7 Days Of Jervis Bay

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Day 1 – a group of tourists take a selfie on the beach while the dolphin boat heads out.

I have lived near Jervis Bay for over 10 years now. You would expect that the stunning effect would eventually wear off. I’m here to tell you, it does not. There are days when the beauty stops me in my tracks and I cannot help but stare.

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Day 2 – swimmers are surprised by a pod of dolphins on their way to meet the Dolphin Boat.

There are days when I reach my “goal” of however many KM that I set myself, and decide to just keep going instead. However the past 2 days I have not been able to get to the bay due to a long weekend and I knew this would happen so I made sure to add on an extra 5km to my 10km walk on Friday. Traffic was bad on Friday. I got stuck at one notorious intersection for over 20 minutes.

Long weekends are great times to do a lot of work at home when you live in a holiday destination but you have to plan ahead, make sure you have everything you need well before the weekend, and choose your moments – and places – if you do need to get out and get something as a surprise. Between 5-8pm on Saturday and Sunday are generally good times to go places as long as you are not wanting to eat out in a restaurant.

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Day 3 – The dolphin boats await their passengers.

I have been trying to get to the walking tracks at least 6 out of 7 days for the past 3 weeks. The weather has been excellent. I would actually prefer it to rain because we really need it. If it did rain, I would still go for my walk. Thunderstorms and lightning, not so much.

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Day 4 – Kayakers head out into the bay.

Lately my photos have not been doing any justice to what I am seeing with my eyes. It might be time to replace this camera. Here you see 7 photos from my most recent 7 days at the bay. Most of the photos should enlarge if clicked on, except for day 6.

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Day 5 – Rays of sunlight break through the clouds.

It is school holidays here. I don’t mind the extra people about. It is so lovely to see more people enjoying the bay. Everyone I pass says hello. I do mind them being endlessly inconsiderate of others walking the path – and alternately being completely unaware of anyone around them which means I tend to scare them when I walk or run past them – littering – and somewhat memorably last week someone set fire to the toilet paper in our public toilets.

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Day 6 – I made a lizard friend.

I do think sometimes I could use a bike bell to let people know I am approaching, but I wonder exactly where I would put it. Both my wrists are spoken for – one with my fitness watch, the other with my camera cord. Maybe I should wear a bell around my neck, like a cat or dog.

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Day 7 – Shark Net beach is usually very calm, perfect for swimming.

I also do mind when they cannot allow the beauty of the bay to distract them from their problems and issues. I overhear things. Who cares about work, you are not there right now, you are here in the bay, enjoy it!

Sure, none of the overheard things are “No Mummy, PLEASE, NOT the mineral water, Mummy!” which was our most remembered overheard snippet of conversation ever, in a supermarket in Adelaide and we have been laughing about that ever since. We have no idea what Mummy does with the mineral water but we have imagined many things. More than likely the child wanted Coca Cola instead.

What is your most remembered overheard snippet of conversation?

exercise, Fitbit, Jervis Bay

Jervis Bay Is Awesome.

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I think I might have killed the treadmill, again. I realise now I might not have told you about the first time I murdered it, with spider spray. We had to order parts for it, The Other Half did fix it. Since then it has propelled me for hundreds, maybe thousands of KM.

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My beloved treadmill had been making a strange smell for a while. I just thought it needed a small service, and the smell might have been the new commercial lubricant that we had used. The last time I used it on a Sunday evening to catch up my missing steps, I noticed that the room seemed to be smoky and the smell was “louder” than usual. Lucky The Other Half was at home, so I called him in. When he took the cover off, we found that the motor was literally smoking. Actual puffs of smoke were appearing.

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A quick service was performed, and the assessment was Not Great. Thankfully, Spring has Sprung and the weather has been gorgeous, so out I went, almost every single day, to get my exercise done. The one exception was Tuesday, where I tried the treadmill again and got 10 minutes out of it before it began to smell again, prompting me to use the much hated elliptical. I guess I will have to use it when the weather does not allow out time. And we could really do with some rain, so I would accept having to use the hated elliptical if we could have some rain.

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I do have a problem with my mind. It tells me that if I get out to walk, I better make it worthwhile. Why walk/run 5km when you can walk/run 10km, Snoskred? And why would you want to quit when the scenery is this great? I did 3x 10km plus one 8km last week and a 5km on Saturday. I had a rest day on Sunday. I’ve already done 10km and 8km this week.. On the days I do a 10km, I allow myself a small piece of baked cheesecake for dessert. I feel I have earned it. ;)

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There has been a bushfire in Booderee National Park. It has been very bad and they believe it may have been deliberately lit. They got it under control early on, but the next day it had flared up in several different places, and then it really took off with some big winds we had.

