After  an ‘interesting’ time in Nerriga I headed off to Braidwood.

I didn’t mention in my last post that the Braidwood Road from Nowra to Nerriga had recently been upgraded at great expense )over $1 Billion according to Kyle at the Nerriga Pub.  The odd thing is the the new work stopped a Nerriga.  The road on to Braidwood and the more direct route to Canberra have not been changed.  Both have large sections that are unsealed (i.e. dirt), This means that they are cannot used used by large vehicles and the it also puts off a lot of car travellers.   As Kyle put it: “Who knows WTF they are thinking”.

It checked into the Commercial Hotel Braidwood.  It was such a relief to have a hot shower after being so cold for the last 48 hours.  WTF is going on with the weather.

There was wedding party in the bar.  The landlord’s son turned out to be talented musician and DJ.  The place rocked with late baby boomers’ favourites – classic Cold Chisel, Paul Kelly, ABBA (DJed), Bruce Springsteen and Dire Straits etc.

After a late start, waiting for all my stuff to dry, I headed off to Captains Flat.  Leaving the hotel I was baled up by a local.  He asked where I was riding to.  I said Captains Flat and maybe Adelaide.  His response was: “I suggest you make up you bloody mind, they’re blood thousands of klms apart”.

The ride over the mountains to Captains Flat was short but freezing.  I was passed by a German bloke on a Yamaha adventure bike who stopped for a chat. He is travelling around Australia for 6 months.  He started in Perth and rode across to Adelaide and Melbourne.   I asked why he wasn’t riding a BMW GS?.  He said the Yamaha was cheaper and just as good.  Something to think about.

I am staying in the Captains Flat Hotel built in 1937.  It boosts the longest bar in the Southern Hemisphere .  From my memory Captains Flat is famous for having a closed mine that pollutes Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin.  It is the classic boom and bust town.  There is talk of a new mine opening.  It may boom again.  Hmmmmm.

I spent Wednesday in Huskisson and the Jervis Bay area.  It is such a great place.  The water in the bay is so clear.  Apparently this is due to that fact that there isn’t a major river run in to it.  Also, all the sewerage in the nearly towns is is treated to such an extent that it any water that flows into the bay doesn’t have the nutrients that simulate algae growth.

I left Huskisson in light rain which soon turned into a torrential downpour.  The plan was to take back roads and fire trails to the Turpentine Road that leads to the newly upgraded Nowra to Nerriga Road.  Relying of the Garmin in this endeavor was big mistake.  After leaving the  National Park and joining the Turpentine Road, the Garmin told me to turn left.  This appeared wrong, but it decided to follow the Swiss Technology’s advice.  After about 8 klms the advice was clearly wrong.  This was confirmed by a short conversation with a Farmer I baled up to ask for directions.  He confirmed that I was heading in the wrong direct.  His  advice was to “stick to fu*king paper maps mate”.

The route up the Turpentine Road and the Braidwood Road was harder than expected.  The pouring rain, southerly wind and the steep climb make for a very tough ride.  The 44 klm from from the turn off on the Braidwood Road to Nerriga seem to go on for ever.

When I finally saw the sign for Nerriga I was so relieved.  However, there was no sign of anything except open country.  I baled up a passing 4WD to ask where the Nerriga pub was. The driver said it was about 5 klms to go.  It is no unusual for signs to be place at the limits of cities and towns.  Nerriga consists of a pub and two houses.  I think it is bit unnecessary to put its signs 5 klms either of the town.

I had called the Nerriga Pub a few days before I left Balmain.  The owner, Kyle said that he didn’t have any accommodation, however, he said I could pitch my tent next to the pub.  I arrived at said that I was the bloke who called about pitching a tent, Kyle responded: “Oh yeah I though was joking”.  I asked I what there was to eat.  “We only do food on Saturdays and Sundays”, was the response.  My dinner comprised chips and peanuts followed by more chips and peanuts.

I then retreated to my tent that was being buffered by a howling gale and pouring rain.  Even the German designed and made Vaude was struggling.  When I woke up in the early morning I found half  the sleeping bag saturated and the other half very wet.

Venturing back into the pub, I  came across Kyle eating breakfast.  Any hopes of having something the same were dashed.  Kyle said: “you help yourself to a coffee a the machine of there. it will cost ya $2, I hope you have the change”.   I had a coffee, packed up and left.

The Nerriga Pub is up for sale.

I decided to ride to Huskisson via Gerringong and Nowra. The alternatvie would have taken me through Berry.

Both Berry and Gerringong are popular towns on the South Coast.  For some reason certain towns fall into favour and others don’t.  I stopped in Gerringong at an old time Milk Bar.  These shops where every where when I was growing up.  All shopping centres in suburban shopping centres at least one Milk Bar. Milk Bars  Every country town also had They served a range of good  and bad food and goods: Milk Shakes (naturally), Hamburgers ts (most with the ‘lot’) Ice Cream and fried chips and Dim Sims (what was them, I am not sure).  They also sold cigarettes and the daily newspaper when the nearby Newsagent closed at 5.00 pm.

