Jervis Bay

                Wow, the time here is passing faster than ever these days.  When I started this blog post and dated it, I realized 15 days had passed since my last post!  It feels like I just posted yesterday!  With 29 days left in this beautiful country, I’ve been busy with final assignments for school and some last-minute trips with friends.  This weekend, we even went on a sort of impromptu camping trip up to Jervis Bay, home of some of the whitest beaches in the world.

                We rented a car for the weekend (despite past experiences) to fit the 5 of us and take us the three hours up to Jervis Bay to camp, swim, and have a great chill time away from classes and finals.  We stayed at a campsite in Booderee National Park, which was about 200 meters from the beautiful Caves Beach.

                We got there pretty early in the day, thanks to our brave leader Sarah’s planning skills, so we had time to explore the park and hike around the forests and beaches.  Caves Beach was probably the strangest beach I’ve ever seen, simply because of the way the tides work.  The water comes up about 100 meters onto the beach, but remains super shallow the whole time!  It was awesome for wading around and collecting clams. 

                The rocky caves surrounding the beach that gave it its name were really cool and creepy, too.  They didn’t go back very far, but most of us were still too scared to go all the way in, because in Australia, anything dark and wet is probably filled with spiders.

                The National Park is huge and includes protected Botanical Gardens that have beautiful walking trails.  The Australian bush is nothing we haven’t seen before, but we hiked around a pretty lake and along mossy paths for a few hours anyway.  Some of the trees were even labeled with signs, so I finally learned what a eucalyptus tree looks like!

                After the gardens, we still had a good chunk of time before sunset, so we went to check out the world-famous Hyams Beach where we would be spending all of the next day!  On our way there, we passed through a tiny neighborhood nestled in the park called Jervis Village.  There were maybe 20 houses and one “supermarket” that made up this village, but we were grateful for a new source of junk food snacks, no matter how small or overpriced. 

                As we meandered through the windy road of the village, the car suddenly came to a dead stop, followed by 5 shrieking girls.

                There were kangaroos in the road!

                No matter how much time we’ve spent here already, none of us have gotten over the sight of wild kangaroos.  These big fluffy dinosaur-deer can show up anywhere at any time, and they don’t give a damn about people.  Perfect for picture-taking!

                So after the excited screaming died down, we parked the car on the side of the street and crept out, cameras in hand, to get closer to the kangaroos.  These guys seemed a little more wary of people than kangaroos usually are, so they didn’t let us get too close, but it was still fun trying to inch forward and pet them.

                Eventually, the kangaroos got sick of us and all hopped away, so we finally moved on.

                Hyams beach is huge, and kind of looks like it was just set up for tourists to take pictures of, because it honestly doesn’t look real.  The white sands reminded me of some of the more special Florida beaches at home, but the water was like nothing I’d ever seen.

                We waded around in the water for hours, watching little fish and looking for shells.  We ended up walking the whole length of the beach at sunset, which was a beauty all its own.

                Once night fell, there wasn’t much else to do, so we headed back to our campsite (and drove really slowly through the village again to see the kangaroos.)  There, we set out our sleeping bags and got out all the food we’d bought for the trip.  Dinner was basically the typical camping diet—bread and peanut butter, but Sarah and I had gotten a treat for our international friends; none of them had ever had s’mores before! 

                Turns out, Australian’s aren’t too big on s’mores.  At the supermarket, we tried getting graham crackers, jumbo marshmallows and Hersheys, but ended up with “digestive biscuits,” weird tiny sugar-coated marshmallows, and Cadbury chocolate.  Close enough.  It still tasted relatively s’mores-y so we were pretty happy.  It’s also been over a year since I last roasted a marshmallow so it was a good bit of nostalgia that had me missing home a little bit.

                After s’mores, we broke out the cheap wine we’d gotten at the store in the village, and hung out at the picnic table near the fire for awhile talking.  However, at this point, we weren’t alone.  We were watching two shy kangaroos hop around near our tents at the corner of the campsite, and tried to get them to come closer.  They were pretty wary of people, so we were only able to give them a carrot, which they ate adorably, holding it between their little kangaroo paws.  Meanwhile, back at the picnic table, one of the girls screamed and jumped away as a very brave possum tried to take the bread right out of her hands!

                Usually the animals at campsites are pretty brave, but will run away once you yell and wave your arms a lot.  But this guy was just not having it.  While we yelled and tried to shoo him off, he just leisurely went through our bags of food.  After a bit, it came down to literally picking him up like a cat and tossing him off the table.  He didn’t even scratch or anything; just kind of wandered back into the trees.  The animals here are crazy.

                So we spent the rest of the night hiding our food in the tents, talking, and warding off our new possum friend that we named Johnson.  Our campsite was pretty full, with couples and surfers and groups of people hanging out and playing guitars around campfires.  It was a really nice night.

                We decided to go to bed early, and then get up really early to watch the sun rise over Cave Beach, which was like a 3 minute walk from our campsite.  We were all groggy and cold, but it was well worth getting up.  The colorful sunrise reflected off the weird shallow water, making for a really cool scene.

                But after that we were all still tired and cranky, so we went back to bed.

                Next morning was kind of a rude awakening.

                Remember how I said we always have terrible luck with rental cars?  Turns out, you don’t even have to be driving them for them to be damaged!  In the morning, we were woken up by the park rangers, who told us our car was broken into overnight, and the back passenger window was shattered.

                Great!

                Turns out some burglar kid had broken into our near-empty car and stolen one girl’s phone that was mistakenly left in there overnight.  Luckily, it was a terrible phone that she hated, and we had full insurance on the car, so things really could have been worse, but still.  It turns out we can’t have one nice little vacation without something going horribly wrong.  Anyway, the car was still driveable, so the park rangers drove some of us to the police station to file a report, then helped us patch it up with duct tape and garbage bags.  It actually looked pretty good for a shattered window!  I wish I had gotten pictures of our handiwork!

                Once that was all taken care of, we decided ain’t no burglar gonna ruin our vacation, so we packed up and drove back to Hyam’s beach for the day.  It was awesome.  We just played around in the sand like little kids and splashed around the crystal water.  Not a bad day.

                Once it started getting cold and the sun started going down, we made the three hour drive home, singing pop-punk songs from the 2000s the whole way, and confronted the rental car people about what had happened.  Thank god we knew to buy insurance this time!

                So I guess we’re just cursed when it comes to renting cars.  Luckily, I don’t intend to rent another one anytime soon.  But this was still an awesome weekend!  Since then, I’ve just been going to classes and working on final assignments (4 essays due next week, woo!)  It’s gotten colder here, so sadly the beach isn’t a daily option anymore.  But cold weather and finals means basically everyone stays home, so it’s just one big study party all the time at International House, with the occasional movie, game of indoor cricket, or light saber fight to break it up.  Things have been awesome lately.  I’m really going to miss this place.