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It was a hot day too, 30 degrees C (around 85F) so that did not especially help. They had to evacuate the camping grounds, HMAS Creswell, and Jervis Bay village.

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The fire is mostly out now, though they’ve had a couple of flare ups. I’ve seen some aerial photos on Facebook and the amount of bush that is gone is staggering. Our favourite bushwalk there looks like it is just clear ground and burned trees now. Once they reopen the park, we plan to go in and do that bushwalk and take some photos, and then go back at least once a month to watch it all grow back. It seems like The Other Half’s favourite campgrounds were spared any damage, at least for now.

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This has us thinking about our own fire plan, and I will be doing some organising in the next few weeks so we can have a grab bag of things we need to take. We already have a plan for the cats, and the chooks are my big worry because if we had to evacuate at night that is easy, they will all be asleep on the roost, we just grab them and put them in the carriers. Daytime, HA, how hilarious, to try and catch chooks who are not great fans of being caught. Rosie the Grande Dame in particular will be almost impossible to catch, as she is speedy.

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So we have a plan of what we are going to do, the plan we currently lack is where we intend to go. That might depend on the situation. In the meantime, I will be out and about, doing a lot of walking in the extremely awesome Jervis Bay. I might download some step aerobics videos for inclement weather days, and alternate that with the elliptical. I need to work on core strength.

Jervis Bay

Moona Moona Creek

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Moona Moona Creek is a popular spot with locals and tourists alike.

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It essentially splits Huskisson from Vincentia.

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There is a bridge to cross, and you will see a lot of photos taken from the bridge (see the first photo) purely because it is a great view. However you do not usually see many pics of the bridge itself. So here is one. ;)

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The creek is home to a lot of creatures. You will find baby crabs, baby fish up to larger fish, stingrays nestle in the sand – this would be my one note of caution about taking kids here, probably best to put them in water shoes. Also a good idea to get your foots in yourself and move around a bit first as this will usually send the rays swimming away.

Huskisson, Jervis Bay

Spring Preparations @ Bay Walk

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The weather has been pretty incredible here in Jervis Bay, as I write this it is the 12th of August and we’ve had a solid week of gorgeous days.

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I went walking at the bay every single day for 5 days in a row.

This week I have seen – the Shoalhaven Council added new gravel to some of the beach stairs. Plus they raked away a lot of leaves and sticks.

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Shoalhaven Council re-planted this bench which used to be elsewhere on the path but there was a beach erosion incident, and it fell over. It is now back in a more sheltered position, on the opposite side of the path. If it suffers from beach erosion again over here, something is really wrong!

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The following day the concrete had been laid, and the day after that it was painted.

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One day Shoalhaven council workers were busily trimming trees that had overgrown onto the path, plus mowing lawns along the path.

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There was some larger tree trimming done, which I did not get photos of as they had closed off the park for safety. Today as I drove there and back, there was lawnmowing being done along Jervis Bay road.

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I think we are ready for spring now. Fingers crossed it will be as great as winter has been – blue skies, and happy weather for walking? But perhaps it might be too much to ask. We could do with a little rain. ;)

Jervis Bay

Question : Answered!

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Every day when I go walking at Jervis Bay, I think..

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Can it possibly get any more beautiful than this?

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Today the question was answered.

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YES!

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It totally can.

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All I have to do is to forget to put the SD card into the camera, and therefore be limited to 15 photos only.

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I’m only showing you 7 of them.

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Ok, maybe 8. There goes the dolphin boat. So many days the dolphins meet the boat here. You can also see the Huskisson sea water pool which is resting for the winter. What a place to go swimming in summer!

Jervis Bay

Orion Beach, Vincentia

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Now that we have finished the new path above Orion Beach, why don’t we head down and take a look at the beach itself? Above you see it from the new path we have been exploring recently, you can see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

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Heads up – this is one of the steepest sets of beach stairs in the Shoalhaven – at least that I have experienced. This photo is looking back up towards the new path. Important to note, I have not been down every set of beach stairs in the Shoalhaven myself. :) One day!

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There is a section which is flat, like a bridge.

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More stairs down to the beach. But don’t worry..

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The trip will have been worth it, once you get there.

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As far as Shoalhaven beaches go, this one has a big benefit – you do not have to walk across a lot of soft sand to get to the water. Of course that means you do not have as much space to put down your beach towels and belongings. And you need to be aware at high tide there is very little beach to be found here. So you might want to be careful about where you put your stuff.

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On the day we visited, it seemed to be one of the cleanest beaches I have seen. There was not much seaweed or seashells to be found here.

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Now, you just have to climb back up those stairs when it is time to leave.. ;)

Just linking all these posts together –

There Is A New Vincentia Path
New Vincentia Path One
New Vincentia Path Two
New Vincentia Path Three
Orion Beach

Jervis Bay