classes and I really like it!

As we had long drives the next day, we headed back to the hotel early.
But obviously...someone had to play at the casino since it was right at our hotel.
I still don't quite get how the game works but it is interesting to watch others play
and see how addicted some were to these machines.

And that's it for Day 5!

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Click here for our Day 6 adventures

or retrace our steps here for our Day 4 adventures!

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