Most Milk Bars were owned and operated by Greek Families with a seemingly unlimited supply staff, all related and willing to work all hours.  The Gerringong Milk Bar, turned out to be owned and operated by a Greek family.  On the day of my visit Dad and two sons were holding the fort.  I made the comment that you don’t see these shops in Sydney now.  They agreed and the old man said: “that is because the young people don’t want to work”.   I suspect the demise of the Milk Bar is not as simple as that. Young people do work in all sorts of retail food shops at all hours e.g. McDonalds and coffee shops.

My route took me past 7 Mile Beach.  It seems that a lot of beaches in Australia are named after their length.  There are also a lot of creeks with mileage names  e.g. 5 Mile Creek, which I assume is the distance that the creek is from somewhere e.g. Nowra.  I can’t recall any other country where this distance based naming convention has taken hold. It is probably preferable that Bondi Beach is Bondi Beach rather the One Half Mile Beach.  I don’t even that Americans will their tendency to name streets and avenues numerically, would wish to change Malibu Beach to 5 Mile Beach.

The road behind 7 Mile beach was one the areas hit by the mini tornado on the 22nd of February, the day before I headed off. Amazing damage to trees.  Check out the photo

I arrived in Huskisson late in the afternoon.  I  have not been there for over 35 years. Amazing sand and clear water.  In 10 minutes I decided to stay at least a day.

I am well on the way down the NSW South Coast.

I had a long chat with my neighbours in the Bulli Caravan Park.  One were a middle aged couple from Taunton in Somerset.  The others were a young Welsh couple.  Both couples were travelling around Australia by van.

The English couple had travelled from Darwin down to Alice Springs, across to Cairns and down the Queensland and NSW coast..  They really impressed by what they had seen so far, but less impressed by the AUD/GBP exchange rate.  The husband turned out to be a ‘cricket tragic’ and we chatted for sometime about the Somerset and other teams.  During the late seventies and early eighties Somerset had the privilege of having the Vivian Richards and Joel Garner as ‘foreign’ players and Ian Botham, one of the all great English all rounders on their playing list.  Richards and Garner were members of West Indies team that dominated world cricket in the late seventies and eighties.  My West Country acquaintance  was at pains to point out that man for man that West Indies team was far better than the Australian team at that time.  He went on to claim they were better than Australian teams before a since.  He had all the statistics at his disposal.  In deference to his wife, whose ‘eye rolling’ suggested that she had heard all of this before and had had enough, I was forced to agree.

The young Welsh couple ‘ listened’ to the cricket discussion while playing very close attention to their iPads.  I suspect they were not checking the claims being made on the West Indian statistics.  When the conversation opened up, the Welsh couple said they desperate to stay in Australia.  They had been getting unskilled jobs, but wanted to find an employer that would sponsor them for permanent residency.  They said that “despite having university degrees, they didn’t have the skills on the Department of Immigration’s point list”.  They seemed to be precisely to sort of migrant that Australia needs.

The route from Bulli took me down the bike track that hugs the coast to Wollongong.  The beach shacks along the path are rapidly being demolished and being replaced with mansions, some with architectural merit, others less so.

I stopped briefly at the City Beach which, as it name suggests, is adjacent to the Wollongong CBD.  This is similar to  Newcastle, the other ‘steel city’, which is the north of Sydney.  It is not surprising that both cities seeing a resurgence based on their proximity to the beach.

The bike path was clogged with riders, runners and walkers mainly over 50 years old.  Wollongong and similar Australian  towns and cities such as Newcastle, Byron Bay, Noosa, Geelong and the Gold Coast must have the fittest 50 plus population on the planet.  This does not bode well for the nation’s health care costs in the future as will not die young.

A couple stopped to chat with me on the path near the City Beach.  Seeing the bike, the bloke said: “See that Jan it’s a Cannondale, single fork – nice”.  I did point out that it had two front forks because it was old.  Even Cannondale’s technology had not extended to the  ability to carry two front panniers on one front fork.

Leaving the beach, the path passed the WIN Stadium, one the home grounds of the merged St George and Illawara Rugby League team.  The team was training on an outside ground next to the stadium.  The forwards were down one end and the backs at the other end. With only a cursory look, it would not be easy to workout who were the forwards and who were the backs.  They all look the same – very big.  This is huge contrast to the 70’s and before when the forwards, e.g. Arthur Beetson were big, and the backs e.g. Changa Langlands were skinny.  It seems something has made all the players the same.  The couple that chatted to me at the beach rode past when it was watching the practice session.  The bloke said; “if you want any steroids, just call out” to the trainers”.

Just south of the Wollongong CBD, the path leads into Port Kembla the site of the former BHP, now Bluescope, Steel Works.  BHP Billiton was exited the steel business and is now that world’s largest mining and energy company.  Their CEO has announced this retirement at the age of 51 this week.  Comments on that at a latter time.

