Day 55 (December 27)

Two seabirds and the Pacific Ocean at Shell Harbor, 100 km south of Sydney

The title of this blog is “Indian to Pacific”.  We began the trip in Perth on the Indian Ocean and today we made it to Kiama on the Pacific Ocean!  It has been 4300 kilometers since we left the Indian Ocean at Perth.  Our first glimpse of the ocean was from the top of Jamberoo Pass.  My first swim in the Pacific was at Shell Harbor.  We crossed Australia without an internal combustion engine (just the unleaded gas for our cook stove).

Cows in a green field in the rolling countryside near Robertson, New South Wales

As Scott already mentioned, we spent last night in Robertson.  As dusk set, loud calls of sulfur-crested cockatoos, galahs, kookaburras and frogs bid us good night.  As usual, we were on the road by 6:30am.  Going by the advise of some locals, we selected the Jamberoo Pass to get us from the Southern Highlands down to the coast at Kiama.  This road has very little traffic, great scenery and outstanding flora!

One of the many sulphur-crested cockatoos that sang us to sleep at our Robertson campsite

As we had only 60km to travel today we did the tourist thing.  We stopped by a spectacular waterfall, rested in a park, and ate at a seaside cafe in Kiama.

Carrington Falls – 165 feet high

From Kiama, we rolled around trying to find the elusive “cycle route” from Kiama to Wollongong.  This route will supposedly keep us off the major highways and provide either a bike path or bike lane for the first half of the distance to Sydney.  We stumbled across the bike path in Kiama, lost it before leaving town, then happened across it again before being forced to ride on the Princes Highway.  The bike route is poorly marked!

Lush ferns in the area around Carrington Falls

For the night we are staying in a spendy cabin at a seaside tourist park in Shell Harbor.  I spend a few hours swimming and sunbaking (local term, haha!) on the sandy beach.  Scott wondered around the tide pools and relaxed. 

We are both glad to be on the Pacific.  Both of us are of like mind that we will take out time getting to Sydney (what’s the rush?).  Likely, we will pedal till lunch time tomorrow and the same the following day which will bring us into Sydney.  Holy smokes, the pedaling is almost over!

Posted by Mattie