A birthday micro-adventure

As I sit here wallowing in the misery that is the flu, it seems an apt time to fill you in on a recent micro-adventure the husband and I embarked on. I’m hoping this transports my mind elsewhere for a short while, away from the body aches, raspy cough and a throat like razor blades. I know, I know, woe is me, send in the violins.

Much has happened during the month of August, the biggest event (for me anyway) was clocking up 40 years of livin baby! Celebrating this milestone has been one of my best birthdays to-date. I’ve had visitors who cook amazing food, multiple weekends away, lots of beautiful gifts and just generally feeling all the good lovin vibes. I’ve welcomed 40 with arms wide open, a full heart and a big smile thinking of the endless possibilities it brings. Lord, could I sound anymore cliche? But 40 IS the new 30 right?

As part of a rather drawn out birthday celebration period, we decided a weekend away in our caravan was in order. As it was only a two night stay, we opted for somewhere that was within a 3 hour drive from home. Aint nobody want to feel they’ve spent their weekend away driving the entire time. So, via the recommendation of a friend (thanks Janice!) we headed to Depot Beach, just over 200kms north of home (Nethercote NSW) and about 25kms north of Batemans Bay. And what an absolute gem of a spot this is! To think of the number of times we’ve driven past the turn off, not knowing this little slice of paradise was tucked away just a short distance from the main highway.

A road trip wouldn’t be complete without a little drama though right? Somewhere on the highway between Narooma and Moruya, the left tyre on the van completely blew out, veering the car into oncoming traffic, just a bit hairy! My quick thinking husband managed to correct us straight again with only a few expletives, and we pulled over to inspect the damage and fix-er-up. Within about half an hour with the spare tyre firmly in place, our hearts still racing a little faster and we both may have sprouted a few new grey hairs, we were on our way again.

Depot Beach is situated among the stunning Murramarang National Park and the campground (just across the road from the beach), run by national parks has a combo of powered and unpowered sites (59 in total). We opted for an unpowered site, we had the van charged up with plenty of power (and gas for cooking) for our two night stay, plus we prefer to be away from other campers when there’s room to do so. Yes, this meant we were a little further away from the amenities, but, we cool with that.

The beauty of this campground, there’s flushing loo’s, hot showers ($1 for 4 minutes) and fire drums with hot plates for a BBQ and a hook for your billy, seriously, what more could you want? You can purchase firewood and ice from the office if needed too. I did notice there are park fees to enter the national park, we didn’t pay fees this trip, I suspect it would be stricter in the school holiday periods.

Depot Beach itself is postcard perfect and although tempted, it was still a little chilly for us to brave the waters this trip. Yep, we totally piked it! It really is the ideal spot for swimming (no big waves), fishing and snorkeling, we are keen to go back in the warmer months to do just that. The sunrises over the beach were very #instaworthy and had me hightailing it across the road in my pj’s to capture the gorgeous colours in the wee hours of the morning.

There are numerous walks throughout this area, you’d need a couple of weeks to complete them all. We managed two during our stay. The Depot Beach Rainforest Walk is a stones throw from the campground, an easy meandering walk dotted with huge palms and ancient spotted gums (do I sound like a holiday brochure or what?). You can walk the same way back and enjoy again or loop back via the beach. We also stumbled upon the Burrawang Walk Track, a 2km, slightly more adventurous and steep walking track (probably not suitable for littlies). Well worth a look to see the hundreds of burrawangs that line the the track and beyond, along with more beautiful spotted gums, plus the vistas up and over the hill are worth the exercise. We stopped at the bottom to enjoy looking out over the turquoise waters of North Durras Beach before making our way back.

We took a short drive from Depot Beach to check out Pebbly Beach and the campgrounds there. Although pretty, we weren't as impressed by this spot. The camp sites were a little to structured and close to each other for our liking, and the beach didn’t appear to have the protection from the wind that Depot did. This could have just been down to the day we were there though. Not really our cup of tea tbh (that's 'to be honest' for those not up with the lingo!).

After a busy day exploring we decided on a spot of fishing back at Depot Beach. No bites this trip, I did however catch some seaweed fish which I threw back to live another day. Back at camp we lit a fire and ate an easy pasta dinner watching the flames and listening to the gentle roll of waves on the beach. My kind of bliss. We tend to fall asleep early when camping, probably the lack of technology distracting us. There is very little phone service from the campground, this is a positive in my book. You can pick up enough service in certain spots if you desperately need.

Our mini vacay wasn’t complete without a stop in at Bunnings on the way home. If you don’t have a local Bunnings, you’ll know a visit to one is an ‘actual thing’. A sausage sanga for morning tea plus half a dozen new plants later, we were homeward bound. No mishaps to write of on the journey home, just the happy feeling of memories made and a beautiful new location to visit again and share with our family.

Have you been to this part of the Australia before? Where was your last micro-adventure to?

Thanks for stopping by. Peace out homies.

x Kara

READING: I've been revisiting the local library again and borrowing rather than buying books, something I've not done for a long time. I've just started Lambs of God by Marele Day and Try Hard by Em Rusciano, I've been following Em on social media for a while and I'm looking forward to this read.

WATCHING: I don't watch much telly, but my default is Queer Eye. And the current season of The Handmaids Tale has me shook!

LISTENING TO: I love me a good podcast. I've just finished The Lady Vanishes, fascinating story.

CRUSHING ON: Antoni from Queer Eye, followed closely by Tan. Antoni is just all kinds of beautiful.

Anything else I could/should include here? Would love your suggestions.