Leaving the Bluescope Plant area, I came across the ‘Steel Works Hotel’.  A sign out the front promised great things for Friday; ” Waitress from 4pm to 8 pm  and a Meat Tray Raffle and 7.30 pm.  Looking around at the customers at lunch time on Monday wasn’t sure which of the forgoing would have been the greater attraction.

I ended up in Kiama.  I will talk about the fire at the IGA store later.

I am finally on the road.

After some room cleaning I finally left the garage in Balmain.  I accompanied my host to on his normal walk to Adriano Zumbo, a  patisserie for a coffee and croissant.   Zumbo’s  is a fantastic business.  It started in a ‘hole in the wall shop in Darling street, Balmain.  It specialises in ‘Zunbarons’  and very high quality breads.  The business has expanded to Rozell, Prymont and Manly.  I am sure it will not stop there.   The Rosell shop is where a lot of the patisseries are made.  When I first went there you were able to watch the work being done through a glass wall.  Apparently the employees objected, and the the wall was blanketed out.  It is pity as it was interesting to see the how the products were made.

My route out of Sydney took me through the inner west suburbs to the Cooks River.  The Cooks Rivers was one the most polluted rivers in Sydney.  After great efforts the river is now relatively clean and the vegetation, including the critical mangroves, are thriving.  The areas adjoining the river has been developed for recreation; with sports grounds, walking and cycling paths, all being used extensively on beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Riding slowly through city streets gives you the opportunity to look closely at the houses.  A really  disappointing feature of the inner west of Sydney has been the destruction of the some many of the original Victorian era houses and their replacement with brick veneer, ‘sixities shockers’.   That term refers to the period the 1960’s. when most of the development occurred.  A combination of the ignorance of behalf the owners (many were  poorly educated migrants), unimaginative  builders and incompetent local councils led to the destruction of large numbers of the perfectly good houses and the construction of these sixties shocker.  They have  left a blight on the urban landscape.

The Cooks River leads to Botany Bay new Sydney’s airport on Botany Bay.  The debate as to whether there should be a second airport for Sydney has gained  much publicity again.  It appears that this occurs whenever an election, State or Federal, looms.  It is claimed that a second airport is required because of congestion at the existing airport,and that this congestion will only increase.  I can recall a lecture given my a visiting Canadian academic when I was doing my  Master degree with a major in logistics.  He put up a series of slides of copies of the Sydney Morning Herald with headlines along the lines of:  ‘Urgent Need for New Airport’,   Air Traffic Chaos Looms’ etc.  He took the dates  of the pages of the paper and asked that audience to guess the years when the headlines appeared.  No one got close.  The years started in 1946, through to 1966.  He pointed out that the capacity of airports in terms of passenger numbers is more dependent on the size of the planes and traffic control ( how close the planes can fly to each other) than the number of planes and the whether there is an alternative airport nearby.  I suspect the debate about whether there should be  second Sydney Airport will rage for another fifty years.  In the meantime, improvements on planes and air traffic control will mean that the existing airport is more than adequate.

My route took me around Botany Bay.  For those without much knowledge of Australian history, this is where Captain Cook landed in 1770 and claimed the island continent for Britain.  He continued to sail north failing to notice the entrance to Sydney Harbour.  Seven years later the North American colonies, decided that they didn’t want to pay Britain taxes on tea.  They proceeded to declare independence and refused to take prisoners from Britain.  This resulted in the need for an alternative prison colony.  It was decided that Australia would be that place.  Lieutenant Arthur Philip  was sent with 11 ships loaded with convicts and soldiers to establish the penal colony.  They landed in Port Botany, but decided to look further north and entered Sydney Harbour.  The city and the nation were born.

Leaving Botany Bay my route took me down the Princess Highway for until Waterfall when I turned into the Royal National Park.   I understand it is one of the oldest, if not the oldest National Park in the world.  Apparently Yosemite claims to be the oldest.  Anyway, what a great idea it was.  The park and the parks to the west of Sydney, in the Blue Mountains have constrained the spread of the city and provided a great recreational amenity for its residents.

Due to my somewhat delayed departure, I was only able to make it to Bulli before it got too dark to continue.  I set up my tent in the Bulli Caravan Park.  The nearest place to eat was the Bulli Workers’ Club.  Chicken Schnitzel, $9.50 and a schooner (3/4 pint) $3.80.  A far cry from Sydney prices.  This a good example of market driven ‘horisontal fiscal equilisation’, to use our Treasurer’s cant.

A group of customers were discussing Sonny Bill William’s (SBW) return to Ruby League.  From their point of view he had nothing going for him: he started his career with the Canterbury Bulldogs, he play Ruby Union in France, he had been signed by Easts, and of course worst of all – he is a New Zealander.

I returned to my tent just in time to seek cover  from a torrential downpour. The Vaude Tent performed yet again.