Travelog for: Hanno

Hi folks,

my name is Hanno and I am from Hameln, Germany.

Hameln, you know ... where the Pied Piper is from and the rats and all that. Yup that is where I live.
Now I would love to travel and see a bit from the world as my mum (Annika) has told me there is so much more out there.

I have heard horrible stories about Toyvoyagers getting lost along the way or no updates were made as people didnt take care of their TVs. I am so scared of that. Therefore I asked Anni to make sure I only get good hosts.

Spread some love people - it is christmas. I dont wanna be stranded on some post office or God knows where.

So as of yet I am waiting for Anni to find a nice host for me. Until then I will stay at home and chill 

*rawr* Hanno

Hey,

today my journey started!

I am going to visit Sara in Australia. I am so excited. I am leaving all the snow here in Germany behind and going to sunny Australia. I packed my swimsuit and my surfboard and am ready to hit the waves  - call me surfer boy -

*RAWWWWR*

I said my goodbyes to Little and Harold Giraffe!



Hopefully I will arrive there safely! *cross paws*

Love from,
Hanno

Hi mom! I've finally arrived down under! Sorry it took a bit longer than expected - Sara says the post down here has been really slow but is really glad to see me here! I'll write a proper update soon, until then - I'm pretty tired!

Love you and miss you Mom!

Hanno

We left very early in the morning today... the sun is up... and we are hours from home. Sara says were now in the rainforest. Who knew there would be a rainforest only a few hours from Orange? She calls it Kangaroo Valley. This is apparently where Sara and Daniel got married just over 5 years ago.... it was a nice sunny day but we were only stopping for a couple photos...

We stopped off at the very famous Hampden Bridge. It is the only suspension bridge left in all of New South Wales that dates back to the colonial days. A little bit of information about the famous tourist spot is here:

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Hampden Bridge features four large crenellated turrets made of locally quarried sandstone. It is the only surviving suspension bridge from the colonial period in New South Wales. It was designed by Ernest Macartney de Burgh, the colony's Assistant Engineer for Bridges, to replace the decaying timber truss bridge which originally spanned the Kangaroo River. Its medieval style is an example of the Gothic Revival architecture popular in late nineteenth-century Australia. Construction began in 1895 and the bridge was opened on the 19 May 1898, just six days before floods washed the old bridge away. The bridge is named after Lord Hampden, Governor of New South Wales from 1895 to 1899. It is 77 metres long (252 ft) and one lane wide.

We got quite a few photos of it, and even had a look down at the kangaroo river. Unfortunately, it didn't look that nice today... it is a nice recreational area for people traveling through though... before we left, we made friends with a little local skink that ran past us!

Welcome to Jervis Bay!

...well... more specifically Hyams Beach... why are we here? Well, just look at it! It's beautiful right? Something you might not know though - this is the whitest sand beach in the world! How many toyvoyagers can say they've been there! We can now! Isn't it gorgeous?

It's amazing how blue the water is as well isn't it? I don't know about you but Sara never imagined the ocean could be so blue, and so... warm! It was amazing! Wish you could have been there mum!

Finally we arrived at our temporary home! Huskisson. It's a town only of around 800 people, but an amazing spot if you want some gorgeous beaches as I'm sure you've seen. It's also known as the heart of Jervis Bay since it's right in the centre. Same with the neighbouring city, Vincentia.

We stayed at the Huskisson Beach Tourist Resort, where Sara and Daniel always go on holiday as it is right on the beach front. Gorgeous! The whole first day was spent here and the neighbouring beach you can just walk to Collingwood Beach. It was really really warm today so it was nice just to sit in the water and relax!

Here are some photos standing at the top of the sand dunes looking over the beach.

Tuesday, our first stop in the morning was the Booderee National Park. It's one of many indigenous owned land areas within Australia. It means they found proof that a certain tribe of Aboriginals once inhabited this area. So descendants of these tribes are the only ones that can live in the area. They have their own schools, businesses, hospitals, police stations and houses that they can live in. It's quite interesting! The area is the whole South end of Jervis Bay.

Because it is a national park, a lot of the area are sanctuary zones, which means you don't disturb wildlife, flora and fauna and it's looked down upon to take shells, move rocks or anything that disturbs that natural balance of the area. There are tons of signs around the roads that tell us of an endangered animal to be careful of... the bristlebird.

We will be staying in the Booderee national park throughout the day and we'll be able to see some amazing beaches! Sara and Daniel even got themselves an annual pass, they love the area just that much!

