This past Sunday, we ventured down to Booderee National Park. We wanted to pay the park fees for the next 2 years for both of our cars. $99 gets both cars unlimited entry to the park. You get a sticker for your car window – very like a car registration sticker which we no longer use in NSW – so the rangers know not to fine you.
We thought while we were there, we would do a hike. There are a lot of places in the park we have never been to and Bristol Point is one of them. We also did a loop of the camping area at Green Patch, to check out sites to book in the future. I personally do not camp but The Other Half does. He now has several optimal sites selected in his mind.
This is high tourist season here in Jervis Bay. The campsites were all full. And yet, when we got to the beach, we were the only people on it, for most of the time we walked there. There were a couple of boats out in the water, with people fishing.
Imagine our surprise when walking along Bristol Beach to see a cyclist riding along the beach towards us! I am not a cyclist myself and I have never seen a bike ridden on a beach before. This was the only other person we saw on the beach.
I should not be telling you any of this. The truth is, these beaches are some of our best kept secrets in the Shoalhaven. A lot of people go to Hyams Beach, or the beaches near Vincentia, Huskisson, Callala Beach and Bay. Not so many people go into Booderee, because they have to pay to enter the park. That is good news for us locals.
The water here is mostly crystal clear. It can be a range of shades of blue, sometimes a gorgeous shade of green. There is very little seaweed. Many of the beaches are very sheltered from wind and often the water here is pure glass – especially first thing in the morning – with a teeny tiny wave where the water and the beach meets. It is one of the few places I am happy to get in the water and swim.
You’ll be seeing a lot more Booderee National Park posts over the next two years. :)
When we got in the water, we noticed there were many tiny jellyfish. They were difficult to see for the most part, but you could see their shadows on the sand. Apparently these ones do not sting – if they did we would certainly know about it.
We decided to head down to the mouth of the creek and back, a shorter version of our usual trip.
When we got down to the mouth we discovered both the Dolphin Watch boats were out in the bay and the wharf was completely empty. We spotted one of the boats out in the bay. You can just see it in this pic.
This is the first time we have ever got there at the right moment with both boats out, so we decided to do a paddle along the wharf.
As we paddled along the other, newer Dolphin Watch boat appeared and headed back to the wharf. This one is usually moored in the river, the bigger boat stays tied up at the wharf.
The camera would not focus on the jellyfish which was very frustrating. We were lucky to find a jellyfish with an air bubble in it so we could finally get a decent shot – and we did manage to capture some of the colors.
The ray was heading towards one of the boat ramps. Word on the street is these guys like hang out at boat ramps. I wonder if it is like the cool place to be, because we spotted another one also heading there – this one is known to us because it does not have a tail at all and we’ve seen it many times in the creek. Also hanging out near the boat ramp were these guys.
On the way back there is an amazing dead tree. It fell backwards exposing a huge root structure.
My usual exercise routine has been completely thrown out by our trip, and by this time the muscles in the backs of my thighs were starting to hurt a bit. We decided to call it a day, having been out for 2 hours and 40 minutes according to the i-phone tracking system. Usually those muscles don’t hurt until we’ve been out for four hours, so looks like I have some work to do to get them back into shape. ;)
We use the 
