Day 13 - Crowdy Bay National Park and Karuah Nature Reserve

Tuesday 19th January

We left Delicate Nobby early and drove down the coast to Crowdy Bay National Park where we’d both been looking forward to staying. On the way we bought another body board so that we could hit the waves together. How on earth we’re going to carry all this stuff after handing the car in, I don’t know! In any case, you can’t be in Australia without carrying a board of some sort in our opinion. The camping grounds there are extremely popular and thus crowded (hence the name of the Nat Park?!) due to school holidays and also to the surfing possibilities on all three beaches in the park.

This is a great place to stay for families as it has all the facilities available and there are a couple of quieter camping grounds on different beaches if you wanted a more tranquil stay - yet again we were impressed with the opportunities to camp right next to such beautiful beaches. Wallabies had made an appearance yet again and were munching away right next to peoples’ tents!

However, while deciding which beach to stay at we received a phone call from a lady called Wendy Lawson down in the Hunter Valley. Some of her grapes are ready for picking and she wondered whether we are still interested in helping out. We jumped at this opportunity and arranged to be pickers on Thursday! Amazing. We are driving down to stay with her tomorrow evening. Knowing this, we decided to make a head-start on the driving; after a quick surf together at Diamond Head beach, we headed further down the coast while checking our new camping book for a ‘free-camp’ on the way.

With a warning to pack insect repellent, we followed the directions in our book to Karuah Nature Reserve. The road to the camping ground was the worst we’ve been on yet: “Cnventional vehicle access in dry weather” is what we were advised and with it being dry we went for it, only to find that a 4x4 would have been far more suitable. Anyhow, we managed it eventually and prepared to spend yet another night, just the two of us, in the forest. There were no facilities and the camp ground looked like it hadn’t been used in a while… We did manage to have the best dinner we’ve had yet due to the addition of PARMASAN! We caved in today and bought the cheapest we could find - I added it to our pasta, veg and sauce and it made our day! We made a huge campfire and sat around it until it went out.