First stop on the beaches in the national park is the calm Hole In The Wall. Which seems like a bit of an odd name... but it literally does, have a hole in the wall... as you'll see if you look closely in one of the photos. It's a perfect spot for snorkelling as you can imagine!

Sara only saw a few types of fish, one called a bream and a few others that she couldn't tell you the name of. But there were quite a few... they seemed very active that day! She just wishes she had an underwater camera so you could see how beautiful it really is under the water!

After spending a solid 3 hours at Hole In The Wall we decided to explore another of the beaches. Funny enough, even though Sara and Daniel had been to these beaches quite a bit, especially Murray beach, they never took the 300m trek up to the actual beach, they always just snorkelled at the boat ramp. HA! Well, this time they decided they decided to check out the beach and were pleasantly surprised.

Murray beach is at the very tip of the South end of Jervis Bay when looking at a map. You can see an island in the photos - it's called Bowen Island, there is absolutely no public access on the island as it has little inhabitants... they're called little penguins, which used to be called fairy penguins.

Unfortunately we didn't stay long at this beach, as we had a lot more to see... and it was nearing mid-afternoon already! Suppose it's true, time flies when you're having fun!

Next stop was another child friendly, snorkel friendly, everything friendly beach... Green Patch. It's very common around Green Patch to see kangaroos and joey's, especially in the early morning and late afternoon. There are signs around the 600m walk from the car park to the beach saying not to feed the wildlife.

Unfortunately Sara didn't have her camera, but coming down again a couple days later, she saw a large female kangaroo and her baby grazing on the side of the walking path. She was able to approach them without them bouncing off, they seemed quite tame. It's very common around the national park to see tame kangaroos - even this tame! That was a few years ago at Cave Beach.

This was also the first beach that Sara and Daniel went to in the national park - and where Sara learned to snorkel, kinda strange, but there's a lot to see near the rocks... some fish that look very similar to angel fish, and this time, without snorkelling she could see some pufferfish!

Next stop was Summercloud Bay. It must get it's name for it's stormy clouds because every time they come here it looks very similar... as you can see here from a few years ago. They came here to snorkel and honestly, it looks like a great spot... but because it's outside of the bay, and it's open ocean... it's pretty cold. Like, very cold! It was no different this time, although didn't seem as cold as it was a few years ago, they weren't really ready to dip in and try it out... so we got some photos and unfortunately didn't stay long... looks like a storm is coming our way anyways... I guess the weather prediction was right after all! :-(

Unfortunately, being open ocean you will occasionally get a fish or ray washed up. Today was not his day it seems! Sara really likes seeing rays, especially while snorkelling so this was heartbreaking to see for her! :-/

...and this is where we find out that Daniel has lost his shirt... ha!

We had to go a bit out of our way because Daniel put his shirt on the back windscreen to dry a little bit after Green Patch, and without thinking we drove off without putting it in the car. We ended up finding it in the middle of the road just outside of the Green Patch car park. Kind of amusing... but did take us out of the way a little bit... but it did turn out to be a good thing... because guess what we saw?

A kangaroo! See it way in the distance? It was closer, but Sara's camera she uses for photos of us isn't the greatest... she walked quite close to it and was able to get a few better shots of it. It quickly bounced off the moment we came out to see him! :-(

Sara found it quite interesting, the kangaroo was actually taping his tail at her... much like a domestic cat does when it's annoyed... she's not sure if he was finding her annoying... but who knows, she did kind of disturb him from his meal... oops!

Now... to get back on track!

Next stop was the famous ruined lighthouse, also known as Cape St. George Lighthouse. It was the main lighthouse of Jervis Bay in the mid-1800's, it was built in a really bad spot and unceremoniously used from 1917 to 1922 for target practice by the Australian Navy and destroyed as it caused more ship wrecks than it saved while in use.

It was replaced by the famous Point Perpendicular on the end of the Northern part of Jervis Bay. There were many ship wrecks because of the misplacement of the lighthouse.

The first photo has a sign that shows a photo taken from where I'm currently standing - way back in 1877. The caption says:

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This photo was probably taken by Samuel Elyard, the artist who visited Cape St. George several times during the 1870's. Research suggests that the people pictured here were members of the Gibson, Parker and Bailey families.

There was a massive information board about the lighthouse. It mentioned that even though the Point Perpendicular lighthouse was working, and Cape St. George Lighthouse no longer was operational, it still caused ship wrecks as it caused confusion for the people navigating the ships and caused many issues in daylight having two towers close together, hence why they demolished it shortly after.

