It's such beautiful countryside, and the best thing it's only 1 hour south of Sydney. I must admit that I have never been to this part of NSW, only traveled past it on the freeway further inland. It has recently been on the news due to the hype over of the Sea Cliff Bridge - dubbed part of the NSW's answer to the Victorian, Great Ocean Road. Of course this hasn't just been a tourism exercise, it's been a vital project for the locals in the area by re-opening the link between the towns of Coalcliff and Clifton after 2.5 years of permanent road closures.
You can see, on the pic above, where the previous road ran alongside the cliff. In 2003, after the road had collapsed, cracked and been showered with rock boulders at regular intervals, the decision was made to close the road and build the bridge.
$49 million later, it is a spectacular roadway, and on a Sunday afternoon, it is very busy with families and tourists walking the bridge and taking photos.
One problem that hasn't really been addressed is the amount of interest in the roadway. Parking is a premium in the area near the bridge. It looks like the council has tried to alleviate the problem by encouraging people to park in an area down near the local beach of Coalcliff. It's a bit of a walk away from the bridge for anyone who may have difficulty with larger distances, and there is a slope to tackle too. Most people we saw were parking on the grassed area at the Clifton side of the bridge. This was a bit dangerous as some cars would stop to find a park on the green strip or to let people cross the road.
We found out when we got home that in the Saturday Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, it was in the "What to do this weekend" section, which could explain the amounts of people in the area. My suspicion is that it is busy on most weekends, even besides the fact it was a beautiful sunny day yesterday.
Hopefully sense will prevail and they will find a solution. The last thing anyone wants is someone getting killed.
Anyways, after stopping to check out the scenery a little further south, we continued down to Thirroul for a late lunch. We stopped in the centre of town and looked for a place to eat. We noticed a very busy Fish 'n' Chips shop that served vegie burgers, so we decided to grab some food there and head down to the beach to eat. We soon found out the reason why the store was so busy - the staff were EXTREMELY slow! After 30 mins to wait for our order to be cooked, we finally got our food and quickly left, leaving the other polite, but increasingly impatient people, to glare at the staff.
We popped down to the beach and ate lunch, but soon after finishing the food I felt sick. In my observation of the staff at the Fish 'n' Chips shop, I commented to my boyfriend, "I'm glad we are not having fish, as they keep risking cross-contamination handling the food."
Well maybe that was the very reason why I'm off work today. Certainly I remained ill until I was sick this morning...
Back to the story of yesterday though - we got back in the car after letting my stomach rest. We then headed off up the Princes Highway to the Bulli Lookout above Thirroul. It was stunning! I wish I had taken pics. I guess it just means you will have to visit the lookout instead!
We decided to travel back to Sydney the long way, heading back down the Princes Highway to Thirroul and back along the coastal road to Sydney through the Royal National Park.
Coming back in the afternoon light through the park was beautiful. It reminds me how much I really do love the Australian landscape.
Before we knew it though we were back onto the Princes Highway and heading for home.
Excluding the sickness, it had been a wonderful (half) day down on the southern coast of Sydney and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a easy drive with knockout scenery.
We are very lucky to have such a wonderful landscape in such close proximity to the city. Take advantage of it's closeness and check it out.
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