Jervis Bay Day 3

March 28th

He survived to go to Cairns with me unfortunately

Woke up early again to pack up the tent then drove to these nearby lighthouse ruins that lay upon a cliff.

Backside of the ruined lighthouse

More than 400 acres of land belongs to the aboriginal community based in Wreck Bay now. In fact Jervis Bay is considered a territory of Australia, much like the Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory. Technically it is not in the state of New South Wales, even though it is in the southern part of it. This is one of the only cases similar to what we have in the United States, where large tracts of land are granted to natives. As I stated before, Barry's tribe was not a victim of the stolen generation because most Australians didn't even know his tribe resided in this bay and surrounding woods until much later after colonisation.

Lighthouse ruins

Anyhow, the lighthouse ruins are a prime example of white settlement on aboriginal land. When it stood it was poorly placed, and lead many ships to doom. They tore it down after a few years for this very reason and left only ruins.

Cliffs from above, would not want to fall down there

After walking dangerously close to the edge of cliffs, we drove to Hyams beach which has the whitest sand in the world according to the Guinness Book of World records and a few other sources. The sand was blindingly bright!

The whitest sand in the world

This weekend has been phenomenal. I've seen and pet wild kangaroos for the first time. In fact, I saw about a dozen of them. They really are everywhere in the Australian wilderness. Some other endemic animals that I saw were a possum (with a little baby riding on its back), parrots, bull ants, and the laughing kookaburra.

This Friday I fly to Cairns to go into the rainforest, and see the great barrier reef in northern Queensland!

Cheers!

Jono

Jervis Bay Day 2

March 27th

Parrots on my tent in the morning

Woke up to parrots today. Had an early breakfast then hopped in the van. We met the same aboriginal guide as yesterday, Barry. He took us to go for a bush walk.

Sammy with a dead snake

We first walked over a log infested with Sydney Funnel Spiders, the most dangerous spiders in the world. Sammy pointed out grass trees in the same area. Their leaves grow like grass at a rate of an inch every 12 months. Sammy's tribe used to use the stems of the grass for food and the rest to make spears. Sammy's tribe was also very medically advanced, using plants from the forest to treat various ailments successfully.

Grass tree

Further along the walk we stumbled upon bull ants. These big red ants (at least 2 inches) are very territorial creatures. If you step on their mounds, hundreds of bull ants will crawl up your body from your legs and bite you all over. Some people have died because the bull ants tend to crawl up your nose in the process and suffocate you to death.

Bull ant, yikes!

On a more pleasant note, we ended the walk at a waterfall where we went through photos of Sammy's village and tribal history.

Squiggly tree

After the bush walk, we went surfing on cave beach. I fell of my board every which way in some pretty epic wipe outs, but I did manage to stand up once. It is hard to keep your balance on the board. The beach afterwords was a nice place to chill out on.

Cave Beach

We drove back and just hung out the rest of the night.

Me in a surf shirt before we went surfing

Keep it level!

Jono

Jervis Bay Day 1

March 26th

Beautiful Australian countryside on the ride to Jervis Bay

Back to the good old days of boy scouts. We met up for a 4 hour (not 2) drive south to Jervis Bay. Upon arrival, we had to pitch our tents and set up cots for our sleeping bags. It was quite the ordeal. I think my dad pitched my tent for me whenever I went camping because it always seemed simpler than this.

Hope this tent stays up!

It turns out that a humongous wild kangaroo was relaxing about 10 feet from my tent. It was adorable to say the least but also quite vicious. I tried petting it and it growled at me. I do not want to mess with something with such massive claws.That was not even the last wild kangaroo I saw today up close.

Probably not a good time to tell this joey what is for dinner tomorrow...Hey kangaroo hay!

I walked with Amanda, Yvanka, Zach, and Brad to the beach that was right nearby. We walked along the rocky outcropping looking out to the bay. We enjoyed ourselves a little too much because we ended up late for dinner.

Brad, Zach, and Yvanka on the edge of the outcropping

After dinner we went to to hear aboriginal stories by fireside while eating damper, a sort of traditional Australian bread. Our tour guide was Barry an older tribesman. He talked about their misplacement by white settlers and about the community they have nearby. They have a say in the running of the Jervis Bay Park. They were luckily not the victims of the stolen generation, where Australian settlers literally stole kids from their parents to 'civilize them'.

Early morning wake up tomorrow to go bushwalking, surfing, and then hang out on the beach!


Jono De Costa