Between 1875 and 1885, 198 vessels were lost off of the NSW coast. The Wreck Bay coast acted like a trap for ships sailing too close to shore. Once inside the bay, there was no room to manoeuvre and ships were driven ashore. In 1886, the number of ship wrecks occurring in the Wreck Bay area prompted a reader of the Sydney Morning Herald to describe coastal shipping as "a scheme for manufacturing widows and orphans..."

It seemed the lighthouse itself had some curse itself as people who lived at the light station were eerily prone to tragic events.

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In 1867 Isabella Jane Lee, the daughter of the principal light keeper from 1863-1873, died of typhus fever. In 1882, another resident, 13 year old George Gibson, died from pleurisy. Typhoid struck again in 1885 killing Florence Bailey, the 11 year old daughter of the third assistant light keeper. Her father, Edward Bailey, supplemented his income by fishing for sharks on the rocks below the lighthouse. In 1895, he was washed from the rocks. Entangled in his lines in heavy seas, he drowned and was taken by sharks as his son watched in horror. Francis Henry Hammer, the son of Mary Hammer (a single woman who lived at the lighthouse) had a habit of pushing large rocks over the cliff edge to amuse himself. He either toppled over or lost his footing when part of the cliff collapsed. He was only nine or ten years old. William Markham, the assistant light keeper from about 1878-1883, was kicked in the head by a horse and died before he reached Nowra Hospital. One of the most disturbing tragedies involved two teenage girls. In 1887, Kate Gibson (the principal light keeper's daughter), tripped while skylarking with a loaded firearm. The gun discharged, striking her friend Harriet Parker (the assistant light keeper's daughter) in the back of the skull killing her instantly.

Some of the ship wrecks in Jervis Bay from 1805 to 1928 are as follows:

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1805 - Sloop 'Nancy' ran aground at Steamers Beach. Survivors took 11 days to walk to Sydney. 1835 - Convict ship 'Hive' driven ashore Bherwerre Beach. 1836 - Schooner 'Blackbird' wrecked while attempting to salvage stores from 'Hive' at Wreck Bay. 1850 - Barque 'Juniper' wrecked (carrying wine to Sydney) at St. George Head. 1855 - Schooner 'Martha and Elizabeth' wrecked at Point Perpendicular. 1859 - The brigantine 'Caroline' wrecked at Point Perpendicular. 1865 - P.S. 'Mynora' wrecked at Steamers Beach. 1867 - Barque 'Julie Heyn' lost South of Jervis Bay. 1869 - Ketch 'Aeolus' loaded with timber, parted her cables and was blown ashore at Hole In The Wall. 1870 - 'Maid of Riverton' blown ashore at Jervis Bay. 1874 - Schooner 'Mary' driven ashore at Wreck Bay by a gale. Mary Bay is named after this vessel. 1874 - The brig 'Rose of Australia' ran aground at Wreck Bay. 1876 - 'S.S. Dandenong' sank off Jervis Bay with great loss of life. 1882 - Steam collier 'Plutus' ran aground at Currarong. 1883 - The schooner 'Agnes' foundered off Jervis Bay. 1886 - The passenger steamship 'S.S. Corangamite' lost at St. Georges Head. 1893 - The schooner 'Result' wrecked near Beecroft Head. 1908 - Scow 'Hilda' ran aground at Wreck Bay loaded with timber. 1909 - The 'Naudura' grounded at Sussex Inlet. 1911 - S.S. 'Tilba' ran aground on rocks at Wreck Bay. 1915 - Schooner 'Advance' driven ashore at Wreck Bay 1915 - The coastal steamer 'Wandra' wrecked at Drum and Drumsticks.

As you can see quite a few problems with the placement of this lighthouse. It is quite amazing to see the coastline around the lighthouse though. You can see the massively steep cliffs surrounding, and it is quite beautiful, although seemingly very deadly, especially in the past.

There is also a photo of one of the many pelicans that seemed to be circling us while we were up there... we even saw an endangered sea eagle... only one of a few in the bay area. The last photo is zoomed all the way in... and is the "new" lighthouse that took this one out, Point Perpendicular.

We went home right in time from the lighthouse as it started to rain like crazy! We spent the rest of the day inside and it rained through the night. Very common on the coastal areas... but we woke up the next morning - it was our chance for a dolphin watch. Sara and Daniel went to one on their honeymoon 5 years ago... so this was a new and exciting thing!

Unsure if it would be cancelled the clouds parted and allowed the sun to come out - at least at the far end of the bay. Sara took a photo of us with Callala Beach in front of us... well, the end of it... see the sand sticking out? It's probably at most 500m from one point to the other... and it takes around 45 minutes drive to actually get to Callala Beach... can you believe it?!

Next to Callala Beach is a creek called Currambene Creek. It's a very popular area for boats and fishing as it connects right to the ocean as you can see... unfortunately swimming to Callala isn't an option as it has a very strong rip between there and that wouldn't be a good thing to get stuck in. Better to be safe than sorry!

Unfortunately on the dolphin trip, besides the best efforts of everyone - the dolphins were no where to be seen. Apparently there is 70 dolphins that permanently live in the bay, but they seemed to be everywhere but where we were today! Oh well! We got to see some beautiful sights none the less!

Sara took a photo of me with the dolphin watch boat since it would be too windy for me to come out. She was fearful one of us would be lost so we stayed safely in a bag... the photos from the boat trip in order are:

Callalah Beach, as you can see from more of a distance it is really a gorgeous beach. It's one of the most famous because it's Jervis Bay's longest beach at over 6 kilometres long. Sara says when she visited it a few years ago, it was very windy and not very enjoyable unless you enjoyed eating sand. She hasn't visited since, but I'm sure it was just a bad day as it is a very popular beach!

We saw lots of wildlife, and this pelican seemed to be enjoying his stay in the nice blue water... maybe getting a snack as well?

Next stop was in the Beecroft Peninsula which is most famous for it's bush and... the naval base. A lot of it is a sanctuary zone as you'll see soon. This was a gorgeous beach, called Long Beach.

These buoys were all over the place in the sanctuary zones, it told you the areas where you had to be careful not to disturb any of the rocks, shells, or wildlife you may find on these beaches and in the ocean.

A navy ship! As you can see Jervis Bay is a very naval point. Especially in WWII, and the navy is rampant in the North Eastern part of the bay even now. There are some areas in the Beecroft Peninsula that you can't enter because of unexploded bombs and everything! Pretty crazy!

We went out as far as Point Perpendicular, as you can see a much better shot of it now! The cliff is 75m high, and nearly straight up as you can see....

On the way back to Huskisson wharf, we saw... a penguin! Remember the penguins I mentioned on Bowen Island? This little guy seemed happy to be just swimming along. Sara had to be VERY quick for this photo... this is obviously all the way zoomed in, and this is cropped from the full size photo.

Nearing the wharf, right next door is a beach called Shark Net Beach. Sounds quite interesting doesn't it? Makes you really want to get in the water - haha! It has an ocean pool, which is like a regular swimming pool, but with ocean water instead... makes it a lot safer from any jellies or sharks you could get in the actual ocean.

...and last but not least - Huskisson Wharf! You can see what it looks like from that angle now! Doesn't it look so nice?

Well, I suppose that's it - we're going on a bit of a drive now - write again soon!

We took a bit of a drive up the coast, and now were at a very popular surf beach in Kiama. We're definitely not getting in the water here! It looks SO cold! We went to a popular tourist spot the blowhole. It's literally formed by just a hole in the rock structure that formed around the beach area and when water is pushed up through it it sprays quite high out the top of it. So literally, making a blow hole.

Here I am with the blow hole, as you can see it sprayed right when the photo was taken. Sara also took an additional photo as it was doing it quite a bit at that time... there was a couple photos that took longer than others - seemed to take forever sometimes. Especially in the heat, it was very humid and warm up in Kiama today. The blow hole obviously has a large walking area and fences around it, unfortunately there have been people that weren't thinking clearly and were killed by the blow hole. Quite a few people actually - so they made sure that didn't happen again...

Walking around the backside of the blow hole we got to see the entrance of the blow hole, where the water is forced through (picture 3)... it doesn't look like much but that's a straight drop from where I am. I'm glad Sara's holding tight to me!

Pictures 4 and 5 are of the ocean surrounding the entrance and the blow hole. Really puts it into perspective about how massive the ocean really is... it just seems to go forever!

Walking up we got to see the Kiama lighthouse... there was a small information board about the lighthouse:

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Avoiding The Rocks The Kiama Lighthouse was completed in 1887, 11 years after the creation of the Robertson Basin. It was designed in the Colonial Architects' Office by Edward Moriarty. The light had to be imported from England and the completion of the structure was the cause of much celebration. The light improved maritime safety along the rocky coastline that had claimed numerous vessels in the preceding years. It was automated in 1920.

Heading back to the car, we got a very nice view of the beach and Kiama... so of course, a photo opportunity! Sara took a video of some of the seagulls here, because she had a bag (where we stayed) the seagulls automatically assumed we had food. There was one bird that was extremely territorial and wanted everything (even though I didn't have any food)... I kinda felt bad! Ah well! Someone else no doubt will come along and feed